UNKNOWN ECUADOR
By CYRIL Q. HENRIQUES
THE heat of the word Ecuador calls up visions of a burning sun beating down on a pitiless waste of sand, of vast swamps steaming under a fiery sky, of huge snakes waiting to engulf those wretched travellers who have survived the poisonous fangs of the smaller reptiles, of flies and winged horrors and all the terrors which haunt the penny dreadfuls of our youth.
As a matter of fact Ecuador is the mildest country in the world, though, as its name indicates, the Equator runs through it. From the Antarctic the famous Humbolt current strikes the shores of South America just south of Ecuador and follows them up north to Colombia, bringing with it vast volumes of cold air. In consequence, the climate even of the low-lying coastal plain is never very hot and nowhere in Ecuador is a sunhelmet necessary. The real Panama hat, woven from the fibre of a palm leaf only grown in Ecuador, is made on the coast and is a measure of the protection necessary against the sun at its worst. Let me, by the way, warn the visitor not to call it a Panama, as the inhabitants rightly resent the usurpation by another country of the name of their finest product.
But most of inhabited Ecuador is not plain land at all. The high Andes tower fifty miles inland in two great ridges about thirty miles apart ; between them lies the hidden valley of Quito with a climate of perpetual spring. Cut off from the world it has been developed by a race of Indios helped during the last three hundred years by a band of settlers from Spain. The Indios are obviously of Mongolian stock ; jolly, fat and prosperous looking. Perhaps their most attractive quality to the traveller is their kindness to domestic animals. No dog or pig or chicken in the Sierra regards a stranger as a possible enemy, and their friendly interest in visitors is at times embarrassing.
The hill country of all Western South America is known as the Sierra. At one time that part of it which runs through Ecuador from north to south must have been covered with dense forest up to between eleven and twelve thousand feet. In general the soil is wonderfully fertile, being composed of a layer of humus, under which is a thin layer of volcanic ash acting as a field drainage, and then more humus ; it does not need a soil expert to understand that this, combined with rain for some hours on most afternoons throughout the year and bright sun during most mornings, will give ideal results. Every known crop can be grown in Ecuador and many of them are. Tropical products such as cocoa, ivory-nut, banana, &c., on the coast ; coffee, citrus, pineapple, tobacco, quinine, rubber, &c., on the slopes of the Andes ; wheat, barley, potatoes, beans, temperate fruits such as plums, apples, cherries, &c., in the Quito valley, and higher up cattle and sheep ; while everywhere the very domesticated pig intrudes his snout on the casual visitor.
None of the towns in the Sierra have more than a hundred thousand inhabitants. They are designed in the old Spanish style on the principle of the square, of which one side is usually a church and the others two- or three-storied shops built over arched cloisters. One of the most delightful hours I ever spent was on a moonlight night at Banos under the shadow of the snow-topped Tungaruhua ; a man was playing Indio tunes on an instrument like a mandoline, in the square children were singing—and the centuries rolled back beyond the Incas and to Arcady.
But why should one work in such a country where things grow almost ready-made ? Very .few people do, and then not overmuch. The general attitude to life may be summed up in the universal expression "inns o menos,"—more or less. Although, in common with his fellow-Ecuadorians, the Indio does not bother himself too -much over work, he is a sturdy fellow ; on the journey I took through the untrodden forests West of Quito, the porters cut our way and carried their packs over appallingly difficult country in a manner which would have done credit to the famous Gurkha carriers. Their diet on a journey such as this consists almost wholly of macheca or coarse flour, eaten with salt, pinol or a mixture of cocoa, sugar and flour, bananas and very unpleasant-looking dried meat. An Ecuadorian eats everything possible in the form n of soup ; if you gave him a cup of tea he might pour it into a plate and eat it with a spoon.
In this area the vegetation is terrific in its intensity. A path cut today is obliterated in three weeks. The struggle for life is almost that of animate beings ; every tree - is striving for existence with the creepers and orchids sucking its substance and choking out its life; every parasite throws out the most fantastic shapes and colours in the effort to attract what is necessary for its well-being. There is a sinister absence of fauna in these damp teeming forests. Except for a species of small wild pig, a harmless bear and monkeys, there are none of the larger animals ; snakes are few and far between, and there are no . giant reptiles west of the Andes, except alligators in the rivers along the coast. The mosquito does not breed above four thousand feet elevation and there are few flies ; the only insect we suffered from was a microscopic fly which raised extremely irritating blisters on the hands. It is wise for this reason to wear gloves in these forests.
Contrary to the reputation of the South American Latins, no class of Ecuadorian is quarrelsome ; during t lie months I spent in Quito I never heard wrangling or angry shouting in the streets. The standard of manners is high, though it is not suggested that the " gringo " is immune from the usual victimisation of foreigners. Prices are so very low, however, when reduced to European currency that. the newcomer is hardly likely to notice that he is being done. The derivation of the word " gringo ".is interesting ; it is said to date from the time of a peremptory-mannered Englishman who settled in the country when English-speaking people were almost unknown ; his habit of shouting to his English valet of the name of Green, " Green, come ! " and " Green. go ! " left such an impression on the quiet-mannered inhabitants that the noise passed into the language as a word.
It seems that this pleasant land is about to wake up. It is larger than France and contains only about two and a half million inhabitants. Except in the Quito Valley and a small area on the coast it is hardly developed at all. The government and the people feel that they are falling behind other countries. Hence they are asking for mass immigration from Europe and have offered facilities for it. All that is required is that the immigrants shall be of sound health, good character, shall possess the small amount of capital necessary to establish themselves on the soil, and shall be willing to identify themselves as soon as possible with the country by becoming Ecuadorian citizens.
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