Our manufacturers, merchants, and capitalists have an immense field in this and the surrounding country, and, judging from the robust looks of the natives, the climate would seem perfectly healthful. The city is quite elevated. The river at this point is almost if not quite as wide as it appears at its mouth.

As you ascend the stream, the more numerous are the thick, heavy forests and stately trees. The black, matted, and warped undergrowth gives the impression of a most lonesome wilderness.

The sight of these wild woods, I am told, not infrequently produces a terrible effect upon newcomers. Many fortune hunters have visited these regions, settled down, and established themselves; then, later on, attacked by one of those fits of despondency which it seems impossible to overcome, they pull up stakes, abandon all interests and ambitions to become rich, and leave the country.

NEW ENTERPRISES.

R. Santos, of Santos & Co., New York, has applied to the proper officials of the State of Para for a guaranty of 7 per cent interest on a capital of £200,000 ($973,300) to establish a new line of steamers to carry frozen meat from New York to Para. The case will come up for consideration during the coming week.

The governor of the State of Para asks me to inform my Government of the fact that the State congress of Para passed a bill a few days since appropriating $50,000, to which amount the authorities at Rio de Janeiro have signified their intention to add $200,000, as a subsidy to a reliable company which will establish a new line of steamships to ply between New York, Para, and Rio de Janeiro. The governor manifests deep interest in this new undertaking and expresses the hope that Americans will not overlook this opportunity.

The splendid electric railway established at Manaos, of which Dr. Hebblethwaite is manager and Mr. Charles R. Flint principal stockholder, is now being operated. It is 15 miles in length, thoroughly equipped with all modern improvements, and is certain to prove a paying enterprise.

PARA, May 25, 1899.

K. K. KENNEDAY,

Consul.

MACHINE TRADE IN ECUADOR.*

There is not a large machine trade in this country.

Mr. Mann,

a Scotchman, has machine works in Guayaquil; there are also a few factories, sugar refineries, and other establishments using steam. appliances in this city and province, and, I am informed, the Ecuador Development Company (33 Wall street, New York) is contracting for locomotives, etc., for the Guayaquil and Quito Railway.

Supplies are ordered direct, as well as through jobbers, and mostly from the United States.

There are some exceptionally good houses here in the importing business. W. R. Grace & Co., Flint, Eddy & Co., and other firms have agencies in this city.

No stock of machinery or machinery supplies worth mentioning is carried; orders are made from catalogues according to purchaser's · ideas and preferences of importer, who generally selects for these orders the firm with which he is accustomed to deal. I think the local importer is the influential factor in the trade, and connection with him offers the best chance for obtaining business. At the same time, it would be well to be in touch with New York exporters.

Six months' credit is sometimes granted, but cash seems to be the rule for this class of goods. Importers generally require cash or first-class security from their customers.

A Buffalo firm keeps a representative constantly traveling in South America. He is, of course, a mechanic as well as a business man, competent to advise about purchases as well as repairs, and supervise same when necessary. In this manner, a large business is

secured for this firm.

The salesman should not compete with local importers and seek orders direct, but should turn over all business to the firm with which he establishes connections. He should be of good address, able to speak Spanish fluently, and able to give advice on all pointscredits, packing, advertising matter, etc.

In case the business of one firm does not justify the employment of a first-class commercial traveler, it should combine with one or more houses dealing in specialties, and secure a good salesman to represent all. This plan is successfully pursued by English and German houses. The best method, in case it does not suit to send a salesman, is to appoint reliable local agents, who might be authorized to advertise in the papers of the country if they deemed it advisable.

*This report was made in answer to inquiries by a Massachusetts firm, to which Advance Sheets have been sent.

Mr. Edward Pavia, the general agent of Messrs. Flint, Eddy & Co., is a reliable and progressive man. Correspondence with him might result in mutual benefit. Local agents, however, are as a rule but a poor reliance, unless stimulated to effort by traveling salesmen.

The imports of steam machinery and appliances from the United States in the year 1898 amounted to about $40,000 gold, according to the declared values in the custom-house. About $20,000 more came from Europe. This is a small amount; but Ecuador is only one of the Spanish-American countries, and a systematic effort to obtain business may be worth while. If the proposed railway to Quito* is constructed within the next few years, as expected, there will be a large increase of machinery and other imports into this country.

The two things necessary to increase our trade with this coast are competent traveling salesmen and reasonable freight rates. The Panama Railroad Line charges 471⁄2 cents per cubic foot; Grace & Co. and Flint, Eddy & Co. charge 25 to 30 cents via Straits; European lines via Straits, 15 to 20 cents.

An isthmian canal is a vital necessity; only when it is constructed will we have the business we should on this coast.

GUAYAQUIL, June 14, 1899.

PERRY M. DE LEON,

Consul-General.

RESOURCES OF ECUADOR.

