nts. Quichua was the prevailing
language. Its chief trade was in saddles, ponchos, straw hats, and
fruit. Here was the cotton factory, or _quinta_, of Sr. Pareja. Three
miles from Otovalo was the enterprising Indian village of Cotocachi, at
the mountain of the same name. It was noted for its hand-loom products.
A heap of ruins now marks the locality. It is a doomed spot, suffering
more than any other town in 1859.

Four miles northwest of Otovalo was the city of Ibarra, picturesquely
seated on a plain 2000 feet lower than Quito, and surrounded with
orchards and gardens. It numbered nearly 10,000 souls. It was not a
commercial place, but the residence of landed proprietors. The
neighborhood produced cotton, sugar, and fruit. A league distant was
Carranqui, the birthplace of Atahuallpa. And, finally, the great valley
fitly terminates in the plain of Atuntaqui,[95] where the decisive
battle was fought which ushered in the reign of the Incas.

[Illustration: Ibarra.]

[Footnote 95: Atuntaqui received its name from the big drum which was
kept here in the days of Huayna-Capac, to give the war-signal.]

This northern province of Imbabura was the focus of the late terrible
earthquake. At half past one on Sunday morning, August 16, 1868, with
scarcely a premonitory sign (save a slight trembling at 3 P.M. the
previous day), there was an upheaving of the ground, and then one
tremendous shock and rocking of the earth, lasting one minute. In that
brief moment the rich and flourishing province became a wilderness, and
"Misericordia!" went up, like tho sound of many waters, from ten
villages and cities. Otovalo, Ibarra, Cotocachi, and Atantaqui are
heaps of ruins. At Otovalo 6000 perished. After the first shock, not a
wall a yard high remained. Houses, in some instances, seemed to have
been cut from their foundation, and thrown ten feet distant. The large
stone fountain in the Plaza was thrown many yards. The cotton factory,
which was built on the edge of a ravine, was by one stroke reduced to
fragments. Such was the force of the concussion, the looms smashed each
other, the carding-machines were thrown on their sides, and the roof,
with part of the machinery, was found in the river below. The proprietor
was killed. Throughout this whole region roads were broken up, and vast
chasms created crossing the country in all directions. One is 2000 yards
long, 500 yards broad, and 80 yards deep. Large fissures were opened on
the sides of