Continuation of Esmeraldas, Fish caught in the River...._Chautisa_,
method of taking....Preserving of....Method of catching Fish in the
River....Of Cooking it....Yucas, Camotes, Yams....Palmettos....
Tobacco....Cocoa....New variety of....Occupation of the
Esmeraldeños....Origin of....Language....Dress....Manners and
Character of....Religion....Re-ascend the Esmeraldas River, to the
Embarcadero de Maldonado....Mouth of the River....City of
Esmeraldas....Road to Atacames....Port of....Town of....
_Manzanillo_....Rio Verdo....La Tola....Country Produce, Timber,
and Wood....Coutchouc....Fruit....Palms....Animals....Mines....
Conclusion.
In the Esmeraldas river and in many of the tributary streams there is a
variety of delicate fish, as well as in the sea on the neighbouring
coast. The most delicate in the rivers are the lisa, _dama_, _sabalo_,
and _sabalete_; in the sea the lisa, corbina, chita, mero, and tollo;
besides these there is a small fish resembling a shrimp, not half an
inch long, which makes its annual appearance in February, or in the
beginning of March; it is called _chautisa_, and is really a great
delicacy when prepared by the natives. The numbers which ascend the
rivers are so great, that on each side they appear to form a white path
in the water, about two feet broad, and several miles in length. The
women employ themselves in taking them, for which purpose they have a
canoe; two of them hold a piece of flannel three yards long by the
corners, and place it under the surface of the water, one end being a
little elevated to prevent the chautisa from passing, and when a
considerable quantity are collected the flannel is taken up and emptied
into the canoe, after which the operation is repeated. In the course of
two hours I have frequently seen from six to eight bushels taken in this
manner by three women. They are preserved by using as much salt as is
necessary to season them; they are then put into baskets lined with
leaves, and a large stone is placed on the top to press them into a
solid mass, like a cheese. After standing a day or two, the baskets are
placed on a frame made of canes, which is elevated about a yard from the
ground; they are then covered with plantain leaves, and a small fire of
green cedar, sandal, or other aromatic wood is kindled underneath, for
the purpose of smoking them. After remaining ten or twelve hours, the
cakes are taken out of the baskets, and again exposed to the smoke till
it has penetrated through them, when they are laid up for use. A small
portion of the smoked chautisa is generally added to fish while
cooking, to which it communicates a very delicate flavour: several
dishes are also prepared with the chautisa mixed with yucas, yams, and
other esculents.
For fishing at sea the natives generally use hooks, but they have both
drag and cast nets made of pita, which are always dyed with annotta,
achiote. In the rivers they use the common means practised for taking
fish, besides which they sometimes make an enclosure of canes on the
side of the river, having a trap door so suspended that it can be
loosened by a person who hides himself at a short distance from the
trap. The decoy consists of a bunch of ripe plantains, suspended so as
just to catch the surface of the water: the fish, particularly the two
most delicate kinds, the sabalo and sabalete, enter to eat the
plantains, and when the watchman observes, either by the motion of the
rope to which the fruit is fastened, or from the splashing heard in the
water, that a quantity have entered the _corral_, he lets the trap door
fall, and takes the fish with a small net. I have been present when two
hundred fine fish have been caught in this way at one time.
The most curious method used for catching fish is that which is
practised after night fall: a man takes his small canoe and places in
the bow of it a large piece of lighted coutchouc, in order to attract
the fish; he then places himself behind the light and strikes them with
a small harpoon; and he is so very dexterous that he very rarely errs.
The sight of two or three canoes on the water at night, having their
large lights burning, and now and then reflected on the fisherman, or
silvering the rippled stream, is very pleasing. Many times have I
wandered along the margins of the river at Esmeraldas to witness this
scene, when the silence of the night was uninterrupted, except by the
lave of the waters gently splashing on the sandy shore.
When a large quantity of fish is taken which is intended for sale the
natives preserve it with salt, but if it be destined for home
consumption they usually smoke it, particularly the sabalo and lisa,
which are very fat. One of the methods of cooking fish, and which is
practised here, is exceedingly good, preferable, I think, to any other.
