Railway Spraying Cart
The road surmounted the greatest engineering difficulties when it reached Guamote, 115 miles from Guayaquil; and the mountain section was completed so that trains could be hoisted from the coast level to the Andine plateau, a sheer vertical distance of almost two miles. The railway will cheapen the traffic both for imported merchandise and for exports.
The corporation had an up-and-down financial history. The railway construction was begun, or rather a local line was continued, by Americans who secured the concession from the government of Ecuador, the money being furnished mainly by Glasgow and London capitalists. The Americans who held the concession had frequent difficulties, not only with the bondholders but with the contractors and the laborers. The work of excavation and grading was done by Jamaica negroes. The nation guaranteed the bonds of the railway, and by a somewhat subtle process the government debt was funded into these railway bonds which are a second mortgage on the customs duties. The obligations were issued as the respective sections of the railway were completed. Notwithstanding the frequent financial difficulties of the contractors and of the English bondholders, the government paid the interest, 6 per cent, regularly.
Quito is accounted by all travellers, in what relates to climate and picturesqueness, one of the most charming capitals in South America. It lies in the central plateau, at an elevation of 9,371 feet. Though an ancient and historic capital, it has been modernized by electricity. The city has a population of 80,000, and supports a variety of local industries, including flour-mills, woollen mills, potteries, sugar refineries, and small manufactories of Indian felt hats; yet it is chiefly interesting as the seat of government. Forty years ago a German-American, Frederick Hassaurek, who had represented the United States as Minister and Consul-General, wrote his impressions of Quito and its people,[6] and there has been little to add since then.
6 Four Years among the South Americans, by F. Hassaurek, Cincinnati, 1865.
One leaf from the Quito municipal records may be worth extracting. The Cabildo, or Council, under date of August 16, 1538, adopted this resolution:
“Since the arrival at Quito of a certain attorney, Bachiler Guevara, many suits have been stirred up whereby, as there was no other attorney in the town, many persons might lose their legal rights; and therefore the said Bachiler Guevara is forbidden to exercise his profession, or to give advice or his opinion on any controversy or matter of litigation, under penalty of 100 pesos for the first offence and one year’s banishment for the second offence.”
Cuenca, in southern Ecuador, is an important industrial and commercial centre. It has between 25,000 and 30,000 inhabitants, and is surrounded by a rich agricultural and stock-raising district. It is seeking a railway outlet to Machala on the coast; but in the course of years it will have railway communication with Quito, for the route is a natural one for commerce along the central plateau. This location is a link in the ultimate Pan-American Railway trunk line. From Cuenca to a junction with the railway already built from Duran beyond Guamote is less than 100 miles.
Misunderstanding of the topography of Ecuador causes the country’s resources to be underestimated. By many persons no account is taken of any section except the humid and productive coast lands. But there is the vastly productive inter-Andine region between the two chains of the Cordilleras. The transverse ranges between these two Cordilleras have the appearance of knots, and are generally described as the nudos. They do not offer insuperable obstacles to railway construction and other interior development, though ordinary roads are lacking.