Consul-General De Leon writes as follows, under date of Guayaquil, May 2, 1899, to a Kansas correspondent:†

The inter-Andine plateau is but a portion of the country opened up by the projected railway to Quito; the section which is especially adapted to tropical products (cane, coffee, and cotton) is on the western slope of the mountains within 100 miles of this city. The plateau is at a greater distance. The temperature of the interAndine region varies according to the locality. In 1896, if I remember correctly, all but twenty-eight days of the year were at least. partially cloudy; rain fell about one hundred and seventy days, and the temperature averaged 45°. The dry season is marked in the months of July and August.

Seismic phenomena are not infrequent, and structures are erected with a view to this emergency; yet the destructiveness of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes has always been restricted to abandoned. districts. It can not be said, however, that there is absolutely no danger.

*See CONSULAR REPORTS No. 222 (March, 1899), p. 364.

+ To whom Advance Sheets have been forwarded.

I can not make a positive statement as to the values at which properties are now being transferred. Near Quito, land is said to be held at $100 an acre. On the other hand, there are vast tracts which will enjoy full advantages of railway, and can be purchased at a very reasonable figure. It would be well to make personal investigation before purchasing.

The field for American enterprise, capital, and modern machinery. in Ecuador, once transportion facilities are provided, could not possibly be better. The foothills of the Andes are especially adapted to sheep raising on a large scale. In the warmer districts of the inter-Andine Valley cotton grows wild, and coffee is of the finest grade. Sugar cane will thrive on the lands now covered by forest at the base of the Andes. The supply of water power is abundant in every part of the inter-Andine plateau. Timber is scarce, and but little is used in construction. Of course, the railway will place the interior in easy communication with the vast forests of the Pacific slope. The fuel supply has also been deficient, although rich veins of coal and petroleum wells are reported in that undeveloped section.

The Spanish language is spoken by the people generally; the Indians have an aboriginal tongue. A few of the better class of

the natives speak English and French.

HOW TO EXTEND OUR TRADE IN SOUTH AMERICA.

Consul Hill sends from Santos, under date of April 18, 1899, tables showing the trade of the United States with the various South American countries during the last ten years.* There has been during the decade, comments Mr. Hill, a steady decline in our imports from South America in values and quantities; for, with the single exception of coffee, the staples constituting our imports from that section (india rubber, wool, sugar, hides, etc.) are higher in price to-day than they were ten years ago. Coffee, which has greatly increased in quantity, has fallen tremendously in value. Rio Standard No. 7 sold July 1, 1893, at 161⁄2 cents; December 1, 1894, at 15% cents; January 5, 1895, at 16 cents; January 4, 1896, at 143% cents; January 2, 1897, at 104 cents; December 4, 1897, at 63% cents; the last-named figure being about the prevailing price at New York at the present time.

The most notable expansion in our export trade during the last ten years, adds the consul, has been with Europe; but there has

*See Review of the World's Commerce, 1898, pp. 24-28.

been a greater increase with every part of the world than with South America. He continues:

The United States should employ the agencies adopted by European nations in attaining their supremacy in these markets, viz, steamships under our own flag, banks under our own control, and business houses under distinctively American management. Once we are placed upon terms of equality in these particulars, our merchants can be left to their own initiative. No one acquainted with their resourceful, enterprising, and adaptable character need doubt that, with our present capacity to manufacture largely and cheaply, we shall gradually assume our proper place as a competitor in South American trade.

Consul Hill mentions the good effects of the cruise of the Wilmington to the upper reaches of the Amazon. He says:

In addition to the labor of exploration that formed such an important object of the cruise, the display of a modern steel vessel so perfectly adapted to river work as the Wilmington is a fit exhibition of the capability and preparedness of our domestic designers, steel plants, shipyards, and ordnance works to turn out products equal to the best. Nothing that comes within the actual purview of foreign folk, whether native or merely domiciled denizens, is so emblematic of a nation's industrial power or weakness as the government vessels that fly its flag in foreign parts.

During the years succeeding Admiral Walker's visit of congratulation to Brazil in 1890, he continues, when the vessels of our new navy took the place upon this coast of the Tallapoosa, Essex, and Yantic types-which were neither ornamental nor useful and were in constant danger of being run down by nonmilitant coal bargesthe increased respect commanded by the appearance of our vessels has been, I believe, a real and constant, though inappreciable, commercial factor.

EMIGRATION TO SOUTH AMERICA.

The following, dated Montevideo, April 11, 1899, has been received from Consul Swalm:

This consulate has been in receipt of several communications from those who contemplate becoming colonists in the River Plata countries, all asking particulars and opinions as to the enterprise. I have advised them to remain in the United States.

Apropos of this subject, Mr. Warren Lowe, the able editor of the Buenos Ayres Herald, on April 8, published the following article on American and English emigration to Argentina. What he says about the subject applies with equal force and truth to the whole