Spanish America, Vol. 1 (of 2)

by Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle

The cacao also thrives exceedingly in Baba, and the quantity of this fruit gathered annually in Guayaquil for exportation and home consumption, amounts to 50,000 loads, at eighty-one pounds the load.

The last district of Guayaquil is that of Daule, so called from a river of that name, which flows by its principal town, also called Daule. This town contains some fine houses, to which the inhabitants of Guayaquil retire in the hot seasons; and by its river it sends fruits and plantains to the capital.

Daule also exports cattle, horses and mules, with cacao, cotton, and sugar, and much Indian corn. The tobacco grown in this district is the best of Guayaquil. It contains two other towns of no great size.

The river Guayaquil is not only the largest but the most important of all the streams in the jurisdiction. It rises in the Andes, and pursuing a serpentine course, flows into the Pacific in the Bay of Puna. The torrents which flow in all directions from the mountains, contribute to swell this river, and in winter it inundates the country to a great extent. Its mouth is about three miles wide, at Isla Verde and at Guayaquil still broader; the distance on it from this city to the custom-house of Babahoyo is twenty-four and a half leagues, and it is navigable four leagues further. The tides reach as far as the custom-house in summer, but in winter the current is so strong, that the tides are often imperceptible. The mouth of the river is so full of shifting sands, that the passage of large vessels is rendered very dangerous. Its banks are decorated with country-seats and cottages inhabited by fishermen. By means of this fine stream, Guayaquil exports the produce of its departments to Peru, Panama, and Quito, receiving European goods from Tierra Firme; from New Spain, and Guatimala, naptha, tar, cordage and indigo.

The other large rivers are those called Yaguache, Baba, and Daule, along the banks of which most of the Indians have formed their habitations.

The capital of the whole district is Guayaquil, a city of considerable importance, at the bottom of the gulf of Guayaquil, and at the mouth of the river of the same name, in 2° 12ʹ south latitude, and 79° 6ʹ west longitude. It was founded in the year 1534 or 1535, by Benalcazar; but was destroyed after several furious attacks by the Indians. In 1537 it was rebuilt by Orellana at some distance from its first scite, on the declivity of a mountain; and in 1693, great additions were made to it, on the other side of a branch of the river, which now divides the city into two parts, known by the names of the New and Old towns, communicating with each other by a long bridge.

The houses are constructed mostly of wood or whitened earth. It has suffered repeatedly by conflagrations, and was reduced to ashes in 1764, since which, the government have forbid the inhabitants to thatch their houses with straw. The streets of the new town are straight and wide, and well paved; arcades run along before all the houses, so that the people can walk protected from the rain and sun. It is now one of the handsomest towns of South America, but the marshes in its neighbourhood, combined with the heat of the climate, render it very unhealthy. It has a handsome church, college, convents, and an hospital, and is governed by a corregidor, who is named by the king of Spain, and who holds his office for five years. There is also a treasury and revenue office, for the receipt of the Indian capitation-tax, the duties on imports and exports and other taxes; and the bishop of Quito sends a vicar to govern the church.

The city is defended by three forts, two on the borders of the river, and the other inland, to guard the entrance of a deep ravine which leads to it.

The number of inhabitants is 10,000, most of whom are engaged in commerce, the Spaniards and creoles being the merchants, and the creoles and castes the artizans and labourers. The trade of this town is gradually increasing, and from the situation of its port, it will in all probability become a place of the first consequence, notwithstanding the insalubrity of its climate, and the dreadful tempests it is subject to in winter. The women of Guayaquil are proverbially handsome, which causes many Europeans to marry and settle here. The island of Puna has a fort or rather battery on it, where all ships coming in and going out are brought to.

Guayaquil was named a royal dock-yard, in 1767, and the abundance of excellent timber produced in its neighbourhood, renders it very fit for this purpose. The balsam-tree and several others yield excellent knees, and are celebrated for resisting worms and rot. Notwithstanding these advantages, the building of vessels is neglected, and the river and coasting trade is carried on in balsas, which receive the cargoes of the vessels arriving from Europe, Lima, or Panama. These balsas or rafts are peculiar to the coast of the provinces of New Granada; they are made of five, seven, or nine trunks, of an exceedingly light tree, called balsa. A little boy can carry a log of this wood twelve feet long, and a foot in diameter, with great ease. The rafts are made larger or smaller, according as they are wanted for fishing, for the coasting trade, or for the rivers, and they go as far as Payta in Peru from Guayaquil with safety. The logs of which they are made are sixty feet in length, and two, or two and a half, in diameter, so that a large one of nine logs, is between twenty and twenty-four feet in breadth. These logs are fastened to each other by bejucos, (a sort of parasite plant,) or withies, and have cross logs lashed so firmly with these pliable plants, that they rarely give way, though the sea in their coasting voyages runs very high.