The Rivers Or Streams Which Descend From The Surrounding
Mountains Carry Great Abundance Of Gold Dust In Their Course Into The
Low Grounds, Especially After Violent Rains, And This Gold Is Collected
Out Of The Sand By Washing.
Quito is reckoned the richest place for gold
in all Peru,[166] but it is unwholesome, the inhabitants being subject
to headaches, fevers, diarrhaes, and dysenteries; but Guayaquil is
greatly more healthy.
At Quito is made a considerable quantity of
coarse woollen cloth, worn only by the lower class all over the kingdom
of Peru.
[Footnote 166: Quito was annexed to the empire of Peru, not long before
the Spanish conquest, but is now in the viceroyalty of New Granada. - E.]
Leaving our ships at Cape Blanco, we went in a bark and several canoes
to make an attempt on Guayaquil, but were discovered, and returned
therefore to our ships, in which we sailed for the island of Plata, in
lat. 1 deg. 15' S. where we arrived on the 16th December. Having provided
ourselves with water on the opposite coast of the continent, we set sail
on the 23d with a brisk gale at S.S.W. directing our course for a town
called Lovalia, in the bay of Panama. Next morning we passed in sight
of Cape Passado, in lat. 0 deg. 28' S. being a very high round point,
divided in the middle, bare towards the sea, but covered on the land
side with fruit-trees, the land thereabout being hilly and covered with
wood.
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