Eighteen leagues to the northward of Quito is the town, villa, of Ibarra: it contains about twelve thousand inhabitants, many of whom are employed in the manufactories of cotton and woollen cloths, stockings, coverlets, and ponchos; the last of which are superior to those of any other part of the kingdom. Here are a parish church and four convents, San Francisco, Santo Domingo, San Augstin, and la Merced, and a nunnery of La Conceptión. The houses are generally good, the streets wide and convenient, and the market-place capacious. Some of the shops are tolerably stored with European goods, and the trade carried on is very considerable. The climate is warmer than that of Quito, and the market is supplied with meat, pulse, fruit, and vegetables. Ibarra, being the capital of the district of the same name, is the residence of the Corregidor.
In the district of Ibarra are many very fruitful valleys, in which there are extensive plantations of sugar cane, from which the best sugar in the kingdom is manufactured. The wheat grown in this district is also of the finest quality.
To the south west of Ibarra is the town, villa, of Otavalo, the capital of the province or district of the same name. It contains from eighteen to twenty thousand inhabitants, many of whom are mestisos, of a fair complexion, and handsome in appearance; some of the men are remarkably robust and muscular, indeed I never saw a race of finer looking people than an assembly of Otavaleños on a Sunday, when they meet at church, or at a feast. The climate of this town is much colder than at Ibarra, or Quito, owing to its greater elevation, as well as to its proximity to Cayambe urcu. Cotton and wool are manufactured here in the same manner as at Ibarra, the natives appearing more inclined to this kind of labour than to the cultivation of the earth. Large quantities of cattle are bred in the district of Otavalo, and some of the large estates have from four to five hundred indians attached to them, who are employed either in the cultivation of the land, or in the manufactories, obrages. One large estate belongs to the Count of Casa Xijon, who brought several mechanics and artisans from Europe for the purpose of establishing a manufactory of fine cloths, woollens, and cottons; also for printing calicoes, and other goods; but being prevented by the interference of the royal audience, and a subsequent order from Spain, he was prevailed on to destroy all his machinery, and to re-embark the artisans for Europe.
In this district there are two lakes; the larger one, called de San Pablo, is about a league long and half a league wide, and is most abundantly stored with wild geese, ducks, widgeons, herons, storks, and other aquatic birds, but no fish. The smaller one is called Cuicocha; in the centre of this there is a small island, where there are abundance of guinea pigs in a wild state, named by the natives cuis, and hence the name Cuicocha, cocha signifying a lake. Some small fish called prenadillas, are caught here; they are somewhat similar to prawns, but when boiled retain their colour, which is almost black.
After I had visited Ibarra and Otavalo, I was ordered by the President, in December, 1808, to visit the river Napo, for the purpose of reporting on the state of the gold mines on the shores of that river. This commission was extremely flattering to my wandering inclinations, not only on account of my being thus able to visit some parts of the country little known to Europeans, but because I should have an opportunity of witnessing the very river where the undaunted Orellana embarked, and among undiscovered and unheard of nations traversed the greatest extent of country that had ever been crossed at that time by any human being.
I was accompanied by six indians from Quito, and four yumbo indians. The latter inhabit a valley between Quito and Bæza, and frequently bring to the former place pine-apples, bananas, yucas, camotes, besides other fruits and esculents. The yumbos were our guides, while the Quito indians carried my provisions, clothes, bedding, and other necessaries.
Our first day's journey was to Pomasqui, where we passed the night at the house of a friend, who kindly added some machica and dried tongues to my stock of eatables. On the following day we began to ascend the eastern chain of the Cordillera, and slept at night in a small hut made of a few slight poles, covered with pajon; the following night we slept to the eastward of Antisana. On the fourth day we began to descend by a very rugged path, and in some places so nearly perpendicular that we were obliged to prevent ourselves from falling by taking hold of the roots of trees, or the crags of rocks; however, about three o'clock in the afternoon we reached the first small plantation and first hut of the yumbos, where we remained that night, and on the following day I found myself travelling along the north side of the Napo.
I was met here by the son of Don Diego Melo, Governador of Archidona, who pointed out to me the soil which contained gold. It was of a reddish hue, and generally lay about three or four feet deep, having underneath it a stratum of indurated clay; some of these capas, as they are called, extend from one to two hundred yards or more from the margin of the river, and are of different breadths, from twenty to sixty yards. No trees or vegetables grow in this kind of soil, and the gold, its only produce, is obtained by washings: hence they are called lavaderos, washing places, which I shall describe when on the coast of Choco.
The indians of the district of Archidona pay their tribute in gold dust, which they collect from the sand along the sides of the different rivulets; but owing to their ignorance of the comforts which this metal would procure them, or perhaps to a dread of their being enslaved by the mita, to work the mines, should they ever present themselves to pay the tribute with an excess of it, they generally take care to pay it at five or six different times, always complaining of the scarcity of gold, and the trouble it costs to procure a small quantity. It is nevertheless known, that if any remain after the payment is made, they throw it into the river; but Don Diego Melo assured me, that one indian always paid his tribute in a kind of gold, which he showed to me, and which was evidently not in natural grains, but in small particles apparently cut with a knife, or some other instrument, from a solid lump of that metal. Don. N. Valencia sent some negroes to work a lavadero on the Napo; but his death occasioned them to be recalled shortly afterwards, and the project was abandoned, the negroes being ordered to return to Choco.