"That you will not divulge to a soul that it is I who supply you with such wealth, nor will you try to discover whence I obtain it." Suarez, convinced of the religious principles and probity of Cantuna, believed him no more capable of committing an action contrary to the law, than of forming a compact with Satan. He accepted the conditions, and swore to observe them scrupulously, in the presence of an image blessed by the Pope. He thought, too, that since so much mystery was wanted, it would not be wise to call in workmen to make the vault. "Let us make it ourselves," he said to the Indian. Both set to work, and the job was soon finished. After his first solitary visit, Cantuna brought up a mass of molten gold, worth more than 100,000 piastres (20,000l.). Everybody was amazed at seeing a ruined man not only get rid of his embarrassments, but display extraordinary munificence to monks and beggars. The respect with which he inspired all classes, however, checked the comments of the crowd. It was not so after his death. Cantuna, who became the heir of his master's fortune, surpassed even him in his pious donations and alms. Public curiosity insisted on knowing the source of such generosity, and the Indian, compelled to have an explanation with justice, answered as follows: Yes, I confess it; it was I who gave gold to Suarez and many others. The treasure is inexhaustible, but it costs me dear. I have signed a compact with the Fiend in my blood, and I obtain from him the power of giving such lavish bounty." Such a confession, it might be supposed, would have brought the Indian before the Holy Office, but the pious use he made of his gold was taken into consideration. The Franciscans, whom he peculiarly favoured, protected him, for they feared the loss of a splendid income. Still they exhorted him to break his impious compact; but he was too wise to do so, as he felt sure that when his money stopped, the monks would have no hesitation about sending him to the stake. Cantuna braved, calmly and stoically, both aversion and pity. He laughed at those who declined his gifts, and told them they were wrong; to those who accepted them-and all the priests were of the numberhe remarked that the demon groaned at seeing the fruits of his toil pass into pious hands. Thus lived Cantuna, distributing publicly and secretly a goodly number of thousands. At his death, which created an immense sensation, the religious orders proceeded with reliquaries and conjurations to defend his corpse against the infernal powers. When the house had been sprinkled with holy water all over, it was thoroughly searched; the vault was discovered, and in it lay piles of molten gold and Indian jewels, prepared for the crucible. The latter explained the fable by which the Spaniards had been duped. Cantuna indubitably procured them from some unknown hiding-place. It was remembered that he was the son of Heralia, the puissant Indian chief who buried the rich treasures of the Incas. It was from this source, then, that Cantuna drew his immense treasures, and carefully melted them down, inventing a fable not to set the Spaniards on the right track. Great was the sorrow of the Franciscans at not having suspected this fact sooner. They would have overwhelmed the dying man with pro mises and threats, in order to become the legatees of the secret which the Indian bore with him to the tomb. His mode of acting, up to the last moment, led to the belief that the treasure of the Incas was far from being exhausted, but they sought for it in vain, and it has not yet been found. Still, the Franciscans thought themselves bound to rehabilitate Cantuna's memory, and secure his salvation, with a part of his money. They published the narrative and founded a church, specially intended for Indians, and devoted to the Virgin of Sorrows, for she was the Madoña whom Cantuna had ever most fervently worshipped. A sketch of Quito would be incomplete without some notice of the lepers, or los lazaros, as they are called. This frightful disease, which in our part of the world is only known in Norway and Andalusia, still exists in Asia, South America, and, before all, in Brazil. The hot land of Equador is tolerably free from the scourge, but its ravages are great in the spring atmosphere of the cold region, which, through its purity, would seem to repulse every species of epidemic. According to the natives, leprosy is engendered by contact, and hence there is excessive reserve in the social relations. If a man's ears swell and his eyelids droop, he is declared leprous; should he be poor, he is thrown into some solitary den, where want and hunger soon shorten his sufferings; if rich, his family send him to the hospital of Quito, the only infirmary for the horrible malady, which is reputed incurable. Scientifically, however, it is a moot point whether leprosy is contagious. Although Dr. Echeveria, who was of the contrary opinion, caught the disease after lying in the bed of a leprous person, to convince his confrères of their mistake; on the other hand, his wife and children have lived with him ever since, and have not displayed the slightest