ECUADOR

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 23, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 29.

BOLIVAR freed Ecuador from the Spanish yoke, as he did Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Peru; and it was one of the five states which formed the United States of Colombia under his presidency; but the priests had such a hold upon the people that liberty could not live in an atmosphere they polluted, and the country lapsed into a state of anarchy, which has continued ever since. The struggle has been between the progressive element and the priests, and the latter have usually triumphed. It is the only country in America in which the Romish Church survives as the Spanish left it. In other countries popish influence has been destroyed, and the rule which prevails everywhere—that the less the people are under the control of that church the greater their prosperity, enlightenment, and progress—is illustrated in Ecuador with striking force.

One-fourth of all the property in Ecuador belongs to the bishop. There is a Catholic Church for every 150 inhabitants; of the population of the country ten per cent. are priests, monks, or nuns, and 272 of the 365 days in the year are feast-days or fast-days.

The priests control the government in all its branches, dictate its laws, and govern their enforcement, and rule the country as absolutely as if the pope were its king. As a result, seventy-five per cent. of the children born are illegitimate. There is not a penitentiary, house of correction, reformatory, or benevolent institution outside of Quito and Guayaquil; there is not a railroad or stage-coach in the entire country, and until recently there was not a telegraph wire. Laborers get from $2.00 to $10 a month, and men are paid $2.25 for carrying 100 pounds of merchandise on their backs 285 miles. There is not a wagon in the republic, outside of Guayaquil, and not a road over which a wagon could pass. The people know nothing but what the priests tell them. They have no amusements but cock-fights and bull-fights; no literature, no mail routes, except from Guayaquil to the capital (Quito), and nothing is common among the masses that was not in use by them 200 years ago. If one-tenth of the money that has been expended in building monasteries had been devoted to the construction of cart roads, Ecuador, which is naturally rich, would be one of the most wealthy nations, in proportion to its area, on the globe.

There was once a steam railroad in Ecuador. During the time when Henry Meiggs was making such an excitement by the improvements he was making in the transportation facilities of Peru, the contagion spread to Ecuador, and some ambitious English capitalists attempted to lay a road from Guayaquil to the interior. A track seventeen miles long was built, which represents the railway system of Ecuador in all the geographies, gazetteers, and books of statistics; but no wheels ever passed over this track, and the tropical vegetation has grown so luxuriantly about the place where it lies, that it would now be difficult to find it.

In 1885 a telegraph line was built connecting Guayaquil with Quito, the highest city in the world; but there is only one wire, and that is practically useless, as not more than seven days out of a month can a message be sent over it. The people chop down the poles for fire-wood and cut out pieces of the wire to repair broken harness whenever they feel so disposed. Then it often takes a week for the linemen to find the break, and another week to repair it. In the government telegraph office I saw an operator with a ball and chain attached to his leg—a convict who had been sent back to his post because no one else could be found to work the instrument. A young lady took the message and the money. There is a cable belonging to a New York company connecting Guayaquil with the outside world; but the rates are extremely high, the tariff to the United States being $3.00 a word, and to other places in proportion.

Ecuador, with about 1,000,000 inhabitants, has only 47 post-offices. There is not a newspaper printed outside of the city of Guayaquil, and the only information the people have of what is going on in the world is gained from strangers who now and then visit the country, and from a class of peddlers who make periodical trips. The streets of Quito are used as water-closets, in daylight as well as in dark, and are never cleaned from one year's end to another. Altho Ecuador is set down in the geographies as a republic, it is simply a popish colony, and the power of the Vatican is nowhere felt so completely as here. Not long ago a law was in force prohibiting the importation of any books, periodicals, or newspapers, without the sanction of the Jesuits. All the schools are controlled by the church, and the children know more about the lives of the saints than about the geography of their own country. There is not even a good map of Ecuador.—Capitals of South America.