or: i oN “Sy } — ‘\ TEV IVIL PRN A vy | iN | { e: AY. ABHE ANDES@- © HECLMAZONS? | a | i Bk. Jam es Onn: ey nO bs » [AN 5 aad a cme aa ray a, Se : a s ty eid oe Pees Sas aa Og ee ae an SRS tee | ee Re Aor “| ie sae hoe | ate i a es 7 " a a = a nf mae ‘Pe | eons ty? On gs ae) ay a SC ee ate er me aa aa > bye Fi = 4 1. Qed a a Pe ao ae: fo aaa ite wee i) ae i —_ — = 7 call wv = —. a a lee “4 2 tae _s a co as _ . _ wan od = = ae Sons 7 = * : . 7 SS fe oe _ ess a “a MPvegey can eo Se a we e oa ee ocala ay 2a ay va 7 a : : ts - - & ye ae — a » sing = - - et a ed) ei . [x : = ye os - oa 5 0’ tie = _ on Caan - = he — — noe - et Hey efenerie THE ANDES AND THE AMAZON; OR, ACROSS THE CONTINENT OF SOUTH AMERICA. 3y JAMES ORTON, AM, PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN VASSAR OOLLEGE, POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y.; OORRE- SPONDING MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SOIENOES, PHILADFL- PHIA, AND OF THE LYCEUM OF NATURAL UISTORY, NEW YORK ; AUTHOR OF ‘‘OOMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY,” ETC. THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED, CONTAINING NOTES OF A SECOND JOURNEY ACROSS THE CONTINENT FROM PARA TO LIMA AND LAKE TITICACA. WITH TWO MAPS AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN 8QUARE. 1876. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by Harper & BRoTuers, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. TO CHARLES DARWIN, M.A., RRS. F.LS., F.G.S,, WHOSE PROFOUND RESEARCHES HAVE THROWN SO MUCH LIGHT UPON EVERY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE, AND WHOSE CHARMING “ VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE” HAS SO PLEASANTLY ASSOCIATED HIS NAME WITH OUR SOUTHERN CONTINENT, THESE SKETCHES OF THE ANDES AND THE AMAZON ARE, BY PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY Wevicated. “Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the hand of man; whether those of Brazil, where the powers of Life are predominant, or those of Terra del Fuego, where Death and Decay prevail. Both are temples filled with the varied produc- tions of the God of Nature: no one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body.”—Darw1n’s Journal, p. 503. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. Tus volume is one result of a scientific expedition to the equatorial Andes and the river Amazon. The expedi- tion was made under the auspices of the Smithsonian In- stitution, and consisted of the following gentlemen besides the writer: Colonel Staunton, of Ingham University, Le-. roy, N. Y.; F.S. Williams, Esq., of Albany, N. Y.; and Messrs. P. V. Myers and A. Bushnell, of Williams College. We sailed from New York July 1, 1867; and, after cross- ing the Isthmus of Panama and touching at Paita, Pern, our general route was from Guayaquil to Quito, over the Eastern Cordillera; thence over the Western Cordillera, and through the forest on foot to Napo; down the Rio Napo by canoe to Pebas, on the Marafion; and thence by steamer to Para.* Nearly the entire region traversed by the expedition is strangely misrepresented by the most recent geographical * Another division, consisting of Messrs. H. M. Myers, R. H. Forbes, and W. Gilbert, of Williams College, proceeded to Venezuela, and after exploring the’vicinity of Lake Valencia, the two former traversed the Ilanos to Pao, descended the Apuré and ascended the Orinoco to Yavita, crossed the portage of Pimichin (a low, level tract, nine miles wide, separating the waters of the Orinoco from those of the Amazon), and descended the Negro’ to Mandos, making a vogage by canoe of over 2000 miles through a little- known but deeply-interesting region. A narrative of this expedition was published by D. Appleton and Co., under the title of Life and Nature under the Tropics. Xii PREFACE. works. On the Andes of Ecuador we have little besides the travels of Humboldt; on the Napo, nothing; while the Maraiion is less known to North Americans than the Nile. Many of the following pages first appeared in the New York Evening Post. The author has also published “ Physical Observations on the Andes and the Amazon” and “Geological Notes on the Ecuadorian Andes” in the American Journal of Science, an article on the great earth- quake of 1868 in the Rochester Democrat, and a paper On the Valley of the Amazon read before the American Asso- ciation at Salem. These papers have been revised and ex- tended, though the popular form has been retained. It has been the effort of the writer to present a condensed but faithful picture of the physical aspect, the resources, and the inhabitants of this vast country, which is destined to become an important field for commercial enterprise. For detailed descriptions of the collections in natural his- tory, the scientific reader is referred to the various reports of the following gentlemen, to whom the specimens were committed by the Smithsonian Institution: Volcanic Rocks..........0s0000+ Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S., Montreal. Plants ye ctoces ceenenttecteoseceeees Dr. Asa Gray, Cambridge. Land and Fresh-water Shells. M. Crosse, Paris, and Thomas Bland, Esq., New York. Marine Shells..............0e0e- Rey. Dr. E. R. Beadle, Philadelphia. Hossil ie Seespecnenee teseceas W. M. Gabb, Esq., Philadelphia. Hemiptera. .cccsusesscsuresonees Prof. P. R. Uhler, Baltimore. Orthoptera........secsesserseeee S. H. Scudder, Esq., Boston. Hymenoptera and Nocturnal Lepidoptera. .........+0....e0+ Dr. A.S. Packard, Jr., Salem. Diurnal Lepidoptera........... Tryon Reakirt, Esq., Philadelphia. Coleoptera ...........esscseseders George D. Smith, Esq., Boston. Phalangia and Pedipalpi...... Dr. H. C. Wood, Jr., Philadelphia. IBISHOS (ees sem clewates ese oni eesiesebee Dr. Theodore Gill, Washington. Reptiless sciccnsveroseteciescnereee Prof. E. D. Cope, Philadelphia. PREFACE. Xi TSTHS saécooodnenccocepaddonsncaaece John Cassin, Esq. .* Philadelphia. JEAN iS geqagensopacoesd pep pacncessas Dr. H. Allen, Philadelphia. Mammalian Fossils ............ Dr. Joseph Leidy, Philadelphia. Many of the type specimens are deposited in the mu- seums of the Smithsonian Institution, the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science, the Boston Society of Nat- ural History, the Peabody Academy of Science, and Vas- sar College; but the bulk of the collection was purchased by Ingham University, Leroy, New York. The Map of Equatorial America was drawn with great care after original observations and the surveys of Hum- boldt and Wisse on the Andes, and of Azevedo, Castelnau, and Bates on the Amazon.t The names of Indian tribes are in small capitals. Most of the illustrations are after photographs or drawings made on the ground, and can be relied upon. The portrait of Humboldt, which is for the first time presented to the public, was photographed from the original painting in the possession of Sr. Aguirre, Qui- to. Unlike the usual portrait—an old man, in Berlin— this presents him as a young man in Prussian uniform, traveling on the Andes. We desire to express our grateful acknowledgments to the Smithsonian Institution, Hon. William H. Seward, and Hon. James A. Garfield, of Washington; to Cyrus W. Field, Esq., and William Pitt Palmer, Esq., of New York; to C. P. Williams, Esq., of Albany; to Rev. J. C. Fletcher, * This eminent ornithologist died in the midst of his examination. Mr. George N. Lawrence, of New York, has identified the remainder, including all the hummers. : t+ We have retained the common orthography of this word, though Ama- zons, used by Bates, is doubtless more correct, as more akin to the Brazil- ian name Amazonas. X1V PREFACE. now United States Consul at Operto; to Chaplain Jones, of Philadelphia; to Dr. William Jameson, of the Univer- sity of Quito; to J. F. Reeve, Esq., and Captain Lee, of Guayaquil; to the Pacific Mail Steamship, Panama Rail- road, and South Pacific Steam Navigation companies; to the officers of the Peruvian and Brazilian steamers on the Amazon ; and to the eminent naturalists who have exam- ined the results of the expedition. PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. In 1873 the author made a second expedition across South America, in company with Mr. H. Walter Webb and Mr. E. 1. Frost, of the School of Mines, New York. The general route was up the Amazons from Para to Yurimdguas, thence over the Andes to the Pacific coast and down to Lima. Among the side excursions was a trip to Lake Titicaca, by the way of Arequipa. The main objects of the journey were scientific. The large collections in natural history have added many new species to science, and thrown light upon the distribution of tropical forms. The special stndy of the physical feat- ures of the Marajion region—a vast and interesting coun- try, most rudely laid down in existing maps—has resulted in the careful chart appended to this volume, which, as it is based upon actual surveys, it is believed will prove a valued contribution to geographical science. Much labor was also expended in obtaining facts illustrating the com- mercial resources and possibilities of the Valley of the PREFACE. XV Amazons, a subject which is destined to arrest the atten- tion of enterprising men and nations. This edition has been prepared by adding to the narra- tive of the expedition of 1867 a description of a more southerly route, with such fresh observations as would most likely interest the practical man. To swell the vol- ume with scientific details would defeat the purpose of the work, which is to present a popular yet accurate pict- ure of the fairest and most promising part of our south- ern continent. For elaborate papers the naturalist is re- ferred to the Proceedings of the Philadelphia, Boston, and Salem societies. Some of the following chapters, abbre- viated, have already appeared in the Scientific American, Independent, Evening Post, Engineering and Mining Journal, and Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Special thanks for extraordinary favors are due to Sr. Pimenta Bueno, of Para; to Mr. Meiggs, of Lima; to Wil- liam R. Garrison, Esq., of New York; to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company; to Mr. Wettermann, of Chachapoyas ; and to Doctor Galt, Captain Rochelle, and other members of the Peruvian Hydrographical Commission, under Admi- ral Tucker. The Map of the Marafion and several pages derive their chief value, if not their existence, from the generous contributions most courteously furnished by this Commission. — ~ > Ty aan ‘aaa we he, nig 4 Jeahedt? 960 Dt ins a C.O:N. TE NTS: PART I.—THE ANDES AND THE AMAZONS. CHAPTER I. Guayaquil. — First and Last Impressions. — Climate. —Commerce. —The Malecon.—Glimpse of the Andes.—Scenes on the Guayas.—Bodegas.— Mounted for Quito.—La Mona.—A Tropical Forest...............+. Page 25 CHAPTER II. Our Tambo.—Ascending the Andes.—Camino Real.—Magnificent Views.— Guaranda.—Cinchona.—The Summit.—Chimborazo.—Over the Andes.— Chuquipogyo the Wretched.—Ambato.—A Stupid City.—Cotopaxi.—The Vale of Machachi.—Arrival at Quito. .........ssssscceecsecscscecsesceeeceeces 40 CHAPTER III. Early History of Quito.—Its Splendor under the Incas.—Crushed by Spain. —Dying now.—Situation.—Altitude.—Streets. —Buildings.............. 56 CHAPTER IV. Population of Quito.—Dress.—Manners.—Character.—Commerce.—Agri- culture. — Manufactures. —Arts.— Education. —Amusements.—Quito La- GR Soc acedon stood ocHCOOCDOEUIEBEB SSE GE CooL CE COL ACCSCbt sodec ccosu ood oso connS SS cHEScEocogS 68 CHAPTER V. Ecuador.— Extent.— Government.— Religion.— A Protestant Cemetery in Quito.—Climate.—Regularity of Tropical Nature.—Diseases on the High- Mstticlaypatseriescrsseccevacaasanterecetenseecaretescottectecccsonsaecerecccesceraseestssaaca 85 CHAPTER VI. Astronomic Virtues of Quito.—Flora and Fauna of the Valley of Quito.— Primeval Inhabitants of the Andes. —Quichua Indians................00+08 97 CHAPTER VII. Geological History of South America.—Rise of the Andes.—Creation of the Amazons.—Characteristic Features of the Continent.—Andean Chain.— The Equatorial Volcanoes ...........--.ssssesessscssccsevssceesenssovccnsanscens 114 CHAPTER. VIII. The Volcanoes of Ecuador.—Western Cordillera.—Chimborazo.—Iliniza,— Corazon.—Pichincha.—Descent into its Crater........ssccccecesssescseesee 127 CHAPTER IX. The Volcanoes of Ecuador.—Eastern Cordillera.—Imbabura.—Cayambi.— Antisana, —Cotopaxi.—Llanganati.—Tunguragua.—Altar.—Sangai. 143 B XVili ConTENTs. CHAPTER X. The Valley of Quito.—Riobamba.—A Bed of “‘ Fossil Giants.”—Chillo Ha- cienda.—Otovalo and Ibarra.—The Great Earthquake of 1868... Page 152 CHAPTER XI. “The Province of the Orient,” or the Wild Napo Country.—The Napos, Zaparos, and Jivaros Indians.—Preparations to cross the Continent.. 164 CHAPTER XII. Departure from Quito.—Itulcachi.—A Night in a Bread-tray.—Crossing the Cordillera. —Guamani.—Papallacta.—Domiciled at the Governor’s.—An Indian Aristides. —Our Peon Train.—In the Wilderness...............- 177 CHAPTER XIII. Baeza. —The Forest.—Crossing the Cosanga.—Curi-ureu.—Archidona, —Ap- pearance, Customs, and Belief of the Natives.—Napo and Napo River. 187 CHAPTER XIV. Afloat on the Napo.—Down the Rapids.—Santa Rosa and its Mulish Al- calde.—Pratt on Discipline. —Forest Music.—Coca.—Our Craft and Crew. =—storm.on the Napo:.....iit.ceseccesencmmt tea cns sccaeseccuices.neseneeeeeee 200 CHAPTER XvV. i" Sea-cows and Turtles’ Eggs. —The Forest.—Peccaries.—Indian Tribes on the Napo.— Anacondas and Howling Monkeys.—Insect Pests.—Battle with Ants.—Barometric Anomaly.—First View of the Amazons.—Pebas. 215 CHAPTER XVL Down the Amazons. —Steam on the Great River.—Loreto.—San Antonio. — Tabatinga.—Brazilian Steamers.—Scenery on the Amazons.—Tocantins. —Fonte Boa.—KEga.—Rio Negro.—Mand0oS........cccsseceseecseecseuseees 230 CHAPTER XVII. Down the Amazons.—Serpa.—Villa Nova.—Obidos.—Santarem.—A Col- ony of Southerners.—Monte Alegre.—Porto de Moz.—Leaving the Am- azons.—Breves.—Para River.—The City of Pard.—Legislation and Cur- rency.—Religion and Education.—Nonpareil Climate.................0+5 247 CHAPTER XVIII. The River Amazons.—Its Source and Magnitude.—Tributaries and Tints. —Volume and Current.—Rise and Fall.—Navigation.—Expeditions on the Great Rivers rcsdiseccceddcadddasgavedeazasases eaulener ea nae ee 264 CHAPTER XIX. The Valley of the Amazons.—Its Physical Geography. —Geology.—Climate. WOR PLALION sc <.26<.n0 cede eee ee et Pt fn ee 280 CHAPTER XX. Life within the Great River.— Fishes.— Alligators.— Turtles.— Porpoises dnd i Mamatigetisk 2. wae.cielQue athe Sel oars ANSE oes dete Ce 295 CoNTENTS. xix CHAPTER XXI. Life around the Great River. — Insects. — Reptiles. — Birds. — Mam- MAIS, So cacvoandadeddeeviar tveevstaasocadiaasvadiaatvodaeucdadaodadsoaddcuwersereese Page 300 CHAPTER XXII. Life around the Great River.—Origin of the Red Man.—General Character- istics of the Amazonian Indians.—Their Languages, Costumes, and Hab- itations.—Principal Tribes.—Mixed Breeds.—Brazilians and Brazil.. 315 CHAPTER XXIII. How to Travel in South America.—Routes. —Expenses.—Outfit.—Precau- HONS: —— DAN GEMS accacsecarsacsecssescetsseetsessatersets-ccswesdesetdedsssaetsseaces 325 TI WIVCTH OTIS atic ca letaceehe cece eects ee heer o oe cote hoe eens nae eon sbe eueeatvecaee 334 PART I1—THE ANDES AND THE AMAZONS REVISITED. CHAPTER XXV. The Navigation and Commercial Resources of the Amazons.—Volume of the Great River and its Tributaries. —Natural Wealth.—Sailing Craft and MECAMETS 5 ccancc ness scosacacttecumbcecs socectateeesetetTesesevonsdcudbeseesacesevesen 339 CHAPTER XXVI. Para: its Situation, Climate, Industry, and Commerce.............00s0000s 358 CHAPTER XXVII. Up the Amazons.— A Thousand Miles on the Great River. —Scenery.— Santarem. — Mandos. — Value of Labor and Productions. — Duties and PARE DNES se tesieanocasncnceccecosencre nt aseseevstas se sence ssaccacmeneresss(sscisesnasieas 364 CHAPTER XXVIII. Up the Amazons.—From the Rio Negro to the Andes.—The Great Wilder- ness. —Steam on the Marafion.—The Birmingham of the Amazons.— Price of Labor and Food.—Survey of the Marafion..............ssesse0e 376 CHAPTER XXIX. Routes over the Andes.—A Polar Expedition at the Equator.—A Tramp through the Forest.—Moyobamba and the Manufacture of Straw Hats. — Crassingothe: Cordillerary.c.scceseaseetcnce coscsnrsencesecnceubessssshomeedeeneees 385 CHAPTER XXX. Over the Andes. —Chachapoyas.—The Heart of the Andes.—Cajamarea and its Relics of Atahuallpa.— Arrival at the Pacific.—The City of Lima. 396 CHAPTER XXXT. Over the Andes by Rail.—The Desert of Islay.—The City of Arequipa.— The Summit.—Puno and Lake Titicaca ............cscccsecseseseeeeeeeeeees 412 XX CoNnTENTs. CHAPTER XXXII. The Commerce of Peru.—Her Vast Possibilities. —The Present Source of PIPE VAVVEAIEDY ace ancsns steaeiseceaascldussanqananaencounecenssemeasseeesaeenee Page 430 CHAPTER XXXIII. The Silver-mines of Peru: Cerro de Pasco.—Hualguayoc.—Puno.—Chi- ete —A MCachs cies doses coeacianclesapschcesessesanende de sciascactaacascasdsceceemenee 440 CHAPTER XXXIV. The Railways of Peru.—Henry Meiggs and his Enterprises................ 444 CHAPTER XXXV. The Aborigines on the Andes and the Amazons..............ssseeceseeseeees 454 CHAPTER XXXVI. Game on the Amazons; or, Friends and Foes in the Animal Kingdom.. 474 CHAPTER XXXVII. The Valuable Woods in the Valley of the Amazons............sscsssesseeee 488 CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Fruits of the Amazons, Edible and Medicinal..................csc0see0ee 509 CHAPTER XXXIX. Brazilian Drugs, Dyes, Gums, and Textile Plants.............ssssseesersenes 522 CHAPTER XL. The Palms of the-Amazons, Fan-leaved and Feathery .............ssesses0 534 CHAPTER XLI. The Geological Structure of the Amazons Valley............ssessessesseeeee 551 CHAPTER XLII. On the Condors and Humming-birds of the Equatorial Andes............. 564 CHAPTER XLIII. Cotopaxi: The First Ascent of the Great Volcano.............csscseeesenees 574 CHAPTER XLIV. Medical Notes on the Upper Amazons...........csscceescseeecreeccesscnnessenes 580 CHAPTER XLV. A New Route for Tourists: Up the Amazons and over the Andes........ 615 APPENDIX A.—Barometricat MEASUREMENTS across SoutH AMER- 622 APPENDIX B.—VocaBuLarRieés FROM THE QuicHua, ZApaRo, YAGUA, AND CAMPA'S: LANGUAGES coetetettoces Giileedeliones cvewudvcaccccaensel ceneneeeeee 624 APPENDIX C.—CoMMERCE OF THE AMAZONS ......ccececsccscecseceeses 628 APPENDIX D.—HyYDROGRAPHICAL OBSERVATIONS........sceeceseceeeees 633 TINS RING ech vinatse silensevic nec besjctcileoraastplecstrcnt tas cp avnd veaceseon seco earners sean 637 LELWS Lie BrONS. View of Lima, from? ,, _.. . Frontispiece. the Cathedral Steps. Cathedral of Guayaquil......Page 27 Equipped for the Andes............ 37 Ascending the Andes.............. 42 Quito from the North............... 61 Water-carriers ..........csceseeeeeees 62 Street in Quito..........seseeeee ee 63 Capital at Quito...........s0sseeeeeee 66 Indian Dwellings..................+- 78 Washerwomen............seeseeeereee 83 Ecclesiastics.............-sceseesseees 88 Profiles of Ecuadorian Volcanoes 123 Crater of Pichincha................+ 135 Humboldt in 1802..............0..- 156 NETTIE Se acc SoBe anceecobecepososoe Dora 158 IN 2 pOMPGOMs...:s Street in Quito. Whatever may have been the plan of Quito in the days of Huayna-Capac, it is evident that the Spanish founders were guided more by the spurs of Pichincha than by as- 64 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. tronomy. ‘The streets make an angle of forty-five degrees with the meridian, so that not a single public building faces any one of the four cardinal points of the compass. Two deep ravines come down the mountain, and traverse the city from west to east. They are mostly covered by arches, on which the houses rest; but where they are open, they disclose as fit representatives of the place of torment as the Valley of Hinnom. ‘The outline of the city is as irregular as its surface. It incloses one square mile. Twenty streets, all of them straiter than the apostolic one in Damascus, cross one another very nearly at right angles. None of them are too wide, and the walks are painfully narrow; but, thanks to Garcia Moreno, they are well paved. The inequality of the site, and its elevation above the Machan- gara, render the drainage perfect.* The streets are dimly lighted by tallow candles, every householder being obliged to hang out a lantern at 7 p.m., unless there is moonshine. The candles, however, usually expire about ten o’clock. There are three “squares”—Plaza Mayor, Plaza de San Francisco, and Plaza de Santo Domingo. The first is three hundred feet square, and adorned with trees and flowers; the others are dusty and unpaved, being used as market- places, where Indians and donkeys most do congregate. All the plazas have fountains fed with pure water from Pichincha. Few buildings can boast of architectural beauty, yet Quito looks palatial to the traveler who has just emerged * The following quotation, however, is true to the letter, and will apply equally well to Guayaquil and to Madrid—the mother of them both: ‘* There is another want still more embarrassing in Quito than the want of hotels—it is the want of water-closets and privies, which are not considered as neces- sary fixtures of private residences. Men, women, and children, of all ages and colors, may be seen in the middle of the street, in broad daylight, mak- ing privies of the most public thoroughfares; and while thus engaged, they will stare into the faces of passers-by with a shamelessness that beggars de- scription. ””—Hassaurek. Tur EcuaportAn CAPprrou. 65 from the dense forest on the coast, “ crossing bridgeless riv- ers, floundering over bottomless roads, and ascending and descending immense mountains.” He is astonished to find such elegant edifices and such a proud aristocracy in this lofty lap of the Andes. The Indian habitations which gir- dle the city have no more architectural pretensions than an Arab dwelling. They are low mud hovels, the scene within and without of dirt and disorder. As we approach the Grand Plaza, the centre of the city, the buildings increase in size, style, and finish. The ordi- nary material is adobe, not only because it is cheap, but also because it best resists earthquake shocks. Fear of a terremoto has likewise led to a massiveness in construction which is slightly ludicrous when we see the poverty which it protects; the walls are often two or three feet thick. The ground floor is occupied by servants, whose rooms— small enough to be called niches—surround the paved court-yard, which is entered from the street by a broad doorway. Within this court is sometimes a fountain or flower-plot. Around it are arches or pillars supporting a gallery, which is the passage-way to the apartments of the second story. All the rooms are floored with large square bricks. With few exceptions, the only windows are fold- ing glass doors leading to balconies overhanging the pave- ment. The tiled roofs project far over into the street, and from these project still further uncouth water-spouts, such as used to be seen in Rio Janeiro, but have now been ban- ished to the antiquarian museum. Only three or four pri- vate residences rise above two stories. The shops are small affairs—akin to the cupboards of Damascene mer- chants ; half a dozen modern ladies can keep out any more customers. The door serves as entrance, exit, window, and show-case. The finest structures cluster around the plazas. Here are the public buildings, some of them dating back E 66 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. to the times of Philip II. They are modeled after the old Spanish style; there is scarcely a fragment of Gothic ar- chitecture. They are built of large brick, or a dark vol- canic stone from Pichincha. The Government House, which serves at once as “ White House” and Capitol, is an imposing edifice fronting the Palacio de Gobierno—Capitol. Grand Plaza, and adorned with a fine colonnade. On its right rises the cathedral; on the left stands the unpretend- ing palace of the nuncio. The former would be called beautiful were it kept in repair; it has a splendid marble porch, and a terrace with carved stone balustrade. The view above was taken from this terrace. The finest facade is presented by the old Jesuit church, which has an elabo- rate front of porphyry. The Church of San Francisco, Tue Crurcy or SAn FRANCISCO. 67 built by the treasures of Atahuallpa, discovered by an In- dian named Catuna, is the richest. It is surmounted by two lofty towers, and the interior is a perfect blaze of gild- ing. The monastery attached to it is one of the largest in the world, but the greater part of it is in ruins, and one of the wings is used as a barrack. Those unsightly, unadorn- ed conyents, which cling to every church save the cathe- dral, have neutralized nearly all architectural effect. 68 Tue ANDES AND THE AMAZON. CHAPTER IV. Population of Quito.—Dress.—Manners.—Character.—Commerce.—Agri- culture. — Manufactures. —Arts.—Education.—Amusements.—Quito La- dies. Qurron1ans claim for their capital eighty thousand in- habitants; but when we consider that one fourth of the city is covered with ecclesiastical buildings, and that the dwell- ing-houses are but two stories high, we see that there is not room for more than half that number. From thirty thou- sand to forty thousand is the estimate of the venerable Dr. Jameson, who has resided here for a generation.* Census taking is as difficult as in Constantinople; the people hide themselves to escape taxation. The women far outnumber the men. The white population —a stiff aristocracy of eight thousand souls—is of Spanish descent, but not more than half a dozen can boast of pure blood. The coarse black hair, prominent cheek-bones, and low foreheads, re- veal an Indian alliance. This is the governing class; from its ranks come those uneasy politicians who make laws for other people to obey, and hatch revolutions when a rival party is in power. They are blessed with fair mental ca- pacity, quick perception, and uncommon civility; but they lack education and industry, energy and perseverance. Their wealth, which is not great, consists mainly in hac- endas, yielding grain, cotton, and cattle. The Aguirre fam- ily is one of the noblest and wealthiest in the city; their * Spanish rhetoric is given to exaggeration. ‘‘ All their geese are swans.” A Peruvian assured us that Cuzco contained 200,000 souls. It is, in fact, about as large as Quito; Gibbon says 20,000. QUITONIANS. 69 mansion is on the Grand Plaza, facing the Capitol. The pure Indians of Quito number perhaps 10,000; not all those seen in the city are citizens, as many serranos, or mountaineers, come in to sell produce. They are the serfs that do the drudgery of the republic; they are the tillers of the soil, and beasts of burden. Many sell themselves for money in advance, and then are ever kept in debt. Excepting a few Zambos (the children of Indians and Ne- groes), and a very few foreigners and Negroes, the remain- der, constituting the bulk of the population, are Cholos— the offspring of whites and Indians. They are not strict- ly half-breeds, for the Indian element stands out most prominent. Though a mixed race, they are far superior to their progenitors in enterprise and intelligence. They are the soldiers, artisans, and tradesmen who keep up the only signs of life in Quito. “I know not the reason,” says Darwin, “but men of such origin seldom have a good ex- pression of countenance.” This may be true on the pam- pas, but Quito, where there is every imaginable mixture of Indian and Spaniard, is wonderfully free from ugly feat- ares. It may be owing to the more peaceful and civilized history of this mountain city. As to dress, black is the color of etiquette, but is not so national as in Madrid. The upper class follow la mode de Paris, gentlemen adding the classic cloak of Old Spain. This modern toga fits an Ecuadorian admirably ; it favors habits of inactivity, preventing the arms from doing any thing, and covers a multitude of sins, especially pride and poverty. The poncho, so peculiar to the West Coast and to the Gauchos of Buenos Ayres, is a piece of cloth of divers colors, with a slit in the centre, through which the head is passed. It is the only variable article of the wardrobe. It is an excellent riding habit, and is made of heavy wool- en for mountain travel, and of silk or cotton for warmer al- 70 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. titudes. No gentleman will be seen walking in the streets of Quito under a poncho. Hence citizens are divided into men with ponchos, and gentlemen with cloaks. The paii- uelon is the most essential article of female gear. It an- swers to the mantilla of the mother country, though it is not worn so gracefully as on the banks of the Tagus. An- dean ladies are not troubled with the distressing fluctua- tions in the style of hats; a bonnet in Quito is as much out of place as a turban in New York. When the daugh- ter of our late minister resident appeared in the cathedral with one, the innovation was the subject of severe remark. The Spanish hair is the glory of the sex. It is thick and black (red, being a rarity, is considered a beauty), and is braided in two long tresses. A silk dress, satin shoes, and fancy jewelry complete the visible attire of the belles of Quito. The ordinary costume of the Indians and Cholos con- sists of a coarse cotton shirt and drawers, and silk, cotton, or woolen poncho of native manufacture, the females add- ing a short petticoat, generally of a light blue or “ butter- nut” color, belted around the waist with a figured woolen belt woven by themselves. The head, arms, legs, and feet are often bare, but, by those who can afford it, the head is covered with a straw or white felt broad-brim, and the feet protected by sandals, called alpargates, made of the fibres of the aloe. They are very fond of bracelets and neck- laces. Infants are usually swathed from neck to feet with a broad strip of cloth, so that they look like live mummies. Quitonians put us to shame by their unequaled courte- sy, cordiality, and good-nature, and are not far below the grave and decorous Castilian in dignified politeness.* * “» 110 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. guage of elegance and fashion three hundred years ago, should be the universal tongue throughout the empire.