Besides This, There Are Three Other Churches, St
Augustin, St Francis, And St Dominic; Before Which Last Is Another
Parade, And A Half-Moon Battery Fitted For Mounting Six Guns, But There
Were None While We Were There.
There is also a chapel, and there had
been a church dedicated to St Ignatius, belonging to the jesuits, but it
was burnt down in the great fire.
These were all decently adorned with
altars, carved work, and pictures, and that dedicated to St Augustin had
an organ, but all their plate had been carried away by the priests and
students, who fled into the woods. Some of the houses were of brick,
particularly about the parades, and the rest of timber or split bamboos,
and some of them were decently furnished. Some of the inhabitants had
calashes, but I know not what use they could be of, all the
neighbourhood being so boggy that there was not road for them.
The boggy ground about Guayaquil was full of the largest toads I ever
saw, some being as big as an English two-penny loaf. The town was said
to contain 2000 inhabitants of all sorts, including Indians, Negroes,
and Mulattoes. An Englishman who joined us here, told us that, in the
preceding December, on occasion of a public rejoicing for the birth of
the prince of the Asturias, which lasted for three weeks, they had
mustered 1100 foot and 500 horse, all armed, which came from the
surrounding country, besides a much greater number unarmed, the greater
part of whom must have been Indians. Guayaquil is well situated for
trade and ship-building, being fourteen leagues from Point Arena and
seven from Puna, up a large river, into which fall several smaller ones,
and on which there are many villages and farms. The water of this river
is fresh for four leagues below the city, and all along its banks grow
great quantities of mangroves and sarsaparillas, and on account of
this last the water is thought salutary against the lues. But during
floods, when it brings down many poisonous plants from the mountains,
among which is the manchinilla apple, it is not reckoned wholesome.
All birds that eat of this apple are sure to die, and we saw hundreds of
them dead, floating on the water.
The seasons here are very improperly denominated summer and winter. The
winter is reckoned from the beginning of December to the end of May, in
all which season it is sultry, hot, wet, and unhealthy. From the end of
May to the beginning of December, which they call summer, the weather is
serene, dry, and healthy, and not so violently hot as in what they
denominate winter. The cacao is ripe and mostly gathered between June
and August. Of the other fruits of this country, some are ripe and
others green during the whole course of the year. Guayaquil is the chief
city of a province of that name in the kingdom of Peru, governed by a
president with five or six orders of judges, forming a royal
audiencia, or chief court of judicature, and accountable only to the
viceroy in military affairs,[223] and every province has a government of
the same nature.
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