After the fish is cleaned it is seasoned with a little salt, and the
pods of green capsicum; it is then rolled up in a piece of plantain, or
vijao leaf, and laid among the hot embers, or buried among the hot
ashes; when sufficiently done it is eaten off the leaf, and is
remarkably delicate, all the gravy and flavour of the fish having been
preserved by the leaf; cooked in this manner it is called _pandao_.
The yucas, camotes, and yams cultivated at Esmeraldas and in the
neighbourhood are the finest I ever saw. It is not uncommon for one of
these roots to weigh upwards of twenty pounds. At one place I saw a few
plants of the yuca that had stood upwards of twenty years, the owner
having frequently bared the bottom of the plants and taken the ripe
roots, after which, throwing up the earth again and allowing a
sufficient time for new roots to grow, a continual succession of this
excellent nutritious food was procured.
The palmito supplies the place of many of our European vegetables, and
is certainly far superior to the finest cabbage I ever ate. It is
particularly white, tender, and delicate, and greatly resembles the sea
kale. To procure them the top of a palm is cut down and opened, and the
white core or leaves are taken out, which constitute what is often
termed by travellers the cabbage, and the tree is known by the name of
the cabbage tree. As there is an abundance of coco-nut palms in the
neighbourhood, I one day had a tree cut down, and the palmetto taken
out; it measured four feet nine inches long, and eighteen inches in
circumference; when boiled it exceeded any vegetable I ever tasted; it
was perfectly white, tender, and delicately flavoured.
Tobacco is cultivated here, and it is of an excellent quality: it is not
preserved in the leaf, but twisted into a small roll, and made into
parcels of about twenty ounces each, which sell from a quarter to half a
dollar the bundle: it finds a very ready market at Quito. Owing to the
expences of the administration of the royal rent or monopoly of tobacco
at Quito, the president and officers of the revenue declared it a free
trade. This news was welcomed by the natives with joy, and should the
newly constituted authorities allow it to remain free from restrictions,
its produce will be the source of great riches to the inhabitants of
this part of the country.
[Illustration: MALE & FEMALE INDIANS OF THE MALABA TRIBE.]
The small quantity of cocoa that is grown in the province of Esmeraldas
is of the finest quality, and considered by many amantes del cacao to be
equally as good as the royal bean of Socomusco. A letter from the
governor of the mint at Mexico to Don Juan de Larrea was shewn to me at
Quito, stating, that a sample of the Esmeraldas cocoa having been sent
to him, the quality was so highly approved, that he and his friends
should be willing to purchase any quantity at twenty-five dollars the
arobo. At the same time the Guayaquil cocoa was selling at three and a
half dollars, and the best Caracas at five. The bean of the Esmeraldas
cocoa is very small compared with that of Guayaquil, not being above
one-third of the size: it is of a bright orange colour, and very heavy
from the large quantity of sebaceous matter which it contains. The
chocolate made from it preserves the same golden appearance, and is
extremely delicious. Another kind of cocoa is found here, called
_moracumba_; it is never cultivated by the natives, growing wild in the
woods: the tree is considerably larger than that of the theobroma cacao,
and has a very different appearance; but the pods grow to the stem and
large branches in the same manner, and have the same appearance as the
other; the beans under the brown husk are composed of a white solid
matter, almost like a lump of hard tallow. The natives take a quantity
of these and pass a piece of slender cane through them, and roast them,
when they have the delicate flavour of the cocoa. I have also seen them
bruise the bean after it had been well dried, and use the substance
instead of tallow in their lamps. This kind of cocoa, which I consider a
new variety, will undoubtedly when more known be mixed with the dry
cocoa of Guayaquil and other places, to which it will be a very great
improvement.
The occupation of the male part of the inhabitants consists in hunting,
fishing, and attending to their small plantations. Their maize is not of
the best quality, the grain is hard, and scarcely repays the care of the
planter, for cultivator I cannot call him. All the labour requisite is
merely to search for a piece of land unshaded by trees, or to cut down a
portion of these, plant the grain, observe when the young cobs begin to
appear, protect the plantation against the depredation of the monkeys,
agutis, and parrots, till the grain be ripe, and then to harvest it:
this is generally done about eleven weeks after the seed is put into the
ground. Four crops may be produced in one year, without either ploughing
or harrowing or scarcely any other labour. It is thus that the bountiful
hand of providence dispenses gifts in a country whose climate does not
suit hard labour, a blessing which the inhabitants of colder regions do
not enjoy. But they who choose may call the effects produced by these
gifts "the habitual indolence of the people," without contrasting the
sterility of the soil and climate of one country with the fertility of
that of another.
