Some 20 steamers, as well as a number of sailing vessels, steam yachts, steam launches and gasoline launches maintain an active coast and river service, most of the numerous rivers of the country being navigable for considerable distances inland and affording excellent means of transportation. The Guayas River, at the mouth of which is the city and port of Guaya quil, is the most important of these waterways, being navigable for river steamers as far as Bodegas, 40 miles from Guayaquil, while smaller vessels can, during the wet season, reach Zapotal, some 200 miles inland. The Daule River is navigable for some 60 miles, the Vinces for 50 miles, while the Esmeraldas, Naranjal, Santa Rosa, Santiago and Mira rivers are all navigable during the rainy season for short distances, varying from 10 to 60 miles or more. The Amazon, which in Ecuador is given the name of Maranon River, is navigable almost in its entirety and thus the eastern slope of the Ecuadorian Andes may be reached by way of Brazil and the Amazon River and its tributaries.
Army and In time of peace, the army consists of 7,810 officers and men, and re serves numbering possibly 100,000. The regular force is composed of 13 battalions of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and 12 batteries of artillery, besides some departmental troops.
These serve one year and then pass to the re serve and second line. The second line army has 135 infantry battalions, seven artillery regi ments and 44 cavalry squadrons. The regular infantry have the Mauser rifle; the artillery have old-fashioned Krupps. Military service is obligatory from 18 to 32 years of age in the army, and from 32 to 45 in the national guard. The compulsory law, however, is not generally enforced. A mining and torpedo section, a sani tary section and a telegraph and telephone corps were created in 1910. The national guard in cludes companies of firemen —organizations which are especially numerous and influential in Guayaquil. The naval vessels are one cruiser of 600 tons, one torpedo gunboat of 56 tons, one torpedo boat destroyer of 1,000 tons and a transport, with three launches, with a total equipment of about 200 men.
The boundaries of the republic being in dis pute, and a large part of Ecuador's claim being unexplored territory, estimates of the total number of inhabitants vary ; but the republic contains about 2,000,000. Of these from one half to three-fourths are Indians, about 600,000 half-breeds and only 205,000 pure whites. There is a small number of negroes.
The provinces of Ecuador, with their capitals and populations, are as follows: