d, many are shockingly filthy, and all of them yield grass to
the delight of stray donkeys and goats. A number of mule-carts, half a
dozen carriages, one omnibus, and a hand-car on the Malecon, sum up the
wheeled vehicles of Guayaquil. The population is twenty-two thousand,
the same for thirty years past. Of these, about twenty are from the
United States, and perhaps twenty-five can command $100,000. No
foreigner has had reason to complain that Guayaquilians lacked the
virtues of politeness and hospitality. The ladies dress in excellent
taste, and are proverbial for their beauty. Spanish, Indian, and Negro
blood mingle in the lower classes. The city supports two small papers,
_Los Andes_ and _La Patria_, but they are usually issued about ten days
behind date. The hourly cry of the night-watchman is quite as musical as
that of the muezzin in Constantinople. At eleven o'clock, for example,
they sing "_Ave Maria purissima! los once han dedo, noche clara y
serena. Viva la Patria!_"

[Illustration: Cathedral of Guayaquil.]

The full name of the city is Santiago de Guayaquil.[5] It is so called,
first, because the conquest of the province was finished on the 25th of
July (the day of St. James), 1533; and, secondly, after Guayas, a
feudatory cacique of Atahuallpa. It was created a city by Charles V.,
October 6, 1535. It has suffered much in its subsequent history by fires
and earthquakes, pirates and pestilence. It is situated on the right
bank of the River Guayas, sixty miles from the ocean, and but a few feet
above its level. Though the most western city in South America, it is
only two degrees west of the longitude of Washington, and it is the same
distance below the equator--Orion sailing directly overhead, and the
Southern Cross taking the place of the Great Dipper. The mean annual
temperature, according to our observations, is 83 deg.. There are two
seasons, the wet, or _invierno_, and the dry, or _verano_. The _verano_
is called the summer, although astronomically it is winter; it begins in
June and terminates in November.[6] The heavy rains come on about
Christmas. March is the rainiest month in the year, and July the
coldest. It is at the close of the _invierno_ (May) that fevers most
abound. The climate of Guayaquil during the dry season is nearly
perfect. At daybreak there is a cool easterly breeze; at sunrise a brief
lull, and then a gentle variable wind; at 3 P.M. a southwest wind, at
first in gusts, then in a su