e 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. The governors are appointed, or more properly purchase
their offices, at the court of Old Spain, and are for life or good
behaviour. If any one die or misbehave, the viceroy may name another
during his time, which ought only to be for five years; but he sometimes
gets those of his own placing confirmed by an order from Spain, by which
means he derives a considerable portion of his unknown profits. The late
viceroy of Peru continued in office fourteen years, several intended
successors having died on the way. Scarcely does the king of Spain live
in greater splendour than the viceroy does at Lima, where the chief
courts of judicature are held, to which appeals are brought from all the
courts and provinces of this extensive kingdom. I was told on good
authority that the last viceroy, who died about four years ago, left at
least eight millions of dollars to his widow and family, besides vast
sums given in charity during his life, and building many churches,
friaries, and nunneries. He left a better character than any viceroy had
done for an age past.

[Footnote 223: This province is now in the kingdom or viceroyalty of New
Granada, and audiencia of Quito.--E.]

The province of Guayaquil abounds in excellent timber of several kinds,
so that it is the chief place in all Peru for building and repairing
ships, of which there are seldom less than seven or eight on the stocks
here at one time. Its chief commodity is cacao, with which it supplies
most parts on the South Sea, and we were told it never exported less