35^ A VOYAGE TO Book VI. 



care of the four firft : and to the latter, who lives at 

 Zuna, belongs that town and the three others. At 

 the conquelt, and for fome time after, this country 

 was very populous, and, in honour of the great riches 

 drawn from its capital^ was diftinguifhed by the name 

 of Sevilla del Oro but at prefent only the memory 

 of its former opulence remains. Such an extreme de- 

 clenfion proceeded from an infurredion of the natives, 

 who, after fwearing allegiance to the king of Spain, 

 took arms, and made themfelves matters of the city of 

 Logrono, and a town called Guamboya, both in the 

 fame jurifdidtion, and very rich. Thefe devaftations 

 have fo difcouraged any farther fettlement there, that 

 the whole country lies as a wafte ; no money goes cur- 

 rent in it, and the only way the wretched inhabitants 

 have to provide themfelves with necelTaries is by bar^ 

 tering their home produ6ls. 



The nearnefs of Macas to the Cordillera of the 

 Andes caufes a fenfible difference betwixt its tempera- 

 ture and that of Quixos : for though it be alfo a 

 woody country, the diverfity betwixt the two mod 

 diilant feafons of the year is manifeft ; and as its ter- 

 ritory is different from that of the jurifdi6lion of 

 Qtiito, fo the variety in the periods of the feafon is 

 alfo great. Thus winter begins here in April, and 

 lafts tjli September, which is the time of fummer be- 

 twixt the Cordilleras : and at Macas the fine feafon 

 is in September, and is the more delightful on ac- 

 count of the winds v/hich are then moftly northward; 

 and thus charged with the frigorific particles which 

 they have Iwept away from the fnowy mountains over 

 which they have paffed. The atmofphere is clear ; 

 the flcy ferene ; the earth clothed in its various beau- 

 ties ; and the inhabitants, gladdened by fuch pleafmg 

 objeds, rejoice that the horrors of winter are paffed, 

 as they are no lefs dreadful and detrimental here than' 

 at Guayaquil. 