* Quichua is to-day spoken from the equator to 28° S. (ex- cept by the Aymara people), or by nearly a million and a half. We found it used, corrupted, however, by Spanish, at the mouth of the Napo. There are five dialects, of which the purest is spoken in Cuzco, and the most impure in Quito. The Indians of the northern valley are descend- ants of the ancient Quitus, modified by Cara and Peruvian blood. They have changed little since the invasion of Pi- zarro. They remember their glory under the Incas, and when they steal any thing from a white man, they say they are not guilty of theft, as they are only taking what origi- nally belonged to them. Some see in their sacred care of Incarial relics a lingering hope to regain their political life. We noticed that the pure mountaineers, without a trace of Spanish adulteration, wore a black poncho under- neath, and we were informed by one well acquainted with their customs that this was in mourning for the Inca. We attended an Indian masquerade dance at Machachi, which seemed to have an historical meaning. It was performed in full view of that romantic mountain which bears the name of the last captain of Atahuallpa. There is a tradi- tion that after the death of his chief, Rumifiagui burned the capital, and, retiring with his followers to this cordil- lera, threw himself from the precipice. The masquerade at Machachi was evidently intended to keep alive the mem- * «History (says Prescott) furnishes few examples of more absolute author- ity than such a revolution in the language of an empire at the bidding of a master.” The pronunciation of Quichua requires a harsh, explosive utter- ance. Gibbon says the sound of it to him resembled Welsh or Irish; that of Aymara, English. The letters b, d, f, g, and o are wanting in the ancient tongue of Quito; p was afterward changed to b, t tod, v tof, ¢ tog, anda too; thus Chim-pu-razu is now Chimborazo. A few words bear a striking analogy to corresponding Sanscrit words; as Yniz, the Inca for sun, and Indra, the Hindoo god of the heavens. QuicuvA InpIANs. alg | ory of the Incas. Three Indians, fantastically adorned with embroidered garments, plumed head-dresses, and gold and silver tinsel, representing Atahuallpa and his generals, danced to music of the rudest kind, one individual pound- ing on a drum and blowing on a pipe at the same time. Before them went three clowns, or diablos, with masks, fit caricatures of the Spaniards. Like all other Indian feasts, this ended in getting gradually and completely drunk. During the ceremony a troop of horsemen, gayly dressed, and headed by one in regimentals with a cocked hat, gal- loped twice around the Plaza, throwing oranges at the people; after which there was a bull-bait. The features of the Quichuans have a peculiar cast, which resembles, in D’Orbigny’s opinion, no other Amer- ican but the Mexican, and some ethnologists trace a strik- ing similarity to the natives of Van Diemen’s Land. They have an oblong head (longitudinally), somewhat com. pressed at the sides and occiput; short and very slightly arched forehead ; prominent, long, aquiline nose, with large nostrils ; large mouth, but not thick lips; beautiful endur- ing teeth; short chin, but not receding; cheek-bones not prominent ; eyes horizontal, and never large; eyebrows long; thick, straight, coarse, yet soft jet black hair; little or no beard; a long, broad, deep, highly-arched chest; small hands and feet; short stature, seldom reaching five feet, and the women still shorter; a mulatto color (olive-brown says D’Orbigny, bronze says Humboldt), and a sad, serious expression. Their broad chests and square shoulders re- mind one of the gorilla; but we find that, unlike the an- thropoid ape, they have very weak arms; their strength lies in their backs and legs. They have shrewdness and penetration, but lack independence and force. We never heard one sing.* Always submissive to your face, taking * Their favorite musical instrument is the rondador, a number of reeds of 112 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. off his hat as he passes, and muttering, “Blessed be the altar of God,” he is nevertheless very slow to perform. Soured by long ill treatment, he will hardly do any thing unless he is compelled. And he will do nothing well un- less he is treated as a slave. Treat him kindly, and you make him a thief; whip him, and he will rise up to thank you and be your humble servant. A certain curate could never trust his Indian to carry important letters until he had given him twenty-five lashes. Servile and timid, su- perstitious and indolent, the Quichuans have not half the spirit of our North American Indians. It has passed into a proverb that “the Indian lives without shame, eats with- out repugnance, and dies without fear.” Abject as they are, however, they are not wholly without wit. By a se- cret telegraph system, they will communicate between Quito and Riobamba in one hour. When there was a bat- tle in Pasto, the Indians of Riobamba knew of it two hours after, though eighty leagues distant. The civilization of South America three centuries ago was nearly confined to this Andean family, though they had attained only to the bronze period. In the milder character of their ancient religion and gentleness of dis- position they are strongly distinguished from the nations that encircled the vale of Anahuac, the centre of civiliza- tion on the northern continent. But little of this former glory is now apparent. The Incas reached an astronom- ical knowledge which astonished the Spaniards, but the Quichuans of to-day count vaguely by moons and rains. Great is the contrast between the architecture of this cen- tury and that in the days of Huayna-Capac. There are few Incarial relics, however, in the Valley of Quito, for the Incas ruled there only half a century. The chief different lengths tiedin a row. The ‘‘plaintive national songs” which Mark- ham heard at Cuzco are not sung in Ecuador. Inca Guory. 113 monuments are the tolas or mounds (mostly at Cuenca), containing earthen vessels and bronze hatchets and ear- rings; the Jnga-pirrca, or oval fortress, and the Jntihu- aicu, or temple of the sun, near Cafiar; the Znga-chungana, a massive stone resembling a sofa, where the Inca reposed to enjoy the delightful prospect over the Valley of Gulan; and remnants of causeways and roads. ial 114 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. CHAPTER VII. Geological History of South America.—Rise of the Andes.—Creation of the Amazon. —Characteristic Features of the Continent.—Andean Chain.— The Equatorial Volcanoes. Ture cycles ago an island rose from the sea where now expands the vast continent of South America. It was the culminating point of the highlands of Guiana. For ages this granite peak was the sole representative of dry land in our hemisphere south of the Canada hills. In process of time, a cluster of islands rose above the thermal waters. They were the small beginnings of the future mountains of Brazil, holding in their laps the diamonds which now sparkle in the crown of Dom Pedro II. Long protracted eons elapsed without adding a page to the geology of South America. The Creator seems to have been busy elsewhere. Decorating the north with the gorgeous flora of the carboniferous period, till, in the language of Hugh Miller, “to distant planets our earth must have shone with a green and delicate ray,” he rubbed the picture out, and ushered in the hideous reptilian age, when monstrous sauri-- ans, footed, paddled, and winged, were the lords of this lower world. All the great mountain chains were at this time slumbering beneath the ocean. The city of New York was sure of its site; but huge dinotheria wallowed in the mire where now stand the palaces of Paris, London, and Vienna. At length the morning breaks upon the last day of cre- ation, and the fiat goes forth that the proud waves of the Pacific, which have so long washed the tablelands of Guiana and Brazil, shall be stayed. Far away toward the Rise oF THE ANDEs. 115 setting sun the white surf beats in long lines of foam against a low, winding archipelago—the western outline of the coming continent. Fierce is the fight for the mas- tery between sea and land, between the denuding power of the waves and the volcanic forces underneath. But slowly—very slowly, yet surely—rises the long chain of islands by a double process; the submarine crust of the earth is cooling, and the rocks are folded up as it shrivels, while the molten material within, pressed out through the crevices, overflows and helps to build up the sea-defiant wall. A man’s life would be too short to count even the centuries consumed in this operation. The coast of Peru has risen eighty feet since it felt the tread of Pizarro: sup- posing the Andes to have risen at this rate uniformly and without interruption, seventy thousand years must have elapsed before they reached their present altitude. But when we consider that, in fact, it was an intermittent - movement—alternate upheaval and subsidence—we must add an unknown number of millennia. Three times the Andes sank hundreds of feet beneath the ocean level, and again were slowly brought up to their present height. The suns of uncounted ages have risen and set upon these sculptured forms, though geologically recent, casting the same line of shadows century after cen- tury. A long succession of brute races roamed over the mountains and plains of South America, and died out ages ere man was created. In those pre-Adamite times, long before the Incas ruled, the mastodon and megatherium, the horse and the tapir, dwelt in the high valley of Quito; yet all these passed away before the arrival of the aborig- ines: the wild horses now feeding on the pampas of Bue- nos Ayres were imported from Europe three hundred and thirty-three years ago.* * At Paita, the most western point of South America, there is a raised 116 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. And now the Andes* stand complete in their present gigantic proportions, one of the grandest and most sym- metrical mountain chains in the world. Starting from the Land of Fire, it stretches northward and mounts upward until it enters the Isthmus of Panama, where it bows grace- fully to either ocean, but soon resumes, under another name, its former majesty, and loses its magnificence only where the trappers chase the fur-bearing animals over the Arctic plains. Nowhere else does Nature present such a continu- ous and lofty chain of mountains, unbroken for eight thousand miles, save where it is rent asunder by the Ma- gellanic Straits, and proudly tossing up a thousand pinna- cles into the region of eternal snow. Nowhere in the Old World do we see a single well-defined mountain chain, only a broad belt of mountainous country traversing the heart of the continent. The moment the Andes arose, the great continental val- beach three hundred feet high. The basal slate and sandstone rocks, dip- ping\S. of E., are covered by conglomerate, sand, and a gypseous formation, containing shells of living species. Additional to those described by D’Or- bigny we found here Cerithiwm leviuscula, Ostrea gallus, and Ampullina Or- toni, as determined by W. M. Gabb, Esq., of Philadelphia. Darwin found shells in Chile 1300 feet above the sea, covered with marine mud. President Loomis, of Lewisburg University, Pa., informs the writer that in 1853, after nearly a day’s ride from Iquique, he came to a former sea-beach. ‘“‘It fur- nished abundant specimens of Patelle and other shells, still perfect, and identical with others that I had that morning obtained at Iquique with the living animal inhabiting them.” This beach is elevated 2500 feet above the Pacific. The same observer says that near Potosi there is one uninterrupted mass of lava, having a columnar structure, not less than one hundred miles in length, fifty miles wide, and eight hundred feet thick. It overlies a bed of saliferous sandstone which has been worked for salt. Fifty feet within a mine, and in the undisturbed rock which forms its roof, the doctor found fragments of dicotyledonous trees with the bark on, undecomposed, uncharred, and fibrous. * The name Andes is often derived from anta, an old Peruvian word sig- nifying metal. But Humboldt says: ‘‘ There are no means of interpreting it by connecting it with any signification or idea; if such connection exist, it is buried in the obscurity of the past.” According to Col. Tod, the northern Hindoos apply the name Andes to the Himalayan Mountains. ll hai CREATION OF THE AMAZON. 117 ley of the Amazon was sketched out and moulded in its lap. The tidal waves of the Atlantic were dashing against the Cordilleras, and a legion of rivulets were busily plow- ing up the sides into deep ravines; the sediment produced by this incessant wear and tear was carried eastward, and spread out stratum by stratum, till the shallow sea between the Andes and the islands of Guiana and Brazil was filled up with sand and clay. Huge glaciers (thinks Agassiz), afterward descending, moved over the inclined plane, and ground the loose rock to powder.* Eddies and currents, throwing up sand-banks as they do now, gradually defined the limits of the tributary streams, and directed them into one main trunk, which worked for itself a wide, deep bed, capable of containing its accumulated flood. Then and thus was created the Amazon. In South America Nature has framed her works on a gi- gantic scale. Where else combined do we see such a series of towering mountains, such a volume of river-water, and such wide-spreading plains? We have no proper concep- tion of Andine grandeur till we learn that the top of the tallest mountain in North America is nearly a mile be- neath the untrodden dome of Chimborazo; nor any just view of the vast dimensions of the Amazonian Valley till we find that all the United States could be packed in it without touching its boundaries ; nor any adequate idea of the Amazon itself till we ascertain that it drains a million square miles more than the Mississippi. South America is a triangular continent, with its axis, the Andes, not central, as in Europe, but lying on its ex- treme western edge, and in harmony with the well-known law that the highest mountains and the grandest volcanoes face the broadest ocean. The highlands of Brazil and * On this point see Chapter XVII. 118 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. Guiana have neither voleanic nor snow-clad peaks.* Like all the dry land which first appeared, these primitive moun- tains on the Atlantic border trend east and west. The re- sult of this position is a triple river system—the Orinoco, Amazon, and La Plata, draining three immense plains— the llanos of Venezuela, the sylvas of Brazil, and the pam- pas of the Argentine Republic. The continuity and extent of these vast depressions are more remarkable even than the height and length of the mountain chains.t Such are the characteristic features of South America ; they are not repeated in any other continent.t Not one feature could be changed without destroying those peculi- arities of soil and climate which so remarkably distinguish South America. Its position on the equator places it in the path of the vapory trade winds, which continually sweep over it westward till they strike the Andes, which, like a great condenser, roll a thousand streams eastward again to feed the mighty Amazon. So effectual is that barrier, not a drop of moisture passes it, and the trade wind is not felt again on the Pacific till you are one hundred * ‘The interior plateau of Brazil (says Dr. Lund) is composed of horizon- tal strata of the transition period, which are nowhere covered with the sec- ondary or tertiary formations.” The highest point in Brazil is 5755 feet. Darwin speaks of ‘‘ some ancient submarine volcanic rocks (in the province of La Plata) worth mentioning, from their rarity on this eastern side of the continent.’’ With the exception of the coast of Venezuela, the eastern sys- tem is little exposed to earthquakes. + These three plains constitute four fifths of all South America east of the Andes. The west slope of the Ecuadorian Andes is about 275 feet per mile; on the east it is 125 feet. t There is, however, a striking coincidence between the mountain and river systems of the northern and southern continents of this hemisphere. Thus, The Andes represent the Rocky Mountains. ‘¢ Highland of Guiana represent the Canadian Mountains. FF pe Brazil if Appalachian ‘‘ Amazon i Saskatchewan. es La Plata ‘‘ Mississippi. oe ce Orinoco Mackenzie. Tue CHAIN OF THE ANDES. 119 and fifty miles from the coast. Were the Andes on the Atlantic side, South America would be turned into a vast Sahara. As it is, the interest which attaches to this conti- nent, save a few relics of the Incas, is exclusively that of pure nature. Nowhere does Nature affect us more deeply with the feeling of her grandeur; nowhere does she ex- hibit wilder freaks or more startling contrasts; nowhere do we find such a theatre for the free development of veg- etable and animal life. The long and lofty chain of the Andes is certainly oné of the grandest results of the plications and uplifts of the earth’s crust. While the waves of the Pacific, from Pana- ma to Patagonia, submissively kiss the feet of the Andes, and the showers that swell the Amazon fall within sight of the mariner ‘on that peaceful ocean, the Rocky Moun- tains are situated five hundred miles from the sea. The space west of the Andes does not contain 20,000 square leagues, while the country east of it equals 424,600. While the compact Andes have an average width of only sixty miles,* the straggling mountain system beyond the Missis- sippi has the breadth of the Empire State ; but the mean ele- vation of the latter would scarcely reach the bottom of the Quito Valley. The mountains of Asia may surpass the Cor- dilleras in height, but, situated beyond the tropics, and desti- tute of volcanoes, they do not present that inexhaustible va- riety of phenomena which characterizes the latter. The out- bursts of porphyry and trachytic domes, so characteristic of the high crests of the Cordilleras, impart a physiognomy quite distinct from that presented by the mountains of Eu- rope. The Andes offer, in the least space, the greatest pos- sible variety of impressions.t There is near Huanca, Peru, * The width of the chain south of the equator varies with that of the con- tinent. + ‘*No mountains which I have seen in Hungary, Saxony, or the Pyrenees 120 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. a coal-bed lifted up to the enormous height of 14,700 feet, and on the side of Chimborazo there is a salt spring 13,000 feet above the sea. Marine shells have not been found in Europe above the summit of the Pyrenees, or 11,700 feet ; but the Andes can show some a thousand feet higher. A strange sight, to see shells once crawling on the bottom of the ocean now resting at an elevation twice the height of Mount Washington ! Beneath the Southern Cross, out of a sea perpetually swept by fearful gales, rise the rocky hills of Terra del Fuego. It is the starting-point of that granite chain which winds around the earth in a majestic curve, first northwest- erly to the Arctic Sea, thence by the Aleutian and Japan- ese Isles to Asia, crossing the Old World southwesterly from China to South Africa. Skirting the bleak shores of Patagonia in a single nar- row sierra, the Andes enter Chile, rising higher and higher till they culminate in the gigantic porphyritic peak of Acon- cagua. At the boundary-line of Bolivia, the chain, which has so far followed a precise meridional direction, turns to the northwest, and, at the same time, separates into two Cordilleras, inclosing the great table-land of Desaguadero. This wonderful valley, the Thibet of the New World, has four times the area of New York State, and five times the elevation of the Catskill Mountain House. At one end of the valley, perched above the clouds, is silvery Potosi, the highest city in the world; at the other stands the once golden capital of Cuzco. Between them is Lake Titicaca* are as irregular as the Andes, or broken into such alternate substances, mani- festing such prodigious revolutions of nature.”—Helms. ‘‘ More sublime than the Alps by their ensemble, the Andes lack those curious and charming details of which Nature has been so lavish in the old continent.” —Holinski. * This lake is the largest fresh-water accumulation in South America. It has diminished within the historic period. Its surface is 12,795 feet above the Pacific, or higher than the highest peaks of the Pyrenees. a a . Tue CHarn or THE ANDES. 121 (probably an ancient crater), within which is an island celebrated as the cradle of the strange empire of Peru, which, though crushed by Pizarro in its budding civiliza- tion, ranks as the most extraordinary and extensive empire in the annals of American history. The Cordillera, of which Sahama, Sorata, and Illimani are the pinnacles, so completely inclose this high valley that not a drop of water can escape except by evaporation. At the silver mines of Pasco the Andes throw off a third cordillera, and with this triple arrangement and a lower altitude, enter the republic of Ecuador. There they resume the double line, and sur- pass their former magnificence. Twenty volcanoes, pre- sided over by the princely Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, rise out of a sublime congregation of mountains surrounding the famous valley of Quito. In New Granada there is a final and unique display of Andine grandeur: the Cordil leras combine just above the equator into one dizzy ridge, and then spread out like a fan, or, rather, like the grace- ful branches of the palm. One sierra bends to the east, holding in its lap the city of Bogota, and, rolling off a thou- sand streams to swell the Orinoco, terminates in the beau- tiful mountains of Caracas; the central range culminates in the volcanic Tolima,* but is soon lost in the Caribbean Sea; the western chain turns to the left, humbling itself as it threads the narrow isthmus, and expands into the level table-land of Mexico. You may cross Mexico from ocean to ocean in a carriage, but no wheeled vehicle ever crossed South America. We will now speak more particularly of the Andes of the equator. The mountain chain is built up of granite, gneissoid, and schistose rocks, often in vertical position, and * This is the loftiest summit of the Andes in the northern hemisphere, be- ing 18,200 feet. It is also remarkable for being situated farther from the sea (120 miles) than any other active volcano. 122 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. capped with trachyte and porphyry.* Large masses of solid rock are rarely seen; every thing is cracked, calcined, or triturated. While in Bolivia the Eastern Cordillera shows a succession of sharp, ragged peaks, in contrast with the conical summits of the Cordillera of the coast, there is no such distinction in the Andes of the equator.+ The Eastern Cordillera has a greater mean height, and it displays more voleanic activity. ‘Twenty volcanic mountains surround the valley, of which twelve are in the oriental chain. Three of the twenty are now active (Cotopaxi, Sangai, and Pichin- cha), and five others are known to have erupted since the Conquest (Chiles, Imbabura, Guamani, Tunguragua, and Quirotoa). The truncated cone of Cotopaxi, the jagged, Alpine crest of ruined Altar, and the dome of Chimborazo, are the representative forms of the volcanic summits. The extinct volcanoes usually have double domes or peaks, while the active peaks are slender cones. Antisana and Cayam- bi are fashioned after Chimborazo, though the latter is ta- ble-topped rather than convex; Caraguairazo, Quirotoa, Ii- niza, Sincholagua, Rumifiagui, and Corazon, resemble Al- tar; Tunguragua, Sangai, Llanganati, Cotocachi, Chiles, and Imbabura, imitate Cotopaxi; Pichincha, Atacatzo, and Gua- mani are irregular. The Ecuadorian volcanoes have rarely ejected liquid lava, but chiefly water, mud, ashes, and frag- ments of trachyte and porphyry. Cotopaxi alone produces * * * As a general rule, whenever the mass of mountains rises much above the limit of perpetual snow, the primitive rocks disappear, and the summits are trachyte or trappean porphyry.”—Humboldt. In general, ‘‘ the great Cordilleras are formed of innumerable varieties of granites, gneiss, schists, hornblende, chloritic slates, porphyries, etc., and these rocks alternate with each other in meridional bands, which in the ridges frequently present the ap- pearance of a radiated or fan-shaped structure, and under the plains are more or less vertical.” —Evan Hopkins, F.G.S. + Von Tschudi makes the incorrect statement that ‘‘ throughout the whole extent of South America there is not a single instance of the Western Cordil- lera being intersected by a river.” Witness the Wsmeraldas. ee. EcuaporiAN VOLCANOES. 123 SNOW LIMIT Fee bs . 10,000 ft. Chimborazo. 10,000 ft. Cotopaxi. 10,000 ft. Caraguairazo. Te - 10,000 ft. Pichincha. 124 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. pure, foam-like pumice, and glossy, translucent obsidian.* The paucity of quartz, and the absence of basalt, are re- markable. Some of the porphyroids are conglomerate, but the majority are true porphyries, having a homogeneous base. Dr. T.Sterry Hunt calls them porphyroid trachytes. They have a black, rarely reddish, vitreous, or impalpable base, approaching obsidian, with a specific gravity of 2.59 in pure specimens, and holding crystals or crystalline grains of glassy feldspar, and sometimes of pyroxene and hematite. They differ from the Old World porphyries in containing no quartz, and seldom mica.t D’Orbigny considers the porphyries of the Andes to have been ejected at the close of the cretaceous period, and formed the first relief of the Cordillera. The prevalence of trachyte shows that the pro- ducts have cooled under feeble pressure. From the deluges of water lately thrown out have result- ed deep furrows in the sides; and from the prevalence of the east wind, which is always met by the traveler on the crest of either Cordillera, there is a greater accumulation of ashes, and less snow on the west slope. Cotopaxi is a fine example of this. In Pichincha, Altar, and Rumifiagua, however, the western wall is lowest, apparently broken down.{ There is no synchronism in the eruptions of Coto- paxiand Pichincha. These volcanoes must have independ- ent reservoirs, for the former is 8000 feet higher than the latter, and only thirty miles distant. The reputed erup- tions of Pichincha are dated 1534, 1539, 1566, 1575, 1588, and 1660; that of 1534 resting on the assertions of Checa, * It is a singular fact that true trachyte, pumice, and obsidian are wanting in the voleanic Galdpagos Islands, only 700 miles west of Pichincha. + As many of the crystals are partly fused, or have round angles, the por- phyries were probabfy formed by the melting of a crystalline rock, the base becoming fused into a homogeneous material, while the less fusible crystals remain imbedded.—Dr. Hunt. t In the Galdpagos volcanoes the south wall is lowest, while the craters in Mexico and Sandwich Islands are lowest on the northeast. VoLCANOES OF QuITO. 125 Garcilazo, and Herrera, indorsed by Humboldt. Except- ing the traditional eruption in 1534, which probably is con- founded with that of Pichincha, Cotopaxi did not open till 1742; then followed the eruptions of 1748, 1744, 1746, 1766, 1768, 1803, 1851, and 1855. We must mention, how- ever, that, since the recent awakening of Pichincha, Coto- paxi has been unusually silent. There is also a remarkable coincidence (which may not be wholly accidental) in the renewed activity of Pichincha, and the great eruption of Mauna Loa, both occurring in March,1868. It is general- ly believed by the natives that Cotopaxi and Tunguragua are sympathetic. There are fifty-one ileaiasie in the Andean chain. Of these, twenty girdle the Valley of Quito, three active, five dormant, and twelve extinct.* Besides these are numer- ous mountain peaks not properly volcanic. Nowhere on the face of the earth is there such a grand assemblage of mountains. Twenty-two summits are covered with perpet- ual snow, and fifty are over ten thousand feet high.t All * The altitudes of the most important Ecuadorian volcanoes are: WESTERN CHAIN. EasterRN CHAIN. Chimborazo, 21,420 feet (Humboldt). |Cayambi, 19,648 feet (Humboldt), Caraguatrazo,19,183 feet (Humboldt).| 19,358 (Wisse). Itis variously estimated from 15,673|Antisana, 19,148 feet (Humboldt) ; feet to 19,720 feet; 18,000 feet is} 19,279 (Wisse). not far from the truth. Cotopazi, 18,880 feet (Humboldt) , Iliniza, 17,370 feet (Wisse); 16,300} 18,862 (Wisse). (Hall). Altar, 17,400 feet. Cotocachi, 16,440 feet (Humboldt) ;|Sangaz, 17,120 feet (Wisse). 16,409 (Wisse). Tunguragua, 16,579 feet (Humboldt). Pichincha, 15,922 feet (Humboldt) ;|Sincholagua, 16,434 feet (Humboldt). 15,827 (Orton). + The snow-limit at the equator is 15,800 feet. No living creature, save the condor, passes this limit; naked rocks, fogs, and eternal snows mark the reign of uninterrupted solitude. The following is the approximate limit of perpetual snow in different latitudes : QO euecuecnuetase 15,800 feet. 400 casi bvicsnanese 8,300 feet. DT oecewecwadess 13,800 ‘‘ BAO cccuseueaics 3,700 ‘* 126 Tue ANDES AND THE AMAZON. of these would be visible from a single stand-point—the summit of Cotopaxi. The lofty peaks shoot up with so much method as almost to provoke the theory that the In- cas, in the zenith of their power, planted them as signal monuments along the royal road to Cuzco. The eastern series is called the Cordillera real, because along its flank are the remnants of the splendid highway which once connected Quito and the Peruvian capital.* It can also boast of such tremendous volcanoes as Cotopaxi and San- gai. The Western Cordillera contains but one active vol- cano; but then it can point to peerless Chimborazo and the deep crater of Pichincha. These twenty volcanic mountains rise within a space only two hundred miles long and thirty miles wide. It makes one tremble to think of the awful crevice over which they are placed.t+ The limit appears to descend more rapidly going south of the equator than in going north. * We traveled over a portion of this ancient road in going from Riobamba to Cajabamba. It is well paved with cut blocks of dark porphyry. It is not graded, but partakes of the irregularity of the country. Designed, not for carriages, but for troops and llamas, there are steps when the ascent is steep. + Grand as the Andes are, how insignificant in a general view! How slightly they cause our globe to differ from a perfect sphere! Cotopaxi con- stitutes only 53455 of the earth’s radius; and on a globe six feet in diameter, Chimborazo would be represented by a grain of sand less than’ 4, of an inch in thickness, CHIMBORAZO. 127 CHAPTER VIII. The Volcanoes of Ecuador.— Western Cordillera. —Chimborazo,—Hliniza.— Corazon.—Pichincha.—Descent into its Crater. Comme up from Peru through the cinchona forests of Loja, and over the barren hills of Assuay, the traveler reaches Riobamba, seated on the threshold of magnificence —like Damascus, an oasis in a sandy plain, but, unlike the Queen of the East, surrounded with a splendid retinue of snowy peaks that look like icebergs floating in a sea of clouds. On our left is the most sublime spectacle in the New World. It is a majestic pile of snow, its clear outline on the deep blue sky describing the profile of a lion in repose. At noon the vertical sun, and the profusion of light reflect- ed from the glittering surface, will not allow a shadow to be cast on any part, so that you can easily fancy the figure is cut out of a mountain of spotless marble. This is Chim- borazo—yet not the whole of it—you see but a third of the great giant. His feet are as eternally green as his head is everlastingly white; but they are far away beneath the bananas and cocoa-palms of the Pacific coast. Rousseau was disappointed when he first saw the sea; and the first glimpse of Niagara often fails to meet one’s expectations. But Chimborazo is sure of a worshiper the moment its overwhelming grandeur breaks upon the tray- eler. You feel that you are in the presence-chamber of the monarch of the Andes. There is sublimity in his king- ly look, of which the ocean might be proud. ‘¢ All that expands the spirit, yet appals, Gathers around this summit, as if to show How earth may pierce to heaven, yet leave vain man below.” 128 Tue ANDES AND THE AMAZON. Well do we remember our disappointment as we stood before that wonder of the world—St. Peter’s. We mount- ed the pyramid of steps and looked up, but were not over- come by the magnificence. We read in our guide-book that the edifice covers eight acres, and to the tip-top of the cross is almost five hundred feet; that it took three hun- dred and fifty years and twelve successive artists to finish it, and an expenditure of $50,000,000, and now costs $80,000 per annum to keep it in repair; still we did not appreciate its greatness. We pushed aside the curtain and walked in —walked a day’s journey across the transept and up and down the everlasting nave, and yet continued heterodox. We tried hard to believe it was very vast and sublime, and knew we ought to feel its grandeur, but somehow we did not. Then we sat down by the Holy of Holies, and there we were startled into a better judgment by the astounding fact that the Cathedral of St. Paul—the largest edifice in Great Britain—could stand upright, spire, dome, body, and all, inside of St. Peter’s! that the letters of the inscription which run around the dase of the dome, though apparently but an inch, are in reality six feet high! Then, for the first time, the scales fell from our eyes; the giant building began to grow; higher and higher still it rose, longer and deeper it expanded, yet in perfect proportions; the colossal structure, now a living temple, put on its beautiful gar- ments and the robe of majesty. And that dome! the lon- ger we looked at it the vaster it grew, till finally it seemed to be a temple not made with hands; the spacious canopy became the firmament; the mosaic figures of cherubim and seraphim were endowed with life; and as we fixed our eyes on the zenith where the Almighty is represented in glory, we thought we had the vision of Stephen. Long we gazed upward into this heaven of man’s creation, and gazed again till we were lost in wonder. CHIMBORAZO. 129 But the traveler needs no such steps to lift him up to the grand conception of the divine Architect as he be- holds the great white dome of Chimborazo. It looks lofty from the very first. Now and then an expanse of thin, sky-like vapor would cut the mountain in twain, and the dome, islanded in the deep blue of the upper re- gions, seemed to belong more to heaven than to earth. We knew that Chimborazo was more than twice the alti- tude of Etna. We could almost see the great Humboldt struggling up the mountain’s side till he looked like a black speck moving over the mighty white, but giving up in de- spair four thousand feet below the summit. We see the intrepid Bolivar mounting still higher; but the hero of Spanish-American independence returns a defeated man. Last of all comes the philosophic Boussingault, and attains the prodigious elevation of nineteen thousand six hundred feet—the highest point reached by man without the aid of a balloon; but the dome remains unsullied by his foot. Yet none of these facts increase our admiration. The mountain has a tongue which speaks louder than all mathematical calculations. There must be something singularly sublime about Chim- borazo, for the spectator at Riobamba is already nine thou- sand feet high, and the mountain is not,so elevated above him as Mont Blane above the vale of Chamouni, when, in reality, that culminating point of Europe would not reach up even to the snow-limit of Chimborazo by two thousand feet.* It is only while sailing on the Pacific that one sees Chimborazo in its complete proportions. Its very magni- * But Chimborazo is steeper than the Alp-king; and steepness is a quality more quickly appreciated than mere massiveness. ‘‘ Mont Blane (says a writer in Frazer's Magazine) is scarcely admired, because he is built with a certain regard to stability; but the apparently reckless architecture of the Matterhorn brings the traveler fairly on his knees, with a respect akin to that felt for the leaning tower of Pisa, or the soaring pinnacles of Antwerp.” 130 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. tude diminishes the impression of awe and wonder, for the Andes on which it rests are heaved to such a vast altitude above the sea, that the relative elevation of its summit be- comes reduced by comparison with the surrounding moun- tains. Its altitude is 21,420 feet, or forty-five times the height of Strasl urz Cathedral ; or, to state it otherwise, the fall of one pound from the top of Chimborazo would raise the temperature of water 30°. One fourth of this is per- petually covered with snow, so that its ancient name, Chim- purazu—the mountain of snow—is very appropriate.* It is a stirring thought that this mountain, now mantled with snow, once gleamed with volcanic fires. There is a hot spring on the north side, and an immense amount of débris covers the slope below the snow-limit, consisting chiefly of fine-grained, iron-stained trachyte and coarse porphyroid gray trachyte; very rarely a dark vitreous trachyte. Chim- borazo is very likely not a solid mountain: trachytic volca- noes are supposed to be full of cavities. Bouguer found it made the plumb-line deviate 7” or 8”. The valleys which furrow the flank of Chimborazo are in keeping with its colossal size. Narrower, but deeper than those of the Alps, the mind swoons and sinks in the effort to comprehend their grim majesty. The mountain appears to have been broken to pieces like so much thin crust, and the strata thrown on their vertical edges, reveal- ing deep, dark chasms, that seem to lead to the confines of the lower,world. The deepest valley in Europe, that of the Ordesa in the Pyrenees, is 8200 feet deep; but here are rents in the side of Chimborazo in which Vesuvius could be put away out of sight. As you look down into the fath- omless fissure, you see a white fleck rising out of the gulf, * “White Mountain” is the natural and almost uniform name of the high- est mountains in all countries; thus Himalaya, Mont Blanc, Hoemus, Sierra Nevada, Ben Nevis, Snowdon, Lebanon, White Mountains of United States, Chimborazo, and Ilimani. CHIMBORAZO. 131 and expanding as it mounts, till the wings of the condor, fifteen feet in spread, glitter in the sun as the proud bird fearlessly wheels over the dizzy chasm, and then, ascend- ing above your head, sails over the dome of Chimborazo.* Could the condor speak, what a glowing description could he give of the landscape beneath him when his horizon is a thousand miles in diameter. If “‘Twelve fair counties saw the blaze from Malvern’s lonely height,” what must be the panorama from a height fifteen times higher ! Chimborazo was long supposed to be the tallest moun- tain on the globe, but its supremacy has been supplanted by Mount Everest in Asia, and Aconcagua in Chile.t In mountain gloom and glory, however, it still stands unrival- ed. The Alps have the avalanche, “the thunderbolt of snow,” and the glaciers, those icy Niagaras so beautiful and grand. Here they are wanting.t The monarch of the Andes sits motionless in calm serenity and unbroken silence. The silence is absolute and actually oppressive. The road from Guayaquil to Quito crosses Chimborazo at the elevation of fourteen thousand feet. Save the rush * Humboldt’s statement that the condor flies higher than Chimborazo has been questioned ; but we have seen numbers hovering at least a thousand feet above the summit of Pichincha. Baron Miiller, in his ascent of Orizaba, saw two falcons flying at the height of full 18,000 feet; Dr. Hooker found crows and ravens on the Himalayas at 16,500 feet ; and flocks of wild geese are said to fly over the peak of Kintschinghow, 22,756 feet. + Mount Everest is 29,000 feet, and Aconcagua 23,200. Schlagintweit enumerates thirteen Himalayan summits over 25,000 feet, and forty-six above 20,000. We have little confidence in the estimates of the Bolivian moun- tains. Chimborazo has nearly the same latitude and altitude as the loftiest peak in Africa, Kilima Njaro. t Humboldt ascribes the absence of glaciers in the Andes to the extreme steepness of the sides, and the excessive dryness of the air. Dr. Loomis, above quoted, mentions indications of glacial action—moraines, and polished and striated rocks—on the crest of the Cordillera, between Peru and Bolivia, lat. 21° S. : 132 THE oer AND THE AMAZON. of the trade wind in the afternoon, as it sweeps over the Andes, not a sound is audible; not the hum of an insect, nor the chirp of a bird, nor the roar of the puma, nor the music of running waters. Mid-ocean is never so- silent. You can almost hear the globe turning on its axis. There was a time when the monarch deigned to speak, and spoke with a voice of thunder, for the lava on its sides is an evi- dence of voleanic activity. But ever since the morning stars sang together over man’s creation, Chimbo has sat in sullen silence, satisfied to look “from his throne of clouds o’er half the world.” ‘There is something very suggestive in this silence of Chimborazo. It was once full of noise and fury; it is now a completed mountain, and thunders no more. How silent was Jesus, a completed character! The reason we are so noisy is that we are so full of wants; we are unfinished characters. Had we perfect fullness of all things, the beatitude of being without a want, we should lapse into the eternal silence of God. Chimborazo is a leader of a long train of ambitious crags and peaks; but as he who comes after the king must not expect to be noticed, we will only take a glimpse of these lesser lights as we pass up the Western Cordillera, and then down the Eastern. The first after leaving the monarch is Caraguairazo. The Indians call it “the wife of Chimborazo.” They are sepa- rated only by a very narrow valley. One hundred and sey- enty years ago the top of this mountain fell in, and torrents of mud flowed out containing multitudes of fishes. It is now over seventeen thousand feet high, and is one of the most Alpine of the Quitonian volcanoes, having sharp pinnacles instead of the smooth trachytic domes — usually double domes—so characteristic of the Andean summits. And now we pass in rapid succession numerous picturesque mountains, some of them extinct volcanoes, as Iliniza, pre- PicwincHa. 133 senting two pyramidal peaks, the highest seventeen thou- sand feet above the sea, and Corazon, so named from its heart-shaped summit, till we reach Pichincha, whose smok- ing crater is only five miles distant in a straight line from the city of Quito, or eleven by the traveled route. The crown of this mountain presents three groups of rocky peaks. The most westerly one is called Rucu-Pi- chincha, and alone manifests activity. To the northeast of Rucu is Guagua-Pichincha, a ruined flue of the same fiery furnace ; and between the two is Cundur-guachana.* Pi- chincha is the only voleano in Ecuador which has not a true cone-crater. Some violent eruption beyond the reach of history or tradition has formed an enormous funnel-shaped basin 2500 feet deep,t 1500 in diameter at the bottom, and expanding upward to a width of three fourths of a mile. It is the deepest crater on the globe. That of Kilauea is 600 feet; Orizaba, 500; Etna, 300; Hecla,100. Vesuvius is a portable furnace in comparison. The abyss is girt with a ragged wall of dark trachyte, which rises on the in- side at various angles between 45° and perpendicularity. As we know of but one American besides the members of our expedition (Mr. Farrand, a photographer) who has suc- ceeded in entering the crater of this interesting volcano, we will give a brief sketch of our visit. Leaving Quito in the afternoon by the old arched gate- way at the foot of Panecillo, and crossing a spur of the mountain, we stopped for the night at the Jesuit hacienda, situated in the beautiful valley of Lloa, but nearly ruined by the earthquake of 1859. On the damp walls of this monastery, perched 10,268 feet above the ocean, we found several old paintings, among them a copy of the Visitation * Pichincha, in the Inca language, signifies ‘‘ the boiling mountain ;” Rucu means old; Guagua, young; and Cundur-guachana, the condor’s nest. + More accurately, 2527 feet; Wisse and Moreno made it 2460. 134 Tue ANDES AND THE AMAZON. by Rubens. The sunset views in this heart of the Andes were surpassingly beautiful. Mounting our horses at break of day, and taking an Indian guide, we ascended rapidly, by a narrow and difficult path, through the forest that belts the volcano, up to the height of 12,000 feet, emerging grad- ually into a thicket of stunted bushes, and then entered the dreary paramo. Splendid was the view of the Eastern Cor- dillera. At least six dazzling white volcanoes were in sight just across the Valley of Quito, among them table-topped Cayambi, majestic Antisana, and princely Cotopaxi, whose tapering summit is a mile above the clouds. Toiling up- ward, we reached the base of the cone, where vegetation ceased entirely; and, tying our horses to some huge rocks that had fallen from the mural cliff above, started off on hands and feet for the crater. The cone is deeply covered with sand and cinders for about two hundred feet, and the sides are inclined at an angle of about 35°. At ten o’clock we reached the brim of the crater, and the great gulf burst suddenly into view. We can never forget the impression made upon us by the sight. We speak of many things here below as awful, but that word has its full meaning when carried to the top of Pichincha. There you see a frightful opening in the earth’s crust nearly a mile in width and half a mile deep, and from the dark abyss comes rolling up a cloud of sulphurous vapors. Monte Somma in the time of Strabo was a miniature; but this crater is on the top of a mountain four times the height of the Italian volcano. Im- agination finds it difficult to conceive a spectacle of more fearful grandeur or such solemn magnificence. It well ac- cords with Milton’s picture of the bottomless pit. The united effect of the silence and solitude of the place, the great depth of the cavity, the dark precipitous sides, and the column of smoke standing over an unseen crevice, was to us more impressive than thundering Cotopaxi or fiery *RIOTUITT JO 19IwVId t Te Bae 9 Votcano or PicutncHa. 137 Vesuvius. Humboldt, after standing on this same brink, exclaimed, “ I have never beheld a grander or more remark- able picture than that presented by this volcano ;” and La Condamine compared it to “the Chaos of the poets.” Be- low us are the smouldering fires which may any moment spring forth into a conflagration ; around us are black, rag- ged cliffs—fit boundary for this gateway to the infernal re- gions. They look as if they had just been dragged up from the central furnace of the earth. Life seems to have fled in terror from the vicinity; even lichens, the children of the bare rocks, refuse to clothe the scathed and beetling crags. For some moments, made mute by the dreadful sight, we stood like statues on the rim of the mighty cal- dron, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below, lost in con- templating that which can not be described. The pano- rama from this lofty summit is more pleasing, but equally sublime. Toward the rising sun is the long range of the Eastern Cordillera, hiding from our view the great valley of the Amazon. To right and left are the peaks of an- other procession of august mountains from Cotocachi to Chimborazo. We are surrounded by the great patriarchs of the Andes, and their speaker, Cotopaxi, ever and anon sends his muttering voice over the land. The view west- ward is like looking down from a balloon. Those parallel ridges of the mountain chain, dropping one behind the oth- er, are the gigantic staircase by which the ice-crowned Chimborazo steps down to the sea. A white sea of clouds covers the peaceful Pacific and the lower parts of the coast. But the vapory ocean, curling into the ravines, beautifully represents little coves and bays, leaving islands and promontories like a true ocean on a broken shore. We seem raised above the earth, which lies like an opened map below us; we can look down on the upper surface of the clouds, and, were it night, down too upon the lightnings. 138 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. The crater of Pichincha has a sharp, serrated edge, which, happily for Quito, is broken down on the west side, so that in the next eruption the volcano will doubtless pour its contents into the wilds of Esmeraldas. The highest pinnacle is 15,827 feet; so that the mountain just enters the region of perpetual winter. Water boils at 185°. The summit is generally bare, though snow is always found in the clefts of the rocks. It is not compact or crystalline, but resembles a conglomerate of little hailstones.* Out of the mingled snow and pumice-dust rise a few delicate flowers, particularly the violet Sida Pichinchensis, the same which we had observed on the side of Chimborazo. Think of gay flowers a thousand feet higher than the top of Mont Blanc! The first to reach the brink of the crater were the French Academicians in 1742. Sixty years after, Hum- boldt stood on the summit. But it was not till 1844 that any one dared to enter the crater. This was accomplished by Garcia Moreno, now President of Ecuador, and Sebas- tian Wisse, a French engineer. Humboldt pronounced the bottom of the crater “ inaccessible, from its great depth and precipitous descent.” We found it accessible, but ex- ceedingly perilous. The moment we prepared to descend * The snow on the top of Mont Blanc is like dry dust; in Lapland, in open places, it consists of hexagonal crystals, and is called by the inhabitants ‘*sand-snow.” The French and Spanish mathematicians, Bouguer, La Con- damine, and Ulloa, in their story of ascending Pichincha, give a long and - dreadful account of their sufferings from cold and rarefied air: ‘‘ whilst eat- ing, every one was obliged to keep his plate over a chafing-dish of coals, to prevent his food from freezing.” The traveler nowadays finds only a chill- ing wind, ‘This rise of temperature, coupled with the fact that La Con- damine (1745), Humboldt (1802), Boussingault (1831), and Wisse (1863) give to Quito a decreasing altitude, inclines us to believe, with Boussingault, that the Andes are sinking. Since the activity of the volcano in 1868, the summit has been so warm that the snow has totally disappeared. Ice-cream has in consequence risen in price in Quito, as snow must be brought from Sincholagua, four days’ journey. — sw eS rn CRATER oF PIcHINCHA. 139 our guide ran away. We went on without him, but when halfway down were stopped by a precipice. On the 22d of October, 1867, we returned to Pichincha with another guide, and entered the crater by a different route. Manuel, our Indian, led us to the south side, and over the brink we went. We were not long in realizing the danger of the undertaking. Here the snow concealed an ugly fissure or covered a treacherous rock (for nearly all the rocks are crumbling); there we must cross a mass of loose sand moving like a glacier down the almost verti- cal side of the crater; and on every hand rocks were giv- ing way, and, gathering momentum at each revolution, went thundering down, leaping over precipices, and jostling other rocks, which joined in the race, till they all struck the bottom with a deep rumbling sound, shivered like so many bombshells into a thousand pieces, and telling us what would be our fate if we made a single misstep. We followed our Indian in single file, keeping close together, that the stones set free by those in the rear might not dash those below from their feet; feeling our way with the greatest caution, clinging with our hands to snow, sand, rock, tufts of grass, or any thing that would hold for a moment; now leaping over a chasm, now letting ourselves down from rock to rock; at times paralyzed with fear, and always with death staring us in the face; thus we scram- bled for two hours and a half, till we reached the bottom of the crater. Here we found a deeply-furrowed plain, strewn with ragged rocks, and containing a few patches of vegetation, with half a dozen species of flowers. In the centre is an irregular heap of stones, two hundred and sixty feet high by eight hundred in diameter. This is the cone of erup- tion—its sides and summit covered with an imposing group of vents. seventy in number, all lined with sulphur and 140 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. exhaling steam, black smoke, and sulphurous gas. The temperature of the vapor just within the fumarole is 184°, water boiling beside it at 189°. The central vent, or chim- ney, gives forth a sound like the violent bubbling of boil- ing water. As we sat on this fiery mount, surrounded by a circular rampart of rocks, and looked up at the immense towers of dark dolerite which ran up almost vertically to the height of twenty-five hundred feet above us, musing over the tremendous force which fashioned this awful am- phitheatre—spacious enough for all the gods of Tartarus to hold high carnival—the clouds which hung in the thin air around the crest of the crater pealed forth thunder after thunder, which, reverberating from precipice to prec- ipice, were answered by the crash of rocks let loose by the storm, till the whole mountain seemed to tremble like a leaf. Such acoustics, mingled with the flash of lightning and the smell of brimstone, made us believe that we had fairly got into the realm of Pluto. It is the spot where Dante’s Inferno ought to be read. Finishing our observations, and warming our dinner over the steaming crevices, we prepared to ascend. The escape from this horrid hole was more perilous than the entrance, and on reaching the top we sang, with grateful hearts, to the tune of “ Old Hundred,” ‘Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.” We doubt whether that famous tune and glorious dox- ology were ever sung so near to heaven. The second line, ‘¢ Praise him all creatures here below,” had a strange meaning fifteen thousand feet high. There have been five eruptions of Pichincha since the Conquest. The last was in 1660; that of 1566 covered “THe Frevp or Sronss.” 141 Quito three feet deep with ashes and stones, while boiling water and bitumen descended in torrents. In 1867 the column of smoke did not rise above the crest of the cra- ter, but the volcano has lately been showing signs of activ- ity, such as it has not exhibited since the last grand erup- tion two centuries ago. On the 19th of March, 1868, de- tonations were audible at Quito, and three days after there were more thunderings, with a great column of vapor visi- ble from Chillo, twelve miles to the east. These phenom- ena were accompanied by an unusual fall of rain. Since the great earthquake of August 16th, Pichincha has con- tinued to send forth dense columns of black smoke, and so much fine sand that it is not possible to reach the cra- ter. The solid products of Pichincha since the Conquest have been chiefly pumice, coarse-grained and granular tra- chyte, and reddish porphyroid trachyte. The roads lead- ing to Quito cut through hills of pumice-dust. On the plain of Ifaquito and in the valley of Esmeraldas are vast erratic blocks of trachyte, some containing twenty-five cu- bic yards, having sharp angles, and in some cases a polish- ed, unstriated surface. M.Wisse does not consider them to have been thrown out of Pichincha, as La Condamine and others have judged. It is true, as he says, that they could not have come out of the present cone at a less an- gle than 45°, for they would have hit the sides of the high rocky rampart and rolled back again; and at a higher angle they would not have reached their present location. But we see no reason why they could not be the upper portion of the solid trachyte cone blown into the air at the great eruption which cleared out this enormous crater. There is a rumepamba, or “field of stones,” around each of the Qui- tonian volcanoes. Leaving Pichincha, we travel northward along the bat- tlemented Andes, passing by the conical mountains of 142 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. Yana-ureu and Cotocachi. Yana-urcu, or “black mount- ain,” is a mass of calcined rocks. Cotocachi (from cota? and cachi, salt) is always snow-clad. On its side is Ouy- cocha, one of the highest lakes in the world (10,200 feet), and formed by the subsidence of a part of the volcano. ‘ : 7 ; : : : ¢ ‘ ImpaspuraA.—CayAMBI. 143 CHAPTER Ix. The Volcanoes of Ecuador.—Eastern Cordillera.—Imbabura.—Cayambi.— Antisana, —Cotopaxi.—Llanganati.—Tunguragua.—Altar.—Sangai. Near the once busy city of Otovalo, utterly destroyed in the late earthquake, the two Cordilleras join, and, turning to the right, we go down the eastern range. The first in order is Imbabura,* which poured forth a large quantity of mud, with thousands of fishes, seven years before the sim- ilar eruption of Caraguairazo. At its feet is the beauti- ful lake of San Pablo, five miles in circumference, and very deep. It contains the little black fish (Pimelodes cyclopum) already referred to as the only species in the valley, and the same that was cast out by Imbabura and Caraguairazo. Next comes the square-topped Cayambi— the loftiest mountain in this Cordillera, béing nineteen thousand five hundred feet. It stands exactly on the equa- tor, a colossal monument placed by the hand of Nature to mark the grand division of the globe. It is the only snowy spot, says Humboldt, which is crossed by the equator. Beau- tiful is the view of Cayambi from Quito, as its enormous mass of snow and ice glows with crimson splendor in the farewell rays of the setting sun. No painter’s brush could do justice to the prismatic tints which hover around the higher peaks. But this flood of glory is soon followed by the pure whiteness of death. “Like a gigantic ghost shrouded in sepulchral sheets, the mountain now hovers in the background of the landscape, towering ghastly through _the twilight until darkness closes upon the scene.” * From imba (fish), and bura, to produce. Its name can not be older than 1691, unless the mountain Ee similar eruptions before. It has frequently Biected water. 144 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. Ten miles farther south is the bare-headed Guamani range, over which passes the road to the wild Napo coun- try.* The view from the crest is magnificent; but, like every grand panorama, eludes description. As we look eastward over the beginnings of the mighty forest which stretches unbroken to the Atlantic, the vast ridges, trend- ing north and south, and decreasing in height as they in- crease in distance, seem like the waves of a great ocean rolling toward the mountains. Near by stands Antisana in his snowy robe. This vol- cano ranks next to Chimborazo in dignity. It has a double dome, and an elevation of 19,000 feet. Snow of Dian pu- rity covers it for over 3000 feet; but, judging from the enormous streams of lava on its sides, it must have been a fierce voleano in ages past. The lava streams are worthy of the great mountain from which they flowed. One of them (called “Volcan d’Ansango”) is ten miles long and five hundred feet deep, with an average slope of 15°. Itis a magnificent sight, as seen from the surrounding paramo —a stream of dark, ragged rocks coming down out of the clouds and snows which cover the summit. The repre- sentative products of Antisana are a black, cellular, vitre- ous trachyte, a fine-grained, tough porphyroid trachyte, and a coarse reddish porphyroid trachyte. An eruption, as late as 1590, is recorded in Johnston’s Phys. Atlas. Humboldt saw smoke issuing from several openings in March, 1802. We ascended this volcano to the height of sixteen thou- sand feet. On its side is the celebrated hacienda of Anti- sana, which, more than sixty years ago, sheltered the great Humboldt from the sleet and rain and blast of this lofty region. It was a welcome refuge to us, for we had well nigh perished with cold on the dreary paramo. It is one of * The culminating point of Guamani is Sara-urcu, a voleano which threw out a vast quantity of ashes in 1843 and 1856. ANTISANA. 145 the highest human habitations in the world, being thirteen thousand three hundred feet above the sea, or a thousand feet higher than the Peak of Teneriffe.* The mean tem- perature is the same as that of Quebec, so that thirteen thousand feet in elevation at the equator is equal to 47° in latitude.t Here is an extensive corral, inclosing thou- sands of cattle, owned by a rheumatic old gentleman, Sefior Valdevieso, who supplies the beef-market of Quito.t A desire for beef has alone brought man and his beast to this chilly altitude. It is difficult to get a quart of milk, and impossible to find a pound of butter at this hacienda. The predominant colors ot the cattle are red and black. They feed on the wild paramo grass, and the beef is not only re- markably cheap, but superior in quality. ~The lasso is used in catching the animals, but not so skillfully as by the Gauchos of Rio Plata. It is a singular fact that cattle have followed men over the whole earth, from the coast. of Africa to the highlands of Antisana. The same species is attacked by crocodiles and condors. The atmospheric pressure is here so small that they fre- quently bleed at the nose and mouth when hunted. We have already given ou experience in ascending high alti- tudes. We may add that while the pulse of Boussingault beat 106 pulsations at the height of 18,600 feet on Chim- borazo, ours was 87 at 16,000 feet on Antisana. De Saus- sure says that a draught of liquor which would inebriate * M. d’Abbadie professes to have visited a village in Abyssinia (Arquiage) which is 12,450 feet above the sea. Potosi stands 13,500 feet. + This agrees with Humboldt’s calculation that a difference of elevation of 278 feet produces the same effect on the annual temperature as a change of one degree of latitude. According to the experiments of Captain Pullen, the minimum temperature of the great depths of the ocean is 35°, and it com- mences soon after passing 12,000 feet. t The great dépots of cattle in Ecuador are at the two extremes of eleva- tion, the lowlands of St. Elena and the highlands of Antisana. On the slope of Cayambi is another extensive cattle estate. Kk 146 Tue ANDES AND THE AMAZON. in the lowlands no longer has that effect on Mont Blane. This appears to be true on the Andes; indeed, there is very little drunkenness in Quito. So the higher we perch our inebriate asylums, the better for the patients. Near the hacienda is a little lake called Mica, on which we found a species of grebe, with wings so short it could not fly. Its legs, also, seem fitted only for paddling, and it goes ashore only to lay its eggs. It peeps like a gosling. Associated with them were penguins (in appearance); they were so shy we could not secure one. The query is, How came they there? Was this a centre of creation, or were the fowls upheaved with the Andes? They could not have flown or walked to this lofty lake, and there are no water- courses leading to it; it is surrounded with a dry, rolling waste, where only the condor lives. We turn to Darwin for an answer.* The ragged Sincholaguat and romantic Rumifiagui fol- low Antisana, and then we find ourselves looking up at the most beautiful and most terrible of volcanoes. This is the far-famed Cotopaxi, or more properly Cutu-pacsi, meaning “a brilliant mass.” Humboldt calls it the most regular and most picturesque of volcanic cones. It looks like a huge truncated cone rising out of the Valley of Quito, its sides deeply furrowed by the rivers of mud and water which have so often flowed out. The cone itself is about * The grebe is considered by Messrs. Cassin and Lawrence to be the Podi- ceps occtpitalis, Lesson (P. calipareus et Chilensis of Garnot), which occurs in large flocks on the coast of Chile and in the Straits of Magellan. It is quite different from the P. micropterus of Lake Titicaca. At Morococha, Peru, 15,600 feet above the sea, Herndon found snipes and ducks. + In Brigham’s Notes on the Volcanic Phenomena of the Hawaiian Islands, this volcano is put down as active, but there has been no eruption in the mem- ory of man. Its lithology is represented in our collection by porous, gray, granular trachyte, fine-grained, compact trachyte, and dark porphyroid tra- chyte. The derivation of Sincholagua is unknown. Rumifiagui means the face of a rock. Cotopaxi, Sincholagua, and Rumifagui, and Cotopaxi, Pi- chincha, and Guamani, form equilateral triangles. { j ‘ lod CoroPaxt. 147 six thousand feet high. The east side is covered with snow, but the west is nearly bare, owing to the trade winds, which, sweeping across the continent, carry the ashes west- ward. Cotopaxi is the loftiest of active volcanoes, though its grand eruptions are a century apart, according to the general rule that the higher a volcano the less frequent its eruptions, but all the more terrible when they’do occur. Imagine Vesuvius on the summit of Mont Blanc, and you have the altitude of Cotopaxi. The top just reaches the middle point of density in the atmosphere, for at the height of three miles and a half the air below will balance that above. he crater has nev- er been seen by man; the steepness of the sides and the depth of the ashes covering them render it inaccessible. The valiant Col. Hall tried it with scaling ladders, only to fail. The telescope reveals a parapet of scoria on the brim, as on Teneriffe. Humboldt’s sketch of the volcano, so uni- versally copied, is overdrawn. It makes the slope about 50°, while in truth it is nearer 30°. The apical angle is 122° 30’.* Cotopaxi is slumbering now; or, as Mr. Coan says of Hilo, it is “in a state of solemn and thoughtful suspense.” The only signs of life are the deep rumbling thunders and a cloud of smoke lazily issuing from the crater.t Some- times at night the smoke looks like a pillar of fire, and fine ashes and sand often fall around the base, to the great an- noyance of the farmers. On the south side is a huge rock of porphyry, called the Inca’s Head. Tradition has it that this was the original summit of the volcano, torn off and * MM. Zurcher and Margalli make the slope 55°! and Guzman, 69° 30'!! The slope of Mauna Loa is 6° 30’; of Etna, 9°; of Teneriffe, 12° 30’; of Vesuvius, 35°. While cinder-cones may have an angle of 40°, lava-cones seldom exceed 10°. + Even this has now (August, 1869) ceased, save an occasional grumble, and the Tacungans are trembling with fear of another eruption. 148 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. hurled down by an eruption on the very day Atahuallpa -was murdered by Pizarro. The last great eruption oc- curred in 1803, though so late as 1855 it tossed out stones, water, and sand. Heaps of ruins, piled up during the lapse of ages, are scattered for miles around the mountain, among them great boulders twenty feet square. In one place (Quinchevar) the accumulation is 600 feet deep. Between Cotopaxi and Sincholagua are numerous conical hills covering the paramo, reminding one of the mud vol- canoes of Jorullo. Pumice and trachyte are the most common rocks around this mountain, and these are augitic or porphyroid. Ob- sidian also occurs, though not on the immediate flank, but farther down near Chillo. In plowing, thousands of pieces as large as “ flints” are turned up. The natives know noth- ing about their origin or use ; the large specimens were an- ciently polished and used for mirrors. But Cotopaxi is the great pumice-producing volcano. The new road up the valley cuts through a lofty hill formed by the successive eruptions ; the section, presenting alternate layers of mud, ashes, and pumice, is a written history of the voleano.* The cone itself is evidently composed of similar beds su- perimposed, and holding fragments of porphyry and tra- chyte. What is Vesuvius, four thousand feet high, to Co- topaxi, belching forth fire from a crater fifteen thousand feet higher, and shooting its contents three thousand feet * Compare the following sections : Coropaxt! (near Tiupullo). Vesuvius (at Pompeii). Souls estates soe teecmnors aa8cE tL oO SOUP ns cccscsr 1-53 .1-qee ac seemees 3 ft. 0 in. Fine yellow pumice ......... 5 ‘* 0 ** |Brown incoherent tuff...... re Ome Compact black ashes, with Small scoriz and white la- seams of pumice.......... TOF nO Hike WI: J. lsccdsvene leescNeeeeee Os teSy Fine yellow pumice......... 1 ‘* G *‘ |Brown earthy tuff........... Be S8rg uss Compact black ashes........ 12 ‘**.0 ** |Whitish lapilli................ Oehlpe Fine yellow pumice ......... 210) -~ Gray: solid) tuff... a..acheesees OnEeg Compact black ashes, with seams of |Pumice and white lapilli... 0 “ 3 ‘ pumice. THE GotpEN Mountains. : 149 above its snow-bound summit, with a voice of thunder heard six hundred miles! Leaving this terrible “safety-valve” to the imprisoned fires under our feet, we travel along the wooded flanks and savage valleys of the Llanganati Mountains, whose lofty blue ridge is here and there pointed with snow.* It is uni- versally believed that the Incas buried an immense quan- tity of gold in an artificial lake on the sides of this mount- ain during the Spanish invasion, and many an adventurous expedition has been made for it. The inhabitants will tell you of one Valverde, a Spaniard, who, from being very poor, had suddenly become very rich, which was attributed to his having married an Indian girl whose father showed him where the treasure was hidden, and accompanied him on various occasions to bring away portions of it; and that Valverde returned to Spain, and on his death-bed be- queathed the secret of his riches to the king. But since Padre Longo suddenly disappeared while leading an expe- dition, the timid Ecuadorians have been content with their poverty.t And now we have reached the perfect cone of Tungura- gua, the rival of Cotopaxi in symmetry and beauty.t It stands 16,500 feet above the Pacific, its upper part covered with a splendid robe of snow, while the sugar-cane grows in the romantic town of Bafios, 10,000 feet below the sum- mit. A cataract, 1500 feet high, comes down at three .bounds from the edge of the snow to the warm valley be- neath ; and at Baiios a hot ferruginous spring and a stream * Immediately south of Cotopaxi, the Cordillera consists of paramos sown with lakes and morasses, and is rarely covered with snow. Llanganati is probably from U/dénga, to touch: they touch the sources of nearly all the Keuadorian rivers. + The story is doubtless due to the fact that the eastern streams, which issue from the foot of this cordillera, are auriferous. ft From Tungtri, the ankle-joint, alluding to its apical angle. It isa little steeper than Cotopaxi, having a slope of 43°. 150 Tue ANDES AND THE AMAZON. of ice-water flow out of the volcano side by side. Here, too, the fierce youth of the Pastassa, born on the pumice slopes of Cotopaxi, dashes through a deep tortuous chasm and down a precipice in hot haste, as if conscious of the long distance before it, ere it reaches the Amazon and the ocean. Tunguragua was once a formidable mountain, for we discovered a great stream of lava reaching from the clouds around the summit to the orange-groves in the val- ley, and blocking up the rivers which tumble over it in beautiful cascades. It has been silent since 1780; but it can afford to rest, for then its activity lasted seven years.* Close by rises beautiful Altar, a thousand feet higher. The Indians call it Capac-ureu, or the “Chief.” They say it once overtopped Chimborazo; but, after a violent erup- tion, which continued eight years, the walls fell in. Its craggy crest is still more Alpine than Caraguairazo ; eight snowy peaks shoot up like needles into the sky, and snr- round an altar to whose\elevated purity no mortal offering will ever attain. The trachyte which once formed the sum- mit of this mountain is now spread in fragments over the plain of Riobamba. Leaving this broken-down volcano, but still the most pic- turesque in the Andes, we travel over the rough and rug- ged range of Cubillin, till our attention is arrested by ter- rific explosions like a naval broadside, and a column of smoke that seems to come from the furnace of the Cy- clops. It is Sangai, the most active volcano on the globe. From its unapproachable crater, three miles high, it sends forth a constant stream of fire, water, mud, and ashes.t+ * Spruce asserts that he saw smoke issuing from the western edge in 1857; and Dr. Terry says that in 1832 smoke ascended almost always from the summit. Dr. Taylor, of Riobamba, informs the writer that smoke is now almost constantly visible. The characteristic rock is a black vitreous tra- chyte resembling pitchstone, but anhydrous. t La Condamine (1742) adds ‘‘ sulphur and bitumen.” SANGAI. 151 No intermission has been noticed since the Spaniards first saw it three hundred years ago. Stromboli is the only vol- cano that will compare with it. Its ashes are almost al- ways falling on the city of Guayaquil, one hundred miles distant, and its explosions, generally occurring every hour or two, are sometimes heard in that city. Wisse, in 1849, counted 267 explosions in one hour. We have now completed the series. What an array of snow-clad peaks wall in the narrow Valley of Quito—Na- ture’s Gothic spires to this her glorious temple! If ever there was a time when all these volcanoes were active in concert, this secluded vale must have witnessed the most splendid pyrotechnics conceivable. Imagine fifty mount- ains as high as Etna, three of them with smoking craters, standing along the road between New York and Washing- ton, and you will have some idea of the ride down this gi- gantic colonnade from Quito to Riobamba. If, as Ruskin says, the elements of beauty are in proportion to the in- erease of mountainous character, Ecuador is artistically beautiful to a high degree. Here, amid these Plutonic peaks, are the energies of vol- canic action best studied. The constancy of the volcanic fires is a striking fact. First we have the deluges of sub marine lavas, which were poured out long before the Andes lifted their heads above the waters; then alternate porphy- vitic strata, feldspathic streams, and gypseous exhalations ; then, at a later day, floods of basaltic lava; next the old tertiary eruptions; and, lastly, the vast accumulations of boulders, gravel, ashes, pumice, and mnd of the present day, spread over the Valley of Quito’and the west slope of the Cordilleras to an unknown depth beneath the sea. The in- cessant eruptions of Sangai, and the frequent earthquakes, show that the subterranean energy which heaved the Andes is not yet expended. 152 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. CHAPTER X. The Valley of Quito.—Riobamba.—A Bed of ‘‘ Fossil Giants.” —Chillo Ha- cienda.—Otovalo and Ibarra.—The Great Earthquake of 1868. Tux Valley of Quito has about the same size and shape as the basin of Salt Lake, but it is five thousand feet high- er.* The two cordilleras inclosing it are tied by the mountain-knots of Assuay and Chisinchi, so that the val- ley is subdivided into three basins, those of Cuenca, Am- bato, and Quito proper, which increase in beauty and allti- tude as we travel north. There are several subordinate transversal dikes and some longitudinal ridges, but all the basins lie parallel to the axes of the cordilleras—a charac- teristic feature of the Andes. The deep valleys on the outside flanks are evidently valleys of erosion, but the ba- sins between the cordilleras were created with them. The first is fifty miles long. It contains the cities’ of Loja and Cuenca,+ the former distinguished for its cincho- na forests, the latter for Inca graves and mines of precious metals. The middle basin (130 miles in length) is covered with vast quantities of voleanic débris, the outpourings of Cotopaxi, Tunguragua, and Altar, on one side, and of Chim- borazo and Caraguairazo on the other. Nothing relieves * Compare the table-lands in the Old World: MID eta seers a cae te ececiant es cepaaebesiassecnpisess 11,500 feet. SOlthAtivea eeacteteeane ceeeacicoiedsicisciies > se\e'ss/oc eno 6,000 ‘‘ Mysore (mda) 2; someset-cewinnelcucosscecaasenaedes 2,880 ‘ S]PDIT sco ignne cas ane oo singncan sep ononsdase aBeeendeods0 2,240 ‘° BAVARIA iiecr sce ecesesseteteeaceescsesscces ses e eRTON + The altitude of Loja is 6768 feet; of Cuenca, 8640 feet. RiopaMBa. 153 the barrenness of the landscape but hedges of century plant, cactus, and wild heliotrope, which border the roads. Whirlwinds of sand are often seen moving over the plain. The mean temperature is 61°.5. Here exist, we can not say thrive, the cities of Riobamba, Ambato, and Tacunga, already noticed. Riobamba,* properly Rayobamba, the plain of lightning, was founded at the beginning of this century, or shortly after the destruction of the old city. Excepting the ecclesiastical buildings, the houses are of one story, built of stone plastered with mud, sometimes of adobe or bamboo, and the windows are grated like those of a prison. As in all Spanish-American towns, the main church fronts the great Plaza where the weekly fairs are held. Save on fair-day, the city is lifeless. Nothing is exported to the coast except a few egos and fowls, lard and potatoes. Such is the power of habit, an Indian will take a hen to Bodegas and sell it for four reals (50 cents) when he could get three for it in Riobamba, and six on the road. Another instance of this dogged adherence to custom was related to us by Dr. Taylor: The Indians were accustomed to bring the curate of a certain village a bun- dle of alfalfa every day. A new curate, having no use for so much, ordered them not to bring any more. He was besieged by five hundred of his wild parishioners, and had he not been a powerful man, they would have killed him. They told him they were accustomed to bring the curate that much of alfalfa, and should continue. Old Riobamba (Cajabamba) is situated twelve miles to the west. This has been the scene of some of the most terrible paroxysms that ever shook the Andes. In 1797 a part of Mount Cicalfa was thrown down, crushing the city at its foot; hills arose where valleys existed ; rivers disap- * According to Villavicencio, Rio (or Ric) is Quichua for road; bamba is plain. 154 Tue ANDES AND THE AMAZON. peared, and others took their places; and the very site of the city was rent asunder. The surviving inhabitants could not tell where their houses had stood, and property was so mingled that litigation followed the earthquake. Judging from the numerous sculptured columns lying bro- ken and prostrate throughout the valley, the city must have had a magnificence now unknown in Ecuador. Around a coat of arms (evidently Spanish) we .read these words: Malo mort quam fedari, “1 would rather die than be dis- graced.” In the spring of 1868 another convulsion caused a lake to disappear and a mountain to take its place. Near Punin, seven miles southwest of Riobamba, we dis- covered in a deep ravine numerous fossil bones, belonging chiefly to the mastodon, and extinct species of the horse, deer, and llama. They were imbedded in the middle of an unstratified cliff, four hundred feet high, of very com- pact silt or trachytic clay, free from stones, and resting on a hard quartzoze sandstone. In the bed of the stream which runs through the ravine (charged with nitrate of soda) are some igneous rocks. The bones were drifted to this spot and deposited (many of them in a broken state) ’ in horizontal layers along with recent shells. We have, then, this remarkable fact, that this high valley was ten- anted by elephantine quadrupeds, all of which passed away before the arrival of the human species, and yet while the land, and probably the sea also, were peopled with their present molluscan inhabitants. This confirms the state- ment of Mr. Lyell, that the longevity of mammalian spe- cies is much inferior to that of the testacea. It is interest- ing to speculate on the probable climate and the character of the vegetation in this high valley when these extinct mammifers lived. The great pachyderm would have no difficulty in thriving at the present day at Quito, on the score of temperature or altitude. The mammoth once HAcrenDA oF CHILLo. 155 flourished in Siberia; and Gibbon met an elephant on the high table-lands of Bolivia that had walked over the Cor- dillera at the pass of Antarangua, sixteen thousand feet above the sea. Darwin thinks that the climate of the Cor- dilleras has changed since the pleistocene period. “It is a marvelous fact in the history of mammalia (says this nat- uralist) that in South America a native horse should have lived and disappeared, to be succeeded in after ages by the countless herds descended from the few introduced with the Spanish colonists.” The high ridge of Chisinchi, stretching across the great plateau from Cotopaxi to Iliniza, separates the ever-green Valley of Quito from the arid and melancholy valleys of Cuenca and Ambato. It rolls out like a rich carpet of em- erald verdure between the towering mountains of Pichincha and Antisana, Cotacachi and Cayambi. This was the cen- tre of the most ancient native civilization after that of Ti- ticaca. Here, while the darkness of the Middle Ages was settling over Europe, dwelt the Quitus, whose origin is lost in the mists of fable. Then, while Peter the Hermit was leading his fanatic host against the Saracens, the Cara na- tion waged a more successful crusade, and supplanted the Quitus. Here, too, in the bloody days of Pizarro, reigned, and was buried, the last of the Incas, ill-fated Atahuallpa. To him, indeed, it was a more delightful spot than the vale of Vileamayu—the paradise of Peru. The Puengasi Hills, running through the valley from north to south, partially divide the capital and its vicinity from the charming Valley of Chillo, spread out at the foot of Antisana. Here is the venerable hacienda of Chillo, where Humboldt and Bonpland resided for some time. It is owned by the Aguirres, who are grand-nephews of Don Carlos Montufar, the companion of the famous travelers. The hacienda contains two valuable paintings—an original 156 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. “ Crucifixion” by Titian, and a.portrait of the great Ger- man from life, as he appeared in 1802. This latter relic in- terested us exceedingly, and, through the kindness of Sr. fe Aguirre, we were allowed to photograph it. It represents Humboldt in his prime, a traveler on the Andes, dressed after the court-fashion of Berlin; very different from the a Tuer GREAT EARTHQUAKE. 157 usual portrait—an old man in his library, his head, thinly covered with gray hair, resting on his bosom. Thirty miles north of Quito, near the voleanic Imbabura, is the ruined city of Otovalo, a thousand feet lower than the capital. It was well built, and contained 7000 inhab- itants. Quichua was the prevailing language. Its chief trade was in saddles, ponchos, straw hats, and fruit. Here was the cotton factory, or guinta, of Sr. Pareja. Three miles from Otovalo was the enterprising Indian village of Cotocachf, at the mountain of the same name. It was noted for its hand-loom products. A heap of ruins now marks the locality. It is a doomed spot, suffering more than any other town in 1859. Four miles northwest of Otovalo was the city of Ibarra, picturesquely seated on a plain 2000 feet lower than Quito, and surrounded with orchards and gardens. It numbered nearly 10,000 souls. It was not a commercial place, but the residence of landed proprietors. The neighborhood produced cotton, sugar, and fruit. A league distant was Carranqui, the birthplace of Atahuallpa. And, finally, the great valley fitly terminates in the plain of Atuntaqui,* where the decisive battle was fought which ushered in the reign of the Incas. This northern province of Imbabura was the focus of the late terrible earthquake. At half past one on Sunday morning, August 16, 1868, with scarcely a premonitory sign (save a slight trembling at 3 p.m. the previous day), there was an upheaving of the ground, and then one tremendous shock and rocking of the earth, lasting one minute. In that brief moment the rich and flourishing province became a wilderness, and “ Misericordia!” went up, like the sound of many waters, from ten villages and cities. Otovalo, Ibarra, * Atuntaqui received its name from the big drum which was kept here in the days of Huayna-Capac, to give the war-signal. 158 Tue ANDES AND THE AMAZON. Cotocachf, and Atantaqui are heaps of ruins. At Otovalo 6000 perished. After the first shock, not a wall a yard high remained. Houses, in some instances, seemed to have been cut from their foundation, and thrown ten feet distant. Ibarra. The large stone fountain in the Plaza was thrown many yards. The cotton factory, which was built on the edge of a ravine, was by one stroke reduced to fragments. Such was the force of the concussion, the looms smashed each Tue Great EARTHQUAKE. 159 other, the carding-machines were thrown on their sides, and the roof, with part of the machinery, was found in the riv- er below. The proprietor was killed. Throughout this whole region roads were broken up, and vast chasms cre- ated crossing the country in all directions. One is 2000 yards long, 500 yards broad, and 80 yards deep. Large fis- sures were opened on the sides of Cotocachi and Imbabura, from which issued immense torrents of water, mud, and bi ttuminous substances, carrying away and drowning hundreds of cattle. A caravan of mules going to Chillo with cotton: bales was found four days after grazing on a narrow strip of land, on each side of which was a fearful chasm, while the muleteers were killed. At Quito comparatively little damage was done. Fif- teen lives were lost, and the churches, convents, and many private houses are in a state of dilapidation. Domes and arches, which are much used because of the scarcity of tim- ber, were first to fall. In the fierceness of the shock, and the extent of the ter. ritory shaken, the earthquake of August, 1868, is without a parallel in the New World. The destruction of life (50,000 officially reported in Ecuador alone) has not been equaled in any other earthquake during this century. The tremor was felt over four republics, and from the Andes to the Sandwich Islands. The water-wave was felt on the coast of New Zealand sixteen haurs after it had set a United States gunboat on the sand-hills of Arica. In some re- spects it is surpassed only by the Lisbon earthquake, which reached from Sweden to the West Indies, and from Barba- ry to Scotland. The loss of property seems to have been greatest in Peru, and the loss of life greatest in Ecuador. The commotion seemed to be most violent along the West- ern Cordillera, though it was felt even on the Napo. There are few places where the crust of eur planet is 160 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. long at rest. Brazil, Egypt, Russia, and Greenland are comparatively free from earthquakes. But had we delicate instruments scattered throughout the world, upheaval and subsidence would doubtless be detected in every part of the so-called terra firma. The sea, and not the land, is the true image of stability. ‘¢ Time writes no wrinkle on thy azure brow : Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou rollest now.” Earthquakes have occurred in every period of geological history, and are independent of latitude. The first well- known earthquake came in the year 63, and shattered Pom- peii and Herculaneum sixteen years before they were over- whelmed by the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius. The most celebrated earthquake, and perhaps the most terrible manifestation of force during the human period, was in 1755. The shock, which seemed to originate in the bed of the Atlantic, pervaded one twelfth of the earth’s surface. Unhappy Lisbon stood in its path. An earthquake is a vertical vibration, having an undu- latory progression. An example of the simple bounding movement occurred in 1797, when the city of Riobamba, in the Quito Valley, was buried under part of a mountain shaken down by the violent concussion, and men were toss- ed several hundred feet. We saw one massive structure which had nearly turned a somersault. The ordinary vi- brations seldom exceed two feet in height. The wave- movement has a rate of from twenty to thirty miles a min- ute, depending on the elasticity of the rock and the eleva.’ tions on the surface. When two undulations cross each other, a rotatory or twisting motion is produced. The waves are generally transmitted along the lines of primary mountain chains, which are doubtless seated on a fracture. The Lisbon waves moved from southwest to northeast, or parallel to the mountain system of the Old World; those EARTHQUAKES. 161 of the United States, in 1843, ran parallel to the volcanic chain in Mexico. In South America they roll along the Andes. That of 1797 left its tracks along a westerly line from Tunguragua through Peliléo and Guano. It is a lit- tle singular, that while the late trembling at Quito seemed to come from the north, the great shock in Peru preceded that m Keuador by three days. Though the origin of earthquakes is deep-seated, the oscillation is mostly super- ficial, as deep mines are little disturbed. The most damage is done where the sedimentary plains abut against the hard, upturned strata of the mountains. The shock is usually brief. That of Caracas lasted fifty seconds, that of Lisbon six minutes; but Humboldt witnessed one in South Amer- ica which continued a quarter of an hour. Several hypotheses have been advanced to account for earthquakes. Rogers ascribes them to billowy pulsations in the molten matter upon which the flexible crust of the earth floats. Mallet thinks they may be viewed as an un- completed effort to establish a volcano. Dana holds that they are occasioned by the folding up of the rocks in the slow process of cooling and consequent contraction of the earth’s crust. In this process there would occur enormous fractures to relieve the tension ; tilted strata would slip, and caverns give way. All this no doubt takes place; but the sudden, paroxysmal heavings incline us to refer the cause to the same eruptive impulse which makes Vesuvius and Cotopaxi discharge pent-up subterranean vapor and gas. The most destructive earthquakes occur when the overlying rocks do not break and give vent to the imprisoned gas. There is some connection between volcanoes and earth- quakes; the former are, to a certain extent, “safety-valves.” The column of smoke from the volcano of Pasto suddenly disappeared just before the great earthquake at Riobamba. In the spring of 1868 ey iache and Cotopaxi showed signs 162 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. of increasing activity, but in the summer became quiet again. Cotocachi and Sangai, 200 