to St Augustin had an organ, but all their plate had been carried away by the priests and students, who fled into the woods.  Some of the houses were of brick, particularly about the parades, and the rest of timber or split bamboos, and some of them were decently furnished.  Some of the inhabitants had calashes, but I know not what use they could be of, all the neighbourhood being so boggy that there was not road for them.

The boggy ground about Guayaquil was full of the largest toads I ever saw, some being as big as an English two-penny loaf.  The town was said to contain 2000 inhabitants of all sorts, including Indians, Negroes, and Mulattoes.  An Englishman who joined us here, told us that, in the preceding December, on occasion of a public rejoicing for the birth of the prince of the Asturias, which lasted for three weeks, they had mustered 1100 foot and 500 horse, all armed, which came from the surrounding country, besides a much greater number unarmed, the greater part of whom must have been Indians.  Guayaquil is well situated for trade and ship-building, being fourteen leagues from Point Arena and seven from Puna, up a large river, into which fall several smaller ones, and on which there are many villages and farms.  The water of this river is fresh for four leagues below the city, and all along its banks grow great quantities of mangroves and sarsaparillas, and on account of this last the water is thought salutary against the lues.  But during floods, when it brings down many poisonous plants from the mountains, among which is the manchinilla apple, it is not reckoned wholesome.  All birds that eat of this apple are 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