Near The Last Mentioned Province, At Cape St Helena In The Province Of Guayaquil, There Are Certain Springs Or Mineral Veins Which Give Out A Species Of Bitumen Resembling Pitch Or Tar, And Which Is Applied To The Same Purposes.

The Indians of that country pretend that in ancient times it was inhabited by giants, who were four times the height of ordinary men[16].

The Spaniards saw two representations of these giants at _Puerto viejo_, one of a man and the other of a woman, and the inhabitants related a traditionary tale of the descent of a young man from heaven, whose countenance and body shone like the sun, who fought against the giants and destroyed them with flames of fire. In the year 1543, Captain Juan de Holmos, lieutenant-governor of Puerto viejo, caused a certain valley to be carefully examined, in which these giants were were said to have been destroyed, and in which ribs and other bones of prodigious size were dug up, which fully confirmed the traditions of the Indians[17]. The natives of this country have no knowledge whatever of writing, nor had they even any use of that method of painting employed by the Mexicans for preserving the memory of ancient events, which were handed down from father to son merely by traditionary stories. In some places indeed they used an extraordinary means for preserving the remembrance of important events, by certain cords or strings of cotton called _Quippos_, on which they represented _numbers_ by knots of different kinds, and at regulated intervals, from _units_ up to _dozens_, and so forth; the cords being of the same colours with those things which they were intended to represent. In every province, there are persons who are entrusted with the care of these _quippos_, who are named _Quippo camayos_, who register public matters by means of these coloured strings and knots artificially disposed; and it is wonderful with what readiness these men understand and explain to others events that have happened several ages ago. There are public buildings throughout the country which are used as magazines of these quippos.

To the south of the equator, and near the coast, is the island of Puna[18], about twelve leagues in circumference, containing abundance of game, and having great quantities of fish on its shores. It has plenty of fresh water, and was formerly very populous, its inhabitants being almost continually engaged in war, especially with the people of Tumbez, which is twelve leagues distant to the south. These people wore shirts, above which they had a kind of woollen garments. They went to sea in a peculiar kind of flats or rafts, made of long planks of a light wood fixed to two other cross planks below them to hold them together. The upper planks are always an uneven number, usually five, but sometimes seven or nine; that in the middle, on which the conductor of the float sits and rows, being longer than the others, which are shorter and shorter toward the sides, and they are covered by a species of awning to keep those who sit upon them from the weather.

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