Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6Various
Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
distributing reservoir on one of the hills N. of the city. The city is
provided with tramway and telephone services, the streets are lighted
with gas and electricity, and telegraph communication with the outside
world is maintained by means of the West Coast cable, which lands at the
small port of Santa Elena, on the Pacific coast, about 65 m. W. of
Guayaquil. Railway connexion with Quito (290 m.) was established in June
1908. There is also steamboat connexion with the producing districts of
the province on the Guayas river and its tributaries, on which boats run
regularly as far up as Bodegas (80 m.) in the dry season, and for a
distance of 40 m. on the Daule. For smaller boats there are about 200 m.
of navigation on this system of rivers. The exports of the province are
almost wholly transported on these rivers, and are shipped either at
Guayaquil, or at Puna, its deep-water port, 6-1/2 m. outside the Guayas
bar, on the E. end of Puna Island. The Guayas river is navigable up to
Guayaquil for steamers drawing 22 ft. of water; larger vessels anchor at
Puna, 40 m. from Guayaquil, where cargoes and passengers are transferred
to lighters and tenders. There is a quay on the river front, but the
depth alongside does not exceed 18 ft. The principal exports are cacao,
rubber, coffee, tobacco, hides, cotton, Panama hats, cinchona bark and
ivory nuts, the value of all exports for the year 1905 being 14,148,877
_sucres_, in a total of 18,565,668 _sucres_ for the whole republic. In
1908 the exports were: cacao, about 64,000,000 lb., valued at
$6,400,000; hides, valued at $135,000; rubber, valued at $235,000;
coffee, valued at $273,000; and vegetable ivory, valued at $102,000.
There are some small industries in the city, including a shipyard,
saw-mills, foundry, sugar refineries, cotton and woollen mills, brewery,
and manufactures of soap, cigars, chocolate, ice, soda-water and
liqueurs.
Santiago de Guayaquil was founded on St James's day, the 25th of July
1535, by Sebastian de Benalcazar, but was twice abandoned before its
permanent settlement in 1537 by Francesco de Orellana. It was captured
and sacked several times in the 17th and 18th centuries by pirates and
freebooters--by Jacob Clark in 1624, by French pirates in 1686, by
English freebooters under Edward David in 1687, by William Dampier in
1707 and by Clapperton in 1709. Defensive works were erected in 1730,
and in 1763, when the town was made a governor's residence, a castle and
other fortifications were constructed. Owing to the flimsy construction
of its buildings Guayaquil has been repeatedly burned, the greater fires
occurring in 1707, 1764, 1865, 1896 and 1899. The city was made the see
of a bishopric in 1837.
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