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.
GUAYAS, or El Guayas, a coast province of Ecuador,
bounded N. by Manabí and Pichincha, E. by Los Rios, Cañar
and Azuay, S. by El Oro and the Gulf of Guayaquil, and W.
by the same gulf, the Pacific Ocean and the province of Manabí.
Pop. (1893, estimate) 98,100; area, 11,504 sq. m. It is very
irregular in form and comprises the low alluvial districts surrounding
the Gulf of Guayaquil between the Western Cordilleras
and the coast. It includes (since 1885) the Galápagos Islands,
lying 600 m. off the coast. The province of Guayas is heavily
forested and traversed by numerous rivers, for the most part
tributaries of the Guayas river, which enters the gulf from the
N. This river system has a drainage area of about 14,000 sq. m.
and an aggregate of 200 m. of navigable channels in the rainy
season. Its principal tributaries are the Daule and Babahoyo
or Chimbo (also called Bodegas), and of the latter the Vinces
and Yaguachi. The climate is hot, humid and unhealthy,
bilious and malarial fevers being prevalent. The rainfall is
abundant and the soil is deep and fertile. Agriculture and the
collection of forest products are the chief industries. The staple
products are cacao, coffee, sugar-cane, cotton, tobacco and rice.
The cultivation of cacao is the principal industry, the exports
forming about one-third the world’s supply. Stock-raising is
also carried on to a limited extent. Among forest products are
rubber, cinchona bark, toquilla fibre and ivory nuts. The
manufacture of so-called Panama hats from the fibre of the
toquilla palm (commonly called jipijapa, after a town in Manabí
famous for this industry) is a long-established domestic industry
among the natives of this and other coast provinces, the humidity
of the climate greatly facilitating the work of plaiting the delicate
straws, which would be broken in a dry atmosphere. Guayas
is the chief industrial and commercial province of the republic,
about nineteen-twentieths of the commerce of Ecuador passing
through the port of its capital, Guayaquil. There are no land
transport routes in the province except the Quito & Guayaquil
railway, which traverses its eastern half. The sluggish river
channels which intersect the greater part of its territory afford
excellent facilities for transporting produce, and a large number
of small boats are regularly engaged in that traffic. There are
no large towns in Guayas other than Guayaquil. Durán, on the
Guayas river opposite Guayaquil, is the starting point of the
Quito railway and contains the shops and offices of that line.
The port of Santa Elena on a bay of the same name, about 65 m.
W. of Guayaquil, is a landing-point of the West Coast cable,
and a port of call for some of the regular steamship lines. Its
exports are chiefly Panama hats and salt.
GUAYCURUS, a tribe of South American Indians on the
Paraguay. The name has been used generally of all the mounted
Indians of Gran Chaco. The Guaycurus are a wild, fierce people,
who paint their bodies and go naked. They are fearless horsemen
and are occupied chiefly in cattle rearing.
GUAYMAS, or San José de Guaymas, a seaport of Mexico,
in the state of Sonora, on a small bay opening into the Gulf of
California a few miles W. of the mouth of the Yaqui river, in
lat. 27° 58′ N., long. 110° 58′ W. Pop. (1900) 8648. The harbour
is one of the best on the W. coast of Mexico, and the port is a
principal outlet for the products of the large state of Sonora.
The town stands on a small, arid plain, nearly shut in by mountains,
and has a very hot, dry climate. It is connected with the
railways of the United States by a branch of the Southern
Pacific from Benson, Arizona, and is 230 m. S. by W. of the
frontier town of Nogales, where that line enters Mexico. The
exports include gold, silver, hides and pearls.
GUBBIO (anc. Iguvium, q.v.; med. Eugubium), a town and
episcopal see of Umbria, Italy, in the province of Perugia, from
which it is 23 m. N.N.E. by road; by rail it is 13 m. N.W. of
Fossato di Vico (on the line between Foligno and Ancona)
and 70 m. E.S.E. of Arezzo. Pop. (1901) 5783 (town); 26,718
(commune). Gubbio is situated at the foot and on the steep
slopes of Monte Calvo, from 1568 to 1735 ft. above sea-level,
at the entrance to the gorge which ascends to Scheggia, probably
on the site of the ancient Umbrian town. It presents a markedly
medieval appearance. The most prominent building is the
Palazzo dei Consoli, on the N. side of the Piazza della Signoria;
it is a huge Gothic edifice with a tower, erected in 1332–1346,
according to tradition, by Matteo di Giovanello of Gubbio,
the name of Angelo da Orvieto occurs on the arch of the main
door, but his work may be limited to the sculptures of this
arch. It has two stories above the ground floor, and, being on
the slope of the hill, is, like the whole piazza, raised on arched
substructures. On the S. side of the piazza is the Palazzo
Pretorio, or della Podestà, begun in 1349 and now the municipal
palace. It contains the famous Tabulae Iguvinae, and a collection
of paintings of the Umbrian school, of furniture and of
majolica. On the E. side is the modern Palazzo Ranghiasci-Brancaleone,
which until 1882 contained fine collections, now
dispersed. Above the Piazza della Signoria, at the highest
point of the town, is the Palazzo Ducale, erected by the dukes
of Urbino in 1474–1480; the architect was, in all probability,
Lucio da Laurana, to whom is due the palace at Urbino, which
this palace resembles, especially in its fine colonnaded court.
The Palazzo Beni, lower down, belongs to a somewhat earlier
period of the 15th century. Pope Martin V. lodged here for a
few days in 1420. The Palazzo Accoramboni, on the other
hand, is a Renaissance structure, with a fine entrance arch.
Here Vittoria Accoramboni was born in 1557. Opposite the
Palazzo Ducale is the cathedral, dedicated to SS. Mariano e
Jacopo, a structure of the 12th century, with a façade, adorned
with contemporary sculptures, partly restored in 1514–1550.
The interior contains some good pictures by Umbrian artists,
a fine episcopal throne in carved wood, and a fine Flemish cope
given by Pope Marcellus II. (1555) in the sacristy. The exterior
of the Gothic church of S. Francesco, in the lower part
of the town, built in 1259, preserves its original style, but the interior
has been modernized; and the same fate has overtaken the
Gothic churches of S. Maria Nuova and S. Pietro. S. Agostino,
on the other hand, has its Gothic interior better preserved. The
whole town is full of specimens of medieval architecture, the
pointed arch of the 13th century being especially prevalent.
A remarkable procession takes place in Gubbio on the 15th of
May in each year, in honour of S. Ubaldo, when three colossal
wooden pedestals, each over 30 ft. high, and crowned by statues
of SS. Ubaldo, Antonio and Giorgio, are carried through the
town, and then, in a wild race, up to the church of S. Ubaldo
on the mountain-side (2690 ft.). See H. M. Bower, The Elevation
and Procession of the Ceri at Gubbio (Folk-lore Society, London,
1897).
After its reconstruction with the help of Narses (see Iguvium) the town remained subject to the exarchs of Ravenna, and, after the destruction of the Lombard kingdom in 774, formed part of the donation of Charlemagne to the pope. In the 11th century the beginnings of its independence may be traced. In the struggles of that time it was generally on the Ghibelline side. In 1151 it repelled an attack of several neighbouring cities, and formed from this time a republic governed by consuls. In 1155 it was besieged by the emperor Frederick I., but saved by the intervention of its bishop, S. Ubaldo, and was granted privileges
