292 A V O Y A G E T O Book V. 



exceflfively hlghj that the trouble and expence of car- 

 rying them from Guayaquil to other countries, where 

 there is a icarcity of them, renders it irnpoffible to get 

 a living profit. 



Goods, manufa£lured by the public, or wove by 

 private Indians, are, together with fome kinds of pro- 

 vifions^ fent to the jurifdidtion of Barbacoas ; and this 

 is the commerce in v/hich the chapitones make the 

 firft eiTay of their abilities for trade. Thefe provi- 

 fions are exchanged for gold, found in that country, 

 and v/hich is afterwards fent to Lima, where it bears 

 a greater price. Their fluffs alfo find a vent in the 

 governments of Popayan and Santa Fe and this 

 commerce is perpetually carried on but the only 

 return in the tiempo muerto, or abfence of the gal? 

 Icons, is gold, v/hich, like that from Barbacoas, is 

 fent to Lima. 



The coaft of New Spain fupplies this province with 

 indigo, of which there is a very large confumption at 

 the manufadtories, blue being univerfally the colour 

 which this people affect in their apparel. They alfo 

 import, by way of Guayaquil, iron and fleel both 

 from Europe and the coaft of Guatemala ; and though 

 it fetches lo high a price, that a quintal of iron fells 

 for above a hundred dollars, and the lame quantity of 

 fleel for a hundred and fifty, there is a continual de- 

 niand in qrder to fupply the peafants with the neceffa? 

 ry inftruments of agriculture. 



The inland, or reciprocal commerce, confifts in the 

 confumption of the products of one jurifdidlion in 

 another ; and is a conilant incentive to induftry among 

 the inhabitants of the villages, and the lower clafs. 

 Thofe of the province of Chimbo purchafe home- 

 inade tucuyos and bags in thofe of Riobamba and Qiii- 

 to, in order to vend them at Guayaquil, bringing 

 thence, in return, f^lt, fifli, and cotton j the latter of 

 which, being wove in the looms of Qiiito, is again fent 



Guayaquil in fluffs. The jurifdidions of Riobamba, 



