354 AVOYAGETO Book VI. 



and numerous nations ; and are fo difperfed all over 

 the country, that every village is under continual ap- 

 prehenfions from thole which live in its neighbour- 

 hood : and when an action happens between the in- 

 habitants and thofe Indians to the advantage of the 

 former, all they get by it is to return quietly to their 

 dwellings with a few prifoners, no booty being to be 

 had from a people who live without any fettlement ; 

 and from mere favagenefs make no account of thofe 

 things in which the bulk of mankind place their hap- 

 pinefs. Their method in thefe incurfions is, after an 

 interval of apparent quiet and fubmiffion, to Ileal up 

 to the Spanlfh fettlem.ents at a time when they have 

 reafon to conclude that the inhabitants are off their 

 guard and if their intent be anfwered, they fall to 

 pillaging and plundering ; and having got what is 

 neareft at hand, retire with all fpeed. This perpetual 

 danger may alfo be reckoned among the caufes which 

 have hitherto kept the government in fuch low cir- 

 cumftances. 



The temperature of all this country is hot and 

 very moid. The rains are almoft continual ; fo that 

 the only difference betwixt it, Guayaquil, and Porto 

 Bello, is, that the fummer is not fo long : but the 

 diilempers and inconveniencies of the climate are the 

 fame. The country is covered with thick woods ; 

 and in thefe are fome trees of a prodigious magni- 

 tude. In the fouth and weft part of the jurifdidlion 

 of Quixos is the canela or cinnamon-tree, which, as I 

 have before obferved, being difcovered by Gonzalo 

 diaz de Pineda, he from them called the country 

 Canelos, which name it ftill retains. A great quan- 

 tity of it is cut for the neceffary confumption, both 

 in the province of Quito and in Valles. The qua- 

 lity of this cinnamon does not come up to that of the 

 Eaft Indies but in every other particular very much 

 refembles it the fmell, its circumference, and thick- 

 nefs^ being nearly the fame : the colour is fomething 

 6 browner. 



