feet, by which the
beasts of burden pick their way over the Cordillera. And this is open
only six months in the year. Should a box designed for Quito arrive at
Guayaquil at the beginning of the rainy season, it must tarry half a
year till _Nature_ makes the road passable.

The unstable condition of the country does not encourage great
undertakings; all business is periodically paralyzed by revolution.
Merchants generally buy their goods in Lima, to which city and Guayaquil
the fabrics of England and France are brought by foreigners in foreign
ships. The shops of Quito, as we have remarked, are very small, without
windows, and with only one wooden door. The door is double, and is
fastened by a ponderous padlock. They are open from 7 A.M. till sunset,
excepting between nine and ten and between three and four, when the
stores are closed for breakfast and dinner; the merchants never trusting
their clerks, even when they have any, which is not usually the case.
They have no fixed price, but get what they can. The majority know
nothing of wholesale, and refuse to sell by the quantity, fearing a
cheat. An Indian woman will sell you a real's worth of oranges any
number of times, but she would object to parting with a dollar's
worth--her arithmetic can not comprehend it.

In the _portals_ or arcades of the Aguirre mansion and the nuncio's
palace are the stalls of the haberdashers. Articles are not wrapped in
paper; customers must get them home the best way they can. Ladies of the
higher class seldom go out shopping, but send for samples. It is
considered disgraceful to either sex to be seen carrying any thing
through the streets of Quito. The common people buy only for immediate
wants--a dose of medicine, or a handful of potatoes at a time. Nearly
all liquids, kerosene as well as wine, are sold by the bottle.

There was no bank in Quito in 1867, but an attempt has just been made to
establish one. The paper money of Guayaquil is often at nine per cent.
discount in the capital. The currency is silver adulterated with one
third of copper. The smallest coin, the cale, is worth about two and a
half cents. Above that are medios (five cents), reals (ten cents), two,
four, and eight reals. Eight reals make a soft dollar ($0 80); ten
reals, a hard dollar ($1 00). There is no copper coin--oranges and
loaves of bread are sometimes used to make change; and nearly all the
gold in circulation are New Granada _condors_ and Peruvian _onzas_.