The language of the Esmeraldenos is also entirely different from the Quichua, which is the general language of the indians; it is rather nasal and appears very scanty of words; for instance, a woman is called teona, a mare qual teona, a bitch shang teona, the word teona being added to the name of the male. It is, however, not unharmonious, and some of their native songs are not devoid of melody.
The dress of the men is generally a pair of pantaloons of blue cotton, dyed tocuyo, a white or blue shirt hanging loose on the outside of the pantaloons, and a large straw hat. The women wear a piece of blue cotton or woollen cloth wrapped round the waist, and reaching down to their knees, also a shirt, or more commonly a handkerchief, having two of the corners tied together at the back of the neck, while the handkerchief hangs down before; when at work, or in their houses, both men and women generally throw off the shirt. The children go about naked to the age of eight or ten years. The manner of nursing their infants appeared very strange; the child is placed on a piece of wood, in the shape of a coffin lid, hollowed a little like a tray, and covered with a piece of cotton cloth, on which the child is laid; it is then slightly covered with another cloth, and lashed down with a tape or a piece of cord; in this manner they carry them from place to place under their arms, on their heads, or in the bottom of their canoes, often placing a banana leaf over them as a precaution against the scorching heat of the sun; in their houses they have two loops of cord hanging from a cane nearly at the top of the roof; the child is within these loops, and the whole swings backward and forward and lulls it to sleep.
The natives are shy with strangers, and particularly the females; they are however very ingenuous, which to some people appears indecent; and well it may, since cunning and craftiness are too often the handmaids of a high degree of civilization. They appear particularly attached to truth and honesty; their yes and no bear the exact value of the words, and if at any time they are called upon to ratify them, or are induced to think that they are not believed, they leave in a very abrupt manner the person or the company. Their honesty is evinced by the exposure of what they possess, and by leaving it thus exposed when they go on their hunting and fishing parties. The houses, like those of the Puná, are not only without doors and windows, but without walls, and the only sign by which an inhabited house can be distinguished from an uninhabited one is, that the steps of the ladder in the latter are turned downwards, and no arguments whatever are sufficient to persuade an Esmeraldeno to enter a house when the ladder is thus placed.
It may with truth be asserted, that industry is certainly not a prominent feature in their habits; but where a sufficiency is easily procured, where luxury in food or clothing is unknown, where superiority is never contended for, and where nature appears not only to invite, but even to tempt her creatures to repose, why should they reject her offer. The excessive exercise taken in hunting and fishing is certainly a proof, that when exertion becomes necessary for the support of nature, it is resorted to with as much alacrity as in other countries, where labour is imposed either to support the pomp of superiority, or the whims of fashion.
In their persons and food the Esmeraldenos are particularly cleanly; they are abstemious at their meals, and not inclined to habitual intoxication. It is rare indeed to see them in this state, excepting during the time of their festivals. They have a curious practice when assembled at dinner: the men alone are seated, and the women hand to them in small tutumas the masato; they all immediately rise, each holding his cup; they then fill their mouths with the beverage, and turning round their heads over the right shoulder, they squirt the drink through their teeth, after which they resume their seats. This I was told was an offering to their departed friends. The cups being again filled, the same ceremony once more takes place, and is a propitiatory offering to the spirits of the air, a sort of supplication to protect their plantations and cattle against the ravages of the wild beasts and birds.
All the natives call themselves Christians, but they seldom conform to the ceremonies of the church, forming a very strong contrast to some others of the same denomination, who are really only Christians in the ceremonious part, and who are, I fear, more remote from loving God above all things, than those indians are from loving their neighbours as themselves. They are particularly superstitious. If a man be wounded by accident with his own lance, he will break the staff, and send the head to be again tempered by the blacksmith; if a hat fall into the water, its owner immediately exclaims, "my hat instead of myself," and never attempts to recover it; if the master of a house die, the remainder of the family abandons it for ever, nor will any other individual occupy it till the expiration of a year: but all these are harmless foibles, as innocent in their practice as in their effects.
