fragrant with a rich perfume wafted
from a neighboring grove of oranges and lemons; the mango spreads its
dense, splendid foliage, and bears a golden fruit, which, though praised
by many, tastes to us like a mixture of tow and turpentine; the exotic
bread-tree waves its fig-like leaves and pendent fruit; while high over
all the beautiful cocoa-palm lifts its crown of glory.[10] Animal life
does not compare with this luxuriant growth. The steamer-bound traveler
may see a few monkeys, a group of _gallinazos_, and many brilliant,
though songless birds; but the chief representative is the lazy, ugly
alligator. Large numbers of these monsters may be seen on the mud-bank
basking in the hot sun, or asleep with their mouths wide open.

[Footnote 10: The mango of Asia is superior in size and flavor to that
of America. It is eaten largely in Brazil by negroes and cattle. The
cocoa-palm is also of Asiatic origin, and is most abundant in Ceylon. It
has a swollen stem when young, but becomes straight and tall when
mature. The flowers burst into a long plume of soft, cream-colored
blossoms. It is worthy of remembrance that the most beautiful forms of
vegetation in the tropics are at the same time most useful to man.]

Eight hours after leaving the Malecon we arrived at Bodegas, a little
village of two thousand souls, rejoicing in the synonym of Babahoyo.
This has been a place of deposit for the interior from the earliest
times. In the rainy season the whole site is flooded, and only the upper
stories are habitable. Cock-fighting seems to be the chief amusement. We
breakfasted with the governor, a portly gentleman who kept a little
dry-goods store. His excellency, without waiting for a formal
introduction, and with a cordiality and courtesy almost confined to the
Latin nations, received us into his own house, and honored us with a
seat at his private table, spread with the choicest viands of his
kingdom, serving them himself with a grace to which we can not do
justice. Much as we find to condemn in tropical society, we can not
forget the kindness of these simple-hearted people. Though we may
portray, in the coming pages, many faults and failings according to a
New York standard, we wish it to be understood that there is another
side to the picture; that there are virtues on the Andes to which the
North is well-nigh a stranger. "How many times (says an American
resident of ten years) I have arrived at a miserable hut in the heart
of