In Jaen, the climate is hot, though the rains are not so violent or lasting as in Quixos; the summer is the pleasantest season, as the heat, the rains, and the tempests abate during that period.
Such parts of this country as are under cultivation, are very fertile, but nearly the whole government is covered with forests. The cacao flourishes very much, but owing to the difficulty of carriage, cannot be exported with profit; tobacco seems peculiar to the soil, as great quantities are produced, which being prepared in a peculiar manner, by soaking the leaves in decoctions of fragrant herbs, acquires so pleasant a taste, that the cigars of Jaen are universally sought after in Peru, Chili, and Quito. Cotton-trees are very abundant, and their produce constitutes a great part of the traffic of the inhabitants. The rivers of Bracamoros formerly produced a great deal of gold, but no exertions are made to procure the grains at present.
Its commerce consists in cotton, tobacco and mules, with which a brisk trade is carried on with the provinces of Peru and Quito, in return for European articles.
The animals peculiar to the wilds of Jaen are the cougar, or puma, the jaguar, and the great black bear of the Andes, which equally inhabits all the mountain regions of Quito. They have also a very large animal called danta, which is as big as an ox; its skin is white, and it has a horn in the middle of its head bending backwards; and the woods are abundantly stocked with reptiles and birds.
All the rivers of Jaen flow into the Lauricocha, or descend into the deserts of the Maranon to join that noble stream on the east. The communication by post is carried on down these rivers, and the Indian, who carries the letters, wraps them in his dress which he ties round his head, and with a great knife in his hand, to clear the underwood which may obstruct his road when obliged to land, he descends swimming for two days the river of Guacabamba, or Chamaya, and then the Amazons to Tomependa, a village of Jaen. The Chamaya is full of rapids, but the postman passes these by land, and generally carries with him a log of bombax or balsa, in order to rest himself on in the water. In the huts of the natives, which mostly lie along the shores, he finds food and welcome, and none of these rivers are infested with alligators, which generally prefer water whose stream is not rapid.
The Indians who inhabit Bracamoros are usually in large hordes, and on their migrations from one hunting ground to another, they generally travel in this manner, excepting when they ascend the country; then the forests offer the only paths; and through these (in which cinchona of the finest quality is found) they are forced to hew their way with their long knives.
THE GOVERNMENT OF MAYNAS.
The government of Maynas is the most eastern territory of Quito; it extends to the Portuguese frontiers on the Great Maranon, and is bounded on the north by Quixos, west by Bracamoros and Peru; south by Peru, and eastward by Portuguese America, and the missions north of the Maranon.