I here discharged my indians, and paid them only three dollars each, although I had detained them eleven days on the road; my carrier told me, that he had never had a lighter cargo, having had nothing but the chair to carry; indeed I never entered it but twice, once out of curiosity, and another time through persuasion: they all laid out their money in fruit, roots, and dried fish, which they took to Quito, and which would pay them at least cent. per cent.
I rested one day at Piti, and then proceeded down the river in a small canoe with the two sons of old Piti, leaving orders for my servant, luggage, and the soldiers to follow me in a larger one.
We glided down the stream about two miles, the river in some parts being so narrow, that the branches of the trees which grew on each side were entwined with each other over our heads, and formed a leafy canopy almost impenetrable to the rays of the sun, and we could observe the fishes frisking about in the water beneath; sometimes where the river became wider, the margins were covered with the luxuriant gamalote, the leaves of which are generally a yard long and two inches broad, being somewhat like those of the maize; the stem is sometimes two yards high, as green as the leaves, so long as the soil in which it grows continues to be moist; but as soon as the earth becomes dry the plant immediately decays. Here we saw some beautiful fat oxen grazing on this plant; they belonged to the inhabitants of three houses, each of which was as charmingly situated as that at Piti. We soon arrived at the place called the Embarcadero de Maldonado, where we left our canoe tied to a pole, and took a breakfast composed of smoked fish broiled, fried eggs, and plantains; and for drink we had some masato and rum made by the natives.
The masato is made by boiling a quantity of ripe plantains till they are quite soft; these are reduced to a pulp by beating them in a trough; this pulp is then put into a basket lined with vijao leaves, and allowed to ferment two, three, or more days; when it is wanted a spoonful or more is taken out and put into a tutuma bored full of holes like a cullender, a quantity of water is added to it, and the whole is rubbed through the holes of one tutuma into another without holes, which serves as a bowl to drink out of; or small tutumas are filled from it, and handed round. I was highly pleased with the masato, and scarcely took any thing else for my breakfast; the taste is a sub-acid, but remarkably agreeable. I purchased a small basket for the remainder of our passage down the river, at which my two palanqueros were not a little pleased.
At the distance of three leagues from the Embarcadero de Maldonado a most enchanting prospect suddenly burst on our sight. We had almost insensibly glided along the unrippled surface of the river Piti, a distance of about four leagues, during which the view was limited on each side by the lofty and almost impenetrable woods, and before us by the windings of the river—where not a sound was heard save the occasional chattering of the parrots and monkeys on the trees, or the shout of my palanqueros to the inmates of some solitary houses scattered along the banks. Our sphere of existence seemed solitary, and as silent as a dungeon, and I lolled in the canoe as if oppressed with uninterrupted solemnity, such as might be congenial to the pious musings of a holy anchorite; but I was suddenly roused from my reverie by the loud roaring of the river Blanco, and in a moment the scene was changed; at once our narrow river formed part of another, three hundred yards wide; on our left the whole range of the country as far as the coast was extended in the prospect. The Blanco, which rises in the neighbourhood of Tacunga, after collecting part of the waters of el Corason and Pichincha, and receiving those of several tributary streams, becomes navigable at its junction with the Piti. The country on the western side of the river is to a considerable extent very level, the soil good, but the trees neither so numerous nor so lofty as in other parts, owing perhaps to a scanty depth of soil, which seems extremely well calculated for a rice country; indeed the natives assured me, that the small patches sometimes cultivated here multiplied the seed six hundred fold.
After passing the mouths of several minor rivers we arrived at that of Guallabamba, equal in size to the river Blanco. The union of the two is called Esmeraldas. We continued our course, and reached the city of Esmeraldas in the evening. The distance from Piti to this place is about eighteen leagues, which notwithstanding our delays we completed in nine hours.
During our passage down the river I was very much delighted with the sight of a full grown tiger, which lay basking in the sun on a sand-bank that projected from the side of the river almost across it. The noble brute was stretched close to the edge of the bank, frequently dipping his tail into the water, and sprinkling it over him, while his muzzle and feet touched the stream. After watching the animal for a quarter of an hour, my palanqueros became impatient, and at last taking their lances they jumped ashore from the canoe, but at the same moment the tiger sprang on his feet, yawned, stretched himself, and trotted into the woods, leaving the two young fellows to lament the effects of their less nimble feet.
Between Piti and Esmeraldas I counted forty-two houses, built on the sides of the river, each having plantations of sugar-cane, yucas, camotes, aji (capsicum), plantains, and bananas. Near many of the houses horned cattle were feeding on the luxuriant gamalote, and at every house pigs and poultry were running about. Each farmer has a hand-mill for grinding sugar-cane; its construction is very simple, being composed of two wooden rollers placed horizontally in grooves cut in two upright pieces. The ends of the rollers project, one on each side, having cross levers for the purpose of turning them; with this simple wooden machine, for not one of all those that I saw had a nail, nor any other iron work about it, the natives express the juice from the cane, for the purpose of making guarapo, molasses, and rum; two men are generally employed at the rollers, and a woman attends to place the cane between them, while the boys and girls bring it from the plantation.
It was here that I observed the peculiar mode of cultivating the sugar-cane, which I have already spoken of; that is, of cutting the ripe canes every three months, uncovering the roots of the remainder, incorporating the soil with new earth, or digging it as well as that of the space between the two rows, and then hoeing the earth up to the roots again. By these means the cane here is perennial; while in the province of Guayaquil, where the same mode of cultivation is not observed, the plant yields only two, or at most three crops. Although the cane at Esmeraldas is of the creole kind, I have seen it when ripe more than ten feet high, six inches in diameter, and seven or eight inches between the knots or geniculi.
The means employed by the natives in the manufacture of their rum are remarkably simple: the juice of the cane is allowed to obtain the proper degree of fermentation, and is then distilled. The apparatus used for this purpose is a deep earthen pot, having a hole on one side near the top; through this they pass a large wooden spoon, having a groove in the handle; on the top of the pot there is a pan luted to it with clay, and this being repeatedly filled with cold water, and emptied, serves as a condenser; the spirit drops into the spoon, and running along the groove is received in a bottle. I considered this alembic as an invention of the natives of this part of America, because I never saw it used in any other place; the general custom of the indians is to content themselves with fermented liquors from the manufactories of the white inhabitants, especially where spirits cannot be purchased.