trace of leprosy. The disease, too, attacks all classes: the Marquis Larria, one of the richest men in Equador, was rendered a frightful object by it. Not wishing to lose the pleasure of society, he had a glass cage made in his salon, which, while concealing him from his guests, enabled him to take part in their conversation. It seems as if the leprosy in South America is something fearful: not only do the features lose all human aspect, but the noses and lips are destroyed. In some cases hands and feet drop off, without any sensible pain, but through a slow and regular ulceration. The squares of Quito are adorned with fountains, but the majority of them do not play, although nothing could be easier, as there is such an abundance of water. Unhappily the numerous gulleys running down the streets are not under police supervision, hence washerwomen employ them for lavatory purposes, while all the filth of the houses is poured into them by the careless servants. The bolsiconas, or grisettes, of Quito, may also be seen washing their feet in the acequias of the most frequented streets. The Spanish title is derived from the word bolsa, a purse, which these young ladies have in their petticoats, and this class comprises all women who earn their livelihood, and who wear the same uniform. It is simple, but coquettish: over a substantial petticoat is a long silk or calico skirt, covering the chemise but not entirely concealing it; and over the shawl again a piece of cloth, called a rebozo, which is drawn over the head. The striking contrast of colours forms the originality of the costume; and their numbers give a liveliness to the city, which would appear dead without the bolsiconas. The public amusements of Quito are not extensive, consisting only of religious processions and masquerades of the Indians. The latter are vestiges of social life from the time of the Incas, but have been so often described that we will not dwell on them. As the police system is bad, thefts are frequent, but murders are rare. Only three took place at Quito in 1860, while at Guayaquil they amounted in the same year to thirty. This speaks in favour of the inhabitants of the tierra fria, and probably the atmosphere in which they live softens down insubordinate passions. The delicious climate of Quito-the realisation of perpetual spring-allows bathing to go on in running streams all the year round, and this is fortunate for the inhabitants, who do not possess a single establishment for warm baths. Thus far the physical wants of the population of Equador, and now for their moral aspect. Throughout the whole of Equador, public education being under the auspices of the priests, is only the maintenance of ignorance. The catechism forms the basis, and there ends the instruction of the immense majority of the inhabitants. The Indians, pure-blooded or half-bred, rarely possess the advantage of learning to read or write. A few legends of saints are taught them, and these are their religion. The ancient policy of the Conquistadors prevails with respect to this unfortunate race. A capitation tax of three piastres presses on each individual, and is paid. in substitution of military service, but does not exempt from the corvées of war times. Moreover, contrary to the laws of the Republic, speculators profit by the poverty of parents to secure the domestic services of young boys and girls, and sell the agreement again at a profit. These are the deplorable vestiges of the old odious repartimientos-a disguised slavery, against which the Indians know not how to protest. Quito possesses a public university and library. The latter comprises some fifteen thousand volumes, obtained from the old Jesuit monastery; but the taste for reading does not distinguish the Equadorians. Throughout the country there is not a single bookseller, though mass-books and the romances of Alexandre Dumas and Paul de Kock may be purchased at the linendraper's shops. The few persons who are not satisfied with such literary pabulum order their books direct from Paris or Lima. That Lima, the South American Parthenope, should be a source of light to Equador, proves the intellectual prostration of the country. Pious publications issued by the Jesuits, political diatribes, and reprints of conservative articles, are the sole symptoms of mental activity to be found beyond the Chimborazo. The only paper that appears is the Nacional, which is the official journal of the government, and merely reprints ministerial decrees. Quito, on the other hand, is the only city in the New World which has for a long time possessed a real school of painting. Another art that exists, though it can hardly be said to flourish, is wood carving. The Indians, or half-breeds, specially attend to this, and generally carve Virgins, crucifixes, and other notabilities of the Calendar. Still, their art is not very far-fetched, and they generally ought to write under their animals what they intend them for. The cheapness at which these articles are sold explains their mediocrity; but, if properly encouraged, the sculptors of Equador would make their figure in the world, for