THE YOLCANOES OF ECUADOR. 



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Of tbe population of the entire valley Indians constitute a great majority. Though 

 reduced to absolute serfdom, and sunk deep in degradation, they still retain a memory 

 of the days of Incarial greatness. This is particularly the case with the inhabitants of 

 the mountains. Mr. Orton noticed that some of those who descended to the plain wore 

 a black poncho underneath their bright-colored one, and was told that they were in 

 mourning for the last Inca. In Quito itself there are about 8,000 of Spanish descent; 

 perhaps 10,000 of pure Indian blood; the remaining 22,000 being OAoZos, the off- 

 spring of whites and Indians, the Indian blood largely predominating. These almost 

 exclusively carry on what of industry exists. They are the artisans, tradesmen, and 

 soldiers. The whites constitute the governing class. They have fair natural capacity, 

 but lack education, industry, and energy. They are, however, courteous and refined 

 in manners and deportment. Their courtesy, even in the most common intercourse, is 

 carried to a point which we can hardly appreciate. Mr. Hassaurek, the late American 

 minister to Ecuador, gives the following as a specimen of a message sent by one fair 

 Quitonian to another: "Go," she says to her servant, "to the Senorita So-and-So,. 

 and tell her that she is my heart and the dear little friend of my soul ; tell her that 

 I am dying for not having seen her, and ask her why she does not come to see me ^ 

 tell her that I have been waiting for her more than a week, and that I send her my 

 best respects and considerations; and ask her how she is, and how her husband is, and 

 how her children are, and whether they are all well in the family. And tell her that 

 she is my little love, and ask her whether she will be kind enough to send me that 

 pattern which she promised me the other day." 



Before bidding adieu to the lofty tropical valley, let us take one glance at the grand 

 scenery which environs it. There are fifty-one volcanic peaks in the Andean chain, 

 twenty of which girdle the valley of Quito, three being active, five dormant, and 

 twelve extinct. Looking toward the eastern Cordillera, the first mountain to the north 

 is Imbabura, 18,000 feet high. At its foot stood the city of Otovalo, destroyed in the 

 great earthquake of August, 1868 ; here alone out of 10,000 inhabitants 6,000 per- 

 ished. The first shock, which came without hardly a premonitory sign, lasted but one 

 minute ; at the end of that minute not a house or a wall a yard high remained stand- 

 ing. Next, exactly on the equator, comes square-topped Cayamba, 19,500 feet high, 

 and in full view from the plaza of Quito. Ten miles south is the bare Guamani 

 range, over which, at a hight of 15,000 feet, the traveler must pass before he begins 

 to descend into the valley of the Amazon. Its culminating peak, Sara-Urcu, threw 

 out ashes as late as 1856. Then comes Antisana, 19,000 feet high, clothed in snow 

 for 3,000 feet. It is now dormant ; but the lava streams down its side show how 

 tremendous was its former activity. One of these streams is ten miles long and five 

 hundred feet deep. Its last eruption occurred in 1590 ; but smoke issued from it in 

 1802. Next comes ragged Sincholagua, 16,500 feet high; and then Cotopaxi, " the 

 shining," more than 2,000 feet higher, the loftiest of active volcanoes, though its great 

 eruptions occur only at intervals of a century ; but deep rumblings, and a constant 

 cloud of smoke issuing from its crater, down which no man has looked, show that it is 

 only sleeping. Its last great eruption occurred in 1803. Far down its south side 

 lies a huge porphyritic rock, called the Inca's Head, which tradition avers to have 

 once been the summit of the volcano, torn off and hurled down on the very day when 

 Atahuallpa was murdered by Pizarro. Sixty miles further south rises the perfect 

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