The females at Esmeraldas are generally occupied in their household
concerns; however they assist in the labour of the plantations, and
usually accompany their husbands when fishing or hunting calls them far
from their home: in the canoes the women usually take the paddles when
proceeding down a stream; but they seldom or never use the pole,
_palanca_, when ascending. Although they assist the men in what may be
called their department, the reverse never happens, and a man would
consider himself degraded should he add a piece of wood to the fire,
assist in unlading a canoe of plantains, in distilling rum, or perform
any office connected with household concerns. I have seen a man and his
wife arrive at their dwelling with a cargo of plantains, camotes, &c.;
the man would step ashore, carrying his lance, throw himself into a
hammock, leave his wife to unload the canoe, and wonder at the same time
that his dinner was not ready, yet he would not stir either hand or foot
to hasten it.
The natives of Esmeraldas, Rio Verde, and Atacames, are all zambos,
apparently a mixture of negroes and indians; indeed the oral tradition
of their origin is, that a ship, having negroes on board, arrived on the
coast, and that having landed, they murdered a great number of the male
indians, kept their widows and daughters, and laid the foundation of the
present race. If this were the case, and it is not very improbable, the
whole of the surrounding country being peopled with indians, it produces
a striking instance of the facility with which an apparently different
tribe of human beings is produced, for the present Esmeraldenos are very
different in their features, hair, colour, and shape, to the chino, or
offspring of a negro and an indian; these are commonly short and lusty,
of a very deep copper colour, thick hair, neither lank nor curled, small
eyes, sharpish nose, and well-shaped mouth; whereas the Esmeraldenos are
tall, and rather slender, of lightish black colour, different from that
called copper colour, have soft curly hair, large eyes, nose rather
flat, and thick lips, possessing more of the negro than of the indian,
which may be partly accounted for by the male parents having been
originally negroes; and the children, as I have already observed,
preserve more of the colour of the father than of the mother.
The language of the Esmeraldenos is also entirely different from the
Quichua, which is the general language of the indians; it is rather
nasal and appears very scanty of words; for instance, a woman is called
teona, a mare qual teona, a bitch shang teona, the word teona being
added to the name of the male. It is, however, not unharmonious, and
some of their native songs are not devoid of melody.
The dress of the men is generally a pair of pantaloons of blue cotton,
dyed tocuyo, a white or blue shirt hanging loose on the outside of the
pantaloons, and a large straw hat. The women wear a piece of blue cotton
or woollen cloth wrapped round the waist, and reaching down to their
knees, also a shirt, or more commonly a handkerchief, having two of the
corners tied together at the back of the neck, while the handkerchief
hangs down before; when at work, or in their houses, both men and women
generally throw off the shirt. The children go about naked to the age of
eight or ten years. The manner of nursing their infants appeared very
strange; the child is placed on a piece of wood, in the shape of a
coffin lid, hollowed a little like a tray, and covered with a piece of
cotton cloth, on which the child is laid; it is then slightly covered
with another cloth, and lashed down with a tape or a piece of cord; in
this manner they carry them from place to place under their arms, on
their heads, or in the bottom of their canoes, often placing a banana
leaf over them as a precaution against the scorching heat of the sun; in
their houses they have two loops of cord hanging from a cane nearly at
the top of the roof; the child is within these loops, and the whole
swings backward and forward and lulls it to sleep.
The natives are shy with strangers, and particularly the females; they
are however very ingenuous, which to some people appears indecent; and
well it may, since cunning and craftiness are too often the handmaids of
a high degree of civilization. They appear particularly attached to
truth and honesty; their _yes_ and _no_ bear the exact value of the
words, and if at any time they are called upon to ratify them, or are
induced to think that they are not believed, they leave in a very abrupt
manner the person or the company. Their honesty is evinced by the
exposure of what they possess, and by leaving it thus exposed when they
go on their hunting and fishing parties. The houses, like those of the
Puná, are not only without doors and windows, but without walls, and the
only sign by which an inhabited house can be distinguished from an
uninhabited one is, that the steps of the ladder in the latter are
turned downwards, and no arguments whatever are sufficient to persuade
an Esmeraldeno to enter a house when the ladder is thus placed.
It may with truth be asserted, that industry is certainly not a
prominent feature in their habits; but where a sufficiency is easily
procured, where luxury in food or clothing is unknown, where superiority
is never contended for, and where nature appears not only to invite, but
even to tempt her creatures to repose, why should they reject her offer.
The excessive exercise taken in hunting and fishing is certainly a
proof, that when exertion becomes necessary for the support of nature,
it is resorted to with as much alacrity as in other countries, where
labour is imposed either to support the pomp of superiority, or the
whims of fashion.
In their persons and food the Esmeraldenos are particularly cleanly;
they are abstemious at their meals, and not inclined to habitual
intoxication. It is rare indeed to see them in this state, excepting
during the time of their festivals. They have a curious practice when
assembled at dinner: the men alone are seated, and the women hand to
them in small _tutumas_ the _masato_; they all immediately rise, each
holding his cup; they then fill their mouths with the beverage, and
turning round their heads over the right shoulder, they squirt the drink
through their teeth, after which they resume their seats. This I was
told was an offering to their departed friends. The cups being again
filled, the same ceremony once more takes place, and is a propitiatory
offering to the spirits of the air, a sort of supplication to protect
their plantations and cattle against the ravages of the wild beasts and
birds.
All the natives call themselves Christians, but they seldom conform to
the ceremonies of the church, forming a very strong contrast to some
others of the same denomination, who are really only Christians in the
ceremonious part, and who are, I fear, more remote from loving God above
all things, than those indians are from loving their neighbours as
themselves. They are particularly superstitious. If a man be wounded by
accident with his own lance, he will break the staff, and send the head
to be again tempered by the blacksmith; if a hat fall into the water,
its owner immediately exclaims, "my hat instead of myself," and never
attempts to recover it; if the master of a house die, the remainder of
the family abandons it for ever, nor will any other individual occupy it
till the expiration of a year: but all these are harmless foibles, as
innocent in their practice as in their effects.
Their number of diversions or entertainments is very small; after the
occupations of the day they generally retire to rest; the Sunday is to
the generality of them like any other day; but when they assemble at the
annual feasts in the town singing and dancing are very common. The music
which I heard among them, and the instruments which I saw in their
houses were novel to me, and are perhaps unique, except the drum; this
they make by fastening a piece of hog's skin over one end of a hollow
piece of wood, the other end is left open; the _chambo_ is a hollow tube
about thirty inches long, and four in circumference, made of a soft kind
of wood, and pierced with small pegs of _chonta_, projecting in the
inside about half an inch; a quantity of small hard beans are put into
it, and the two ends are closed. The instrument is played upon by
holding it with both hands, one at each end, and shaking it, so that the
music produced is sometimes like that which is intended to imitate rain
on an English stage. The _marimba_ is made by fastening two broad pieces
of cane together at the extremities, each from six to ten feet long; a
number of pieces of hollow cane are then suspended between these, from
two feet long and five inches in diameter, to four inches long and two
in diameter, resembling a gigantic pandean pipe; across the upper part
of these canes very thin pieces of chonta are laid, which rest on the
frame without touching the pipes, and these are slightly fastened with a
cotton thread; the instrument is suspended from the roof of the house,
and is generally played by two men, who stand on the opposite sides,
each having two small sticks, with knobs made of coutchouc, with which
they strike on the cross pieces of chonta, and different tunes are
produced, according to the size of the pendant tube of cane over which
the chonta is laid. Some marimbas are well made, and the diapason not
very irregular; rude as the instrument is, I have often been pleased
with the sound of it, especially when floating down a river, and my
palanqueros have sung their native airs to the tune. This instrument,
which is sometimes accompanied with a guitar, cheers the natives in
their revels, and is not unfrequently employed to wake their souls to
divine contemplation at high mass.
