Between Piti and Esmeraldas I counted forty-two houses, built on the sides of the river, each having plantations of sugar-cane, yucas, camotes, aji (capsicum), plantains, and bananas. Near many of the houses horned cattle were feeding on the luxuriant gamalote, and at every house pigs and poultry were running about. Each farmer has a hand-mill for grinding sugar-cane; its construction is very simple, being composed of two wooden rollers placed horizontally in grooves cut in two upright pieces. The ends of the rollers project, one on each side, having cross levers for the purpose of turning them; with this simple wooden machine, for not one of all those that I saw had a nail, nor any other iron work about it, the natives express the juice from the cane, for the purpose of making _guarapo_, molasses, and rum; two men are generally employed at the rollers, and a woman attends to place the cane between them, while the boys and girls bring it from the plantation.
It was here that I observed the peculiar mode of cultivating the sugar-cane, which I have already spoken of; that is, of cutting the ripe canes every three months, uncovering the roots of the remainder, incorporating the soil with new earth, or digging it as well as that of the space between the two rows, and then hoeing the earth up to the roots again. By these means the cane here is perennial; while in the province of Guayaquil, where the same mode of cultivation is not observed, the plant yields only two, or at most three crops. Although the cane at Esmeraldas is of the creole kind, I have seen it when ripe more than ten feet high, six inches in diameter, and seven or eight inches between the knots or geniculi.
The means employed by the natives in the manufacture of their rum are remarkably simple: the juice of the cane is allowed to obtain the proper degree of fermentation, and is then distilled. The apparatus used for this purpose is a deep earthen pot, having a hole on one side near the top; through this they pass a large wooden spoon, having a groove in the handle; on the top of the pot there is a pan luted to it with clay, and this being repeatedly filled with cold water, and emptied, serves as a condenser; the spirit drops into the spoon, and running along the groove is received in a bottle. I considered this alembic as an invention of the natives of this part of America, because I never saw it used in any other place; the general custom of the indians is to content themselves with fermented liquors from the manufactories of the white inhabitants, especially where spirits cannot be purchased.