The reptiles that frequent the houses in Guayaquil are the alacran, which in shape resembles a lobster: the body is about an inch long, and the tail, which has nine joints, is of the same length; the end of the tail is armed with a small hooked instrument, with which the animal can inflict a sting so poisonous, that it causes violent pain in the part affected; considerable degree of fever, excessive thirst, hardness of the tongue, and sometimes delirium ensues; but all the effects generally cease within twenty-four hours. The remedy usually applied is cauterizing the part with a lighted segar.
The ciento pies are from three to six inches long; they have thirty articulations or joints, and sixty feet; they are covered with small scales of a brownish hue, and have organs suited for biting, both at the head and at the tail, either of which cause violent pain, and a considerable degree of fever. The remedy used by the natives is the same as for the bite of the alacran.
Many salamanquecas, small chameleons, run about the houses, at which the natives are very much alarmed, fancying that their scratch is mortal; and certainly it must be fancy, for there is no record of any person having been scratched by them. On account of the insects and reptiles, and during the rainy season, when a few snakes introduce themselves into the houses, all the inhabitants smoke segars, being persuaded that the smoke of tobacco drives them away; so that even the females and the children become habituated to the use of this herb, which in Guayaquil is cheap, and of a good quality.
The most important part of Guayaquil is the dock yard; it produces employment for a great number of mechanics, promotes labour, and consequently independence in a considerable portion of the inhabitants. It also promotes the circulation of money in the neighbourhood, by encouraging the consumption of wood, which is brought from the surrounding country; and the effect caused by giving, through the medium of labour, the greatest possible value to the natural produce of the country is no where so visible as in this city, heightened undoubtedly by the contrast to be met with in the other colonial districts. Here the working mechanic is sure of employment; he can calculate with certainty on his earnings, and by being indispensably necessary he acquires a personal independence, totally unknown where labour is scarce, or population excessive.
Some of the vessels built here have been very much admired by foreigners capable of appreciating their architectural merits; and particularly schooners of a hundred and fifty or two hundred tons burthen. The largest ship ever built in this dock yard was the San Salvador, of seven hundred tons; but vessels of from three to five hundred tons are very common. The master ship builder is a mulatto, a native of Guayaquil, as well as the masters caulker and rigger. Excepting the wood, all the other materials are procured from Europe; thus the most extensive market for iron, sheet copper, and all kinds of naval stores, is furnished at Guayaquil.
Very great economical improvements might undoubtedly be made in this yard, and particularly, in the timber. A foreign carpenter would be much surprised to see a man take a solid log of wood, and chalk out a curved plank for the bow or stern of a boat, and cut it with an axe, forming but one plank out of each log, and this by no means so durable as a straight plank would be when curved by artificial means: this is observable in the durability of the wood in the different parts of their boats. The introduction of sawing mills here would be of the greatest importance, as well as at Talcahuano, in Chile, and would amply repay the speculator who should establish them. The rise and fall of the tide would furnish, at very little expence, the necessary power for the machinery. The sum paid for the sawing of a single plank, twelve inches broad and sixteen or eighteen feet long, is six reals, or three-quarters of a dollar: this will convey an idea of the importance of such an establishment as the one just mentioned. At present (1824) the objections that would formerly have been started during the domination of the Spaniards necessarily disappear, not so much perhaps from an increase of knowledge as from an increase of work, and a diminution of workmen; this being the unavoidable result of the war in Peru, and that the consequence of the flattering prospect which the emancipation of the colonies now presents. Many other improvements which are generally adopted in the English arsenals would be found of vast importance in the ship yard at Guayaquil; which, from its situation, must ever remain the principal station for ship building on the shores of the Pacific.
The balsa is one of the most early specimens of the art of ship-building, if simplicity of construction can warrant the assertion in general terms; it certainly, however, was the only large vehicle in possession of the natives when the Spaniards arrived in this part of the New World. Of the conveniency of this rude vessel, both Asara and Acosta speak, when Orellana transferred the city of Guayaquil from the bay of Charapota, near to where the town of Monte Christi now stands, to the western shores of the river, because it served to transport his soldiers, auxiliaries, and stores, when the indians burnt that town in 1537.
The balsa is formed by laying together five, seven, or more large trunks of the palo de balsa or ceibo, which is so porous and light, that a man can carry a log thirty feet long and 12 inches in diameter; pieces of cedar, about six inches square, or large canes, are next laid crossway upon these, and the whole are tied together with the tough pliant stems of a creeping plant, called bejuco; split canes are afterwards laid along these rafters, to form what may be termed the deck of the balsa. Instead of a mast, the sail is hoisted on two poles, or sheers, of mangrove wood, inclining a little forward, being supported by two backstays. The sail is a large square lugsail, with halyards and braces. For propelling the balsa along during a calm, the natives use a long paddle, broad at the lower extremity; they let this fall perpendicularly at the stern of the balsa, and then drag the end forwards, by which means the broad end of the paddle sweeps through the water as it rises, and impels the balsa forward, though very slowly. The rudder is formed of one of these paddles lashed astern, and is managed by one or two men; besides which they have several boards, each three or four yards long and two feet broad, called guaras; these they insert between the main or central logs, and allow them to dip more or less into the water: these boards serve for a keel, and prevent the balsa from upsetting or making much lee-way. By raising or lowering these boards in different parts of the balsa, the natives can perform on their raft all the manœuvres of a regularly built and well rigged vessel, an invention which I believe is not generally known, and the utility of which might be very great in cases of shipwreck, where the seamen have to betake themselves to rafts, without being acquainted with so easy a method of steering them, and of preventing them from capsizing.
All the balsas have a small shed built on them, which serves the purposes of a cabin; they are formed of canes, and the roof is covered with palm leaves, or those called vijao, which are similar in shape to those of the banana, but not so liable to break or split. Some of the large balsas have a comfortable house built on them, composed of four, five, or more rooms; the sides and roof being lined with chintz, with mats on the floors; and are most comfortable conveyances for passengers or parties of pleasure.
The balsas are used in the river for loading and unloading the vessels, for carrying the produce of the country from one part to another; also as stages for careening ships, and for heaving them down, besides many other similar purposes: with them also the natives perform voyages to Paita, Sechura, Pacasmayo, and even Huanchaco; beating up against the wind and current a distance of four degrees of latitude, having on board five or six hundred quintals of goods as a cargo, besides a crew of indians and their provisions.