the IndoAmerican race has a minute patience like that of the Chinese, and in certain branches of art patience is almost genius. VOL. LI. 20 The greatest scourge of Equador is the mode of recruiting the army, which is done in the most brutal and arbitrary manner. The artisans are dragged from their work, and the labourers from their fields, and neither youth nor strength determines the selection. The recruiting officer will spare the bachelor for a few crowns, and pitilessly seize the father of a family too poor to ransom himself. At each enrolment, the mountains and forests are filled with men escaping from the uniform: they are tracked, hunted down, and led back, chained like wild beasts. The pay of the soldiers is small, so small that it is hardly sufficient to support them. This pay, owing to the bad state of the finances and the want of faith among the employés, is delayed, clipped, and sometimes embezzled. Threatened with death by starvation, as are their families abandoned to the mercy of Providence, these soldiers are compelled to exchange their military outfit for a morsel of bread. Sell all they can, and then steal— such are the extremities to which harsh necessity drives them. Dragged by violence or surprise from home, the recruit impatiently awaits the moment to return. In vain has a terrible punishment been established to keep the troops under the flag, for five hundred blows of the lash— applied in such a way as to produce death frequently-punish desertion. In spite of so terrible a code, more worthy of Austria or Russia than a Republic, the desire of escape predominates over fear, and becomes contagious. The military leaders, in the midst of a civil war, are anxious to finish their campaign, for they run a risk of being left alone to face each other. The first company sent from Quito against Urbina consisted of three hundred men when it started; a week later, it was reduced to two hundred. The deserters, breaking up into bands, beg, plunder, and kill. The passive humour of the inhabitants, on one occasion, allowed twelve of Bolivar's veterans to go from Guaranda to Bogota, plundering towns and villages. On reaching the capital of New Granada they were loaded with plunder, and might, perhaps, have had to account for their conduct had not a general amnesty been announced just at the moment. There is one thing, and perhaps only one, to be said in favour of the Spanish republics, that they declared liberty and slavery irreconcilable. Buenos Ayres, the first province to free itself from the mother-country, was also the first to break the chains of the slaves; and Chili followed this example. The pentarchy of Central America acted in the same way, although in Mexico the emancipation was accomplished suddenly and without any indemnity to their owners. In spite of the example and efforts of Bolivar, slavery was kept up in Old Columbia; but New Granada, Equador, and, lastly, Venezuela, cleaned themselves from the hereditary blot. In Peru, although a constituent congress abolished all involuntary serfdom, the religious brotherhoods and a few planters went on buying and selling negroes and mulattos, until General Castilla put a stop to this scandalous abuse. At the present moment, SpanishAmerica, divided into some fourteen or fifteen republics, is all but purged of the iniquity about which Brazil is beginning to blush, and of which the United States alone are the apologists and propagators. Bolivia, which still possesses a few slaves, will ere long efface this vestige of colonial barbarism. At any rate, the South Americans are exempt from the absurd prejudice against colour, by which the North Americans dishonour themselves in the eyes of humanity and sound reason. In all the Spanish republics, blacks and mulattos are admitted on a footing of equality by Creoles of European blood, who regard them as being far more civilised than the native Indians. Everywhere the Africans have adopted the manners and customs of a superior education; their sympathising nature impels them to become amalgamated with the whites, whose virtues and vices they speedily assume, and the blacks and mulattos are regarded as the best soldiers of Equador and Peru. From all M. Holinski tells us of Equador we do not see much prospect of any speedy amelioration. The inhabitants seem steeped in ignorance and sloth, and the constant pronunciamientos check any attempted progress. There is, however, a chance that the dissolution between North and South may induce the latter republic to try and extend its influence, and in that case, no finer chance could be offered than the occupation of a territory which seems only to require a proper infusion of Anglo-Saxon blood, in order to become one of the most prosperous countries in the world. A DARK MOOD. BY MRS. ACTON TINDAL. I WALK towards evening through the noontide glare, And rainbows hung above all passing showers; And friends benign, in age serenely mild. First known and best known, deep in memory's mine, As jewels through a cloud of years they shine, I ne'er had "troops of friends;" I've loved a few, As back into the silent land they sweep, |