 He wrote several books about the history of Ecuador, among them the book "Historia General de la República del Ecuador", which is considered a masterpiece for its objectivity, painstaking research and erudition.He was not shy about criticizing the Church in Ecuador for abuses during the colonial period.The publication of the fourth volume of his history in 1894 was particularly scandalous since it uncovered the sexual liaisons of seventeenth-century Dominican friars in Quito.