Their number of diversions or entertainments is very small; after the occupations of the day they generally retire to rest; the Sunday is to the generality of them like any other day; but when they assemble at the annual feasts in the town singing and dancing are very common. The music which I heard among them, and the instruments which I saw in their houses were novel to me, and are perhaps unique, except the drum; this they make by fastening a piece of hog's skin over one end of a hollow piece of wood, the other end is left open; the chambo is a hollow tube about thirty inches long, and four in circumference, made of a soft kind of wood, and pierced with small pegs of chonta, projecting in the inside about half an inch; a quantity of small hard beans are put into it, and the two ends are closed. The instrument is played upon by holding it with both hands, one at each end, and shaking it, so that the music produced is sometimes like that which is intended to imitate rain on an English stage. The marimba is made by fastening two broad pieces of cane together at the extremities, each from six to ten feet long; a number of pieces of hollow cane are then suspended between these, from two feet long and five inches in diameter, to four inches long and two in diameter, resembling a gigantic pandean pipe; across the upper part of these canes very thin pieces of chonta are laid, which rest on the frame without touching the pipes, and these are slightly fastened with a cotton thread; the instrument is suspended from the roof of the house, and is generally played by two men, who stand on the opposite sides, each having two small sticks, with knobs made of coutchouc, with which they strike on the cross pieces of chonta, and different tunes are produced, according to the size of the pendant tube of cane over which the chonta is laid. Some marimbas are well made, and the diapason not very irregular; rude as the instrument is, I have often been pleased with the sound of it, especially when floating down a river, and my palanqueros have sung their native airs to the tune. This instrument, which is sometimes accompanied with a guitar, cheers the natives in their revels, and is not unfrequently employed to wake their souls to divine contemplation at high mass.
After having remained a short time at the town, or city, for this title has been conferred on it although it only contains (1809) ninety-three houses, I ascended the river again to the Embarcadero de Maldonado, for the purpose of observing the labour and the time it would require. Our canoe was fifteen feet long, and was manned with two palanqueros, who with light poles about ten feet long impelled the canoe forward, always keeping near the margin of the river; besides these I had with me my servant and two soldiers, my bed and some provisions. I observed that on an average the men worked nine hours in the twenty-four, and on the sixth day we arrived at the Embarcadero, having been only fifty hours on the passage; but the natives informed me that it generally took more time, the current not being so rapid at this period of the year as at others. The distance from the Embarcadero to Quito being eighteen Spanish leagues might with the greatest ease be travelled even on foot in two days. Thus in cases of emergency an express might be sent from the city to the coast in three days, or perhaps less, and one from the coast to the capital in five, even when the river is swollen; whereas from Quito to Guayaquil, or vice versa, it requires at least seven days in summer, and in winter it is often absolutely impossible to fix the time. From Esmeraldas to Quito goods might be conveyed in six or seven days, during the greater part of the year, while it requires eleven or twelve days from Guayaquil during the dry season, and during the rainy season it is impossible to carry them. I have been rather diffuse on this point, but I consider it one of great importance at present (1825), owing to the changes that have already taken place in this important part of the ex-colonies, not only so far as regards the communication between the coast and the capital, but because the locality and produce of the province of Esmeraldas constitute it one of those that most deserve the immediate attention of my speculative countrymen.
On my return I examined the mouth of the river Esmeraldas, and found it quite unfit for an anchorage, owing partly to its great depth in the channel, which is a hundred and forty fathoms, and to a bar that extends from the north shore, as well as to the rapidity of the current, which runs at the rate of four miles an hour, even when the waters are low. The mouth of the river is nine hundred and seventy yards wide; it is situated in 51' N. lat. and 79° 35' W. long. and may be discovered at the distance of six or seven leagues from the shore, by the colour of the muddy water which runs from it, and marks the surface water of the sea.
Two leagues from the mouth of the river stands the city of Esmeraldas; it is on a rising ground, and most delightfully situated, enjoying a much cooler temperature than what could possibly be expected in the vicinity of the equator. This is probably caused by the coldness of the waters of the river, which, as they flow, communicate a part of their coolness to the atmosphere, and keep up a perpetual current of fresh air. The town is entirely free from that great annoyance in most hot climates, the mosquitos; owing perhaps to the total absence of marshy land or swamps in its vicinity, and to the breezes, which, continually blowing, are so destructive to those insects.