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Writing Type: Diary
His comments on Guayaquil society.
Keywords: Guayaquil society
Publisher: Edward Moxon, London
Archive: John Rylands Library
Location Details: Captain Basil Hall, Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico, in the years 1820,1821, 1822, part 2, Edward Moxon, Dover Street, London, 1840, pp.21-22.
Text: pp.21-22
Chapter XXXV
THE SOCIETY OF GUAYAQUIL DESCRIBED.
I had a letter of introduction to a gentleman, who received me in the easy style of the country, and at once undertook to put us in the way of procuring fresh provisions and other supplies ; carried me to the governor's to pay the usual visit of ceremony, and afterwards offered to introduce my officers and myself to some families of his acquaintance. We were somewhat surprised on entering the first house, to observe the ladies in immense hammocks made of net work of strong grass, dyed of various colours, and suspended from the roof, which was twenty feet high. Some of them were sitting, others reclining in their hammocks : with their feet, or, at least, one foot left hanging out, and so nearly touching the floor, that when they pleased, they could reach it. with the toe, and by a gentle push, give motion to the hammock. This family consisted of no less than three generations: the grandmother lying at full length in a hammock suspended across one corner of the room ; the mother seated in another, swinging from side to side; and three young ladies, her daughters, lounging in one hammock attached to books along the length of the room. The whole party were swinging away at such a furious rate, that at first we were confounded and made giddy by the variety of motions in different directions. We succeeded, however, in making good our passage to a sofa at the further end of the room, though not without apprehension of being knocked over by the way. The ladies, seeing us embarrassed eased their vibrations until the introductions had taken place, and then touching the floor with their feet, swung off again without any interruption to the conversation.
We had often heard before of the fair complexion of the Guayaquilenas, but had fancied it was merely comparative. To our surprise, therefore, we found these ladies quite as fair and clear in complexion as any Europeans: unlike the Spaniards also, their eyes were blue, and their hair of a light colour. The whole party maintained the character for pre eminence in beauty, for which Guayaquil is celebrated in all parts of South America : even the venerable grandmother preserved her looks in a degree rarely met with between the tropics. This is the more remarkable, as Guayaquil lies within little more than two degrees south of the Equator : and being on a level with the sea, is during the whole year excessively hot. Some people ascribe the fairness of the women, and the wonderful permanence of their good looks, to the moisture of the air; and the city having on one side a great marsh, and on the other a large river; while the country, for nearly a hundred miles, is a continued level swamp, thickly covered with trees. But how this can act to invert the usual order of things I have never heard any one attempt to explain ; certain it is, that all the women we saw were fair, and perfectly resembled, in this respect, the inhabitants of cold climates.
At the next house, the most conspicuous personage we encountered was a tall, gentlemanlike, rather pompous sort of person ; dressed in a spotted linen wrapper, and green slippers, with his hair cropped and frizzled after a very strange fashion. His wife, a tall handsome woman, and his daughter, a grave pretty little freckled girl, as we thought of sixteen years of age, but actually only thirteen, were seated in a hammock ; which, by the united efforts of their feet, was made to swing to a great height. In another very large hammock sat a beautiful little girl of five years of age, waiting impatiently for some one to swing it about. On a sofa, which was more than twenty feet long, sat two or three young ladies, daughters of the lady in the hammock, and several others, visitors ; besides five or six gentlemen, several of whom were dressed, like the master of the house, in slippers and various coloured night gowns of the lightest materials.
On first entering the room, we were astounded by the amazing clatter of tongues speaking in tones so loud and shrill, and accompanied by such animated stampings and violent gesticulations, that we imagined there must be a battle royal amongst the ladies. This, however, We were glad to find was a mistake ; it being the fashion of the country to scream or bawl, rather than to speak, in familiar conversation.
Not long after we were seated, and just as the war of words and attitudes was recommencing after the pause occasioned by the ceremony of presenting us ; another daughter ' a young married lady, came tripping into the room, and with a pretty and mirthful expression of countenance, and much elegance of manner, went round the company, and begged to be allowed to let fall a few drops of lavender water on their handkerchiefs. To each person she addressed something appropriate in a neat graceful way, beginning with the strangers, to whom she gave a kind welcome and hoped their stay would be long and agreeable. She then retired amidst the plaudits of the company, who were delighted with the manner in which she had done the honours of the house ; but she returned immediately, bringing with her a guitar, which she placed in the hands of a young lady, her friend, who had just come in, and then dropped off modestly and quietly to the furthest end of the great sofa.
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