After having remained a short time at the town, or city, for this title
has been conferred on it although it only contains (1809) ninety-three
houses, I ascended the river again to the Embarcadero de Maldonado, for
the purpose of observing the labour and the time it would require. Our
canoe was fifteen feet long, and was manned with two palanqueros, who
with light poles about ten feet long impelled the canoe forward, always
keeping near the margin of the river; besides these I had with me my
servant and two soldiers, my bed and some provisions. I observed that on
an average the men worked nine hours in the twenty-four, and on the
sixth day we arrived at the Embarcadero, having been only fifty hours on
the passage; but the natives informed me that it generally took more
time, the current not being so rapid at this period of the year as at
others. The distance from the Embarcadero to Quito being eighteen
Spanish leagues might with the greatest ease be travelled even on foot
in two days. Thus in cases of emergency an express might be sent from
the city to the coast in three days, or perhaps less, and one from the
coast to the capital in five, even when the river is swollen; whereas
from Quito to Guayaquil, or vice versa, it requires at least seven days
in summer, and in winter it is often absolutely impossible to fix the
time. From Esmeraldas to Quito goods might be conveyed in six or seven
days, during the greater part of the year, while it requires eleven or
twelve days from Guayaquil during the dry season, and during the rainy
season it is impossible to carry them. I have been rather diffuse on
this point, but I consider it one of great importance at present (1825),
owing to the changes that have already taken place in this important
part of the ex-colonies, not only so far as regards the communication
between the coast and the capital, but because the locality and produce
of the province of Esmeraldas constitute it one of those that most
deserve the immediate attention of my speculative countrymen.
On my return I examined the mouth of the river Esmeraldas, and found it
quite unfit for an anchorage, owing partly to its great depth in the
channel, which is a hundred and forty fathoms, and to a bar that extends
from the north shore, as well as to the rapidity of the current, which
runs at the rate of four miles an hour, even when the waters are low.
The mouth of the river is nine hundred and seventy yards wide; it is
situated in 51´ N. lat. and 79° 35´ W. long. and may be discovered at
the distance of six or seven leagues from the shore, by the colour of
the muddy water which runs from it, and marks the surface water of the
sea.
Two leagues from the mouth of the river stands the city of Esmeraldas;
it is on a rising ground, and most delightfully situated, enjoying a
much cooler temperature than what could possibly be expected in the
vicinity of the equator. This is probably caused by the coldness of the
waters of the river, which, as they flow, communicate a part of their
coolness to the atmosphere, and keep up a perpetual current of fresh
air. The town is entirely free from that great annoyance in most hot
climates, the mosquitos; owing perhaps to the total absence of marshy
land or swamps in its vicinity, and to the breezes, which, continually
blowing, are so destructive to those insects.
A road through the woods leads from Esmeraldas to Atacames, a distance
of five leagues. Atacames is a little town near the sea, having a small
river of fresh water, which empties itself into the ocean on the south
side. A projecting headland forms a convenient roadstead, which has good
anchorage, and owing to the universal serenity of the weather the port
may be considered a safe one. Two leagues to the northward of this place
there is a high bluff headland, called Morro Grande, which with the
Morro de Atacames forms the bay, the best anchorage in which is under
the headland of Atacames. The landing on the beach close to the town is
generally good, but when the contrary happens there is another and a
better to the westward of Atacames.
The town is composed of about thirty houses, built like those of the
Puná, having only an upper story. The inhabitants employ themselves in
the cultivation of their chacras, scattered along the side of the small
rivulet of Atacames, which is generally navigable for canoes about five
leagues from the town. More attention has been paid here to the
cultivation of cocoa than at Esmeraldas, and considerable profit has
been derived from it. In 1805, an officer in the Spanish navy employed
several of the natives to fell timber for the Lima market, one small
cargo of which was exported, but through the interest of the Guayaquil
merchants the law of _puertos no abilitados_, close ports, was enforced,
and an end was put to the trade. The inhabitants of Atacames are of the
same race with those of Esmeraldas; but they do not speak the same
language--they make use of the Spanish, and consider themselves Spanish
population.
Near the beach there are several very lofty coco-nut palms, and a great
abundance of lime trees, whence any quantity of their fruit or acid
might be obtained; but as the trees are intermixed with the manzanillo,
the utmost precaution is necessary in order to prevent strangers from
poisoning themselves with the fruit. The tree is very similar to a low
bushy apple tree, and the fruit has the appearance of a small apple; but
it is so extremely poisonous, that if a person inadvertently taste it, a
universal swelling of the body and death are the inevitable
consequences. The poisonous qualities of this tree are so great, that if
any one incautiously avail himself of its shade, sickness ensues, and
death would follow should he sleep under it in the evening. When the
natives cannot obtain the poison from Maynas for their puas, they use
the sap of the manzanillo, procured by making incisions in the bark of
the tree; but the use of it is attended with considerable risk, and the
poison is not so certain to kill the game; besides, the natives are
averse to use game as food when killed by it.
From Atacames to the mouth of the Esmeraldas river, a distance of four
leagues, goods might be conveyed and put on board canoes for their
passage up to the town, or to the Embarcadero, where, if the importance
of mercantile pursuits be duly considered by the government, facilities
may be given at a small expence to the navigation of this river. The
greater part of the south side is favourable to the formation of a road
as far as the confluence of the river Blanco with that called Piti.
To the northward of the river Esmeraldas there are several small rivers
which empty themselves into the sea; and at the embouchures of each
there are a few houses. At the distance of seven leagues stands Rio
Verde, consisting of about twenty houses and a small chapel. The river
is navigable for canoes about eight leagues, is full of fish, and on its
banks are many houses and plantations. Seven leagues from Rio Verde is
the river Tola, and about two leagues from the mouth is the town of the
same name, containing about a hundred houses and a parish church.
Between the town and the sea there is a very extensive savana, on which
are kept upwards of five hundred head of horned cattle.
When the road called de Malbucho was opened by the president of Quito in
1804, as a communication between the capital and the coast, this was
intended to have been the port; but on examination it was found, that
the mouth of the river was almost choked by a sand-bank, and a schooner
sent down by the Viceroy of Peru to examine the port foundered on the
bar. To the northward of La Tola there is a convenient harbour, called
Limones, and another, at a short distance to the northward of this, is
called Pianguapi, or San Pedro; all these communicate by an estuary,
which receives its fresh water from the river Tola.
The country adjoining the line of coast reaching from Atacames to La
Tola is entirely covered with wood of an excellent quality both for the
cabinet-maker and the architect; for the former the principal varieties
are the caobano, a species of mahogany, very large, and in great
abundance; ebony, cascol, a hard wood, completely black, and very large;
pusilde, of the colour and almost of the consistency of ivory; of this
wood they make billiard balls: there is also red sandal wood, of a
beautiful lively red colour, and very fragrant; the bark contains such
an abundance of aromatic resin, that when heated by the sun it exudes
and scents the air to the distance of five hundred yards from the tree.
The natives use the resin dissolved in rum to cure wounds. Here too is
the guayacan, of a green hue, with dark brown veins: this wood is
remarkably hard, the tree is very lofty and straight, and on this
account the natives generally choose it for the upright posts which
support their houses: when kept continually wet for eight or ten months
it petrifies, and it is a common thing for the natives to dig at the
foot of an old post, and break off pieces of the petrified wood for
flints.
For architectural purposes timber grows in great luxuriance, and to an
extraordinary size. There is no doubt that ere long the dock-yard of
Guayaquil and the Peruvian markets must be supplied with guachapeli,
cedar, robles, a kind of oak, marias, balsams, laurels, and other trees
from the woods of Esmeraldas, which as yet may be said to be untouched.
Besides the varieties just mentioned, there is an abundance of ceibos,
balsas, and _matapalos_, which are of an enormous size, and supply
timber for canoes and rafts. The matapalo, kill tree, is so called
because it entwines itself with any other trees that are near it, and by
depriving them of their sap, or preventing the circulation, destroys
them. I have seen several of these trees, which three feet above the
ground measured upwards of twenty-five feet in circumference. The wood
is soft and light, and of no other use than that to which it is applied
by the natives. A kind of gum exudes from the bark, or is drawn from it
by making incisions, and in many parts of Peru and Colombia is used as
an antidote for ruptures.
The coutchouc tree is quite common in almost all parts of the forests;
it is large but not very lofty, and the wood is entirely useless;
however, the tree produces what is of much greater value to the natives:
the bark of the trunk is taken off and subjected to repeated washings;
they beat it with small stones until the fibres are regularly extended,
so that the whole is about one-eighth of an inch in thickness; it is
then dried, and used as a bed, sometimes as a curtain, a shelter in the
woods against the sun or rain, or as a sail for their canoes. Bark when
thus prepared is called a _damajagua_. Some of them measure two and a
half yards long and from one to two broad; the larger ones are sold for
three or four dollars each.
The coutchouc, _jebe_, as it is called by the natives, is procured from
the tree by making incisions in the bark; the substance which exudes is
at first perfectly white and of the consistency of cream; it is received
in large calabashes, and allowed to remain a day,or two, in which time
it becomes thicker; it is then poured on the leaves of the plantain or
vijao, and again allowed to remain a day or two; it is afterwards made
up into rolls about a yard long and three inches in diameter. These
rolls constitute a considerable branch of commerce, and generally sell
at Esmeraldas for two dollars the dozen; but in the mines on the coast
of Chocó they sell for three times that sum. The coutchouc is used as a
substitute for candles: a roll of it is generally cut length-ways into
four parts, but before it is lighted the piece is rolled up in a green
vijao leaf, to prevent it from melting or taking fire down the sides.
Oranges, limes, lemons, pine-apples, mameis, sapotes, nisperos, with all
the fruits mentioned at Guayaquil grow here in abundance, and some of
them to a state of great perfection. The madroño is a fruit peculiar to
this country; it is similar in shape and colour to a small lemon; the
pulp is white and of an agreeable sub-acid taste, enveloping three large
seeds.
Many varieties of palms grow in the woods; the coco palm, the _palmito_
or cabbage palm, the coroso palm, which grows to the height of eighteen
or twenty feet. This tree has a trunk about three feet in circumference,
and is covered with an immense number of long slender prickles: the stem
to which the leaves are attached and the nuts are covered in the same
manner. An agreeable beverage is made from this palm, by boiling the
leaves and the stem to which the bunch of nuts is attached; it is at
first sweet, but by fermentation it acquires a vinous taste. The nuts
are eaten while green and tender, and have a taste resembling that of
the green French olives; when ripe they have the appearance of ivory,
and are used at Quito by the sculptors for small busts, statues, or
images. The chonta palm is remarkably useful, the wood is extremely hard
and elastic, and of it the natives make bows, sorvetanas, puas, and
lances.
The animals which are found in the woods are the jaguar, three varieties
of the cavia, four of monkeys, like those at Guayaquil, deer, tortoises,
iguanas, snakes as at Guayaquil, with the addition of the _dormilona_,
for whose bite the natives possess no antidote. Here is also the boa
constrictor, called by the natives _sobre cama_; however this tribe is
not numerous, and accidents seldom occur; the inhabitants generally take
care to have poultry and hogs about their houses, because these animals
are great enemies to the snakes. There are several varieties of ants and
bees; of the latter are two, one called the _moquingana_, which form
their nests by attaching them to the branches of the large trees; the
honey is very palatable, and the natives employ themselves in purifying
the wax, for which they find a good market at Quito; the other is the
_amonanas_, which make their nests under ground. To find these nests,
the natives, whenever they observe a number of the bees, besprinkle some
of the plants with molasses, and follow them when laden with it on their
return home; this generally leads to a discovery. Great quantities of
wax are procured from the nests; it is of a deep orange colour, but with
a little labour it is rendered very white.
The province of Esmeraldas derives its name from a mine of emeralds
which is found at no great distance from the town; it may be approached
by ascending the river Bichile, which enters the Esmeraldas river on the
south side. I never visited it, owing to the superstitious dread of the
natives, who assured me, that it was enchanted and guarded by an
enormous dragon, which poured forth thunder and lightning on those who
dared to ascend the river. The existence of an emerald mine was proved
to me by the alcalde, who gave me three raw emeralds, which had been
found by his sons on the sand at the mouth of the river Bichile. Gold
mines exist in this province, there being scarcely a river in which gold
is not found among the sand on its shores: however none of them are
worked at present (1809).
The importance of this part of South America has induced me to be more
particular in its description than might appear necessary for a tract of
country almost uninhabited. Its capability of becoming of extensive
utility to the mercantile world, of forming the principal entrance to
the kingdom of Quito, and of vieing ere long with Guayaquil; its soil
and climate; the ease with which indians, from the well populated
provinces of Quito, might be procured for the formation of colonies; the
extensive markets both along the coast and in the interior for its
various productions, besides many branches well calculated for
exportation, must forcibly attract the attention of all those who are
inclined to speculate on the rising interests of the western parts of
the new world.