Oriente - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

ORIENTE, OR LA REGION ORIENTALE, a large undefined territory of Ecuador, comprising all that part of the republic lying east of the Andes. Pop. (1887 estimate), 80,000. The territory was formed in 1884 from the older territories of Napo, Canelos and Zamora, but its boundaries with the neighbouring republics of Colombia and Peru are disputed. The territory is covered with great forests, inhabited by wild Indians, and its climate is hot and exceptionally humid. There are some mission settlements and trading stations in the Andean foothills and on some of the river courses, one of which is Archidona, on a small tributary of the Napo, which is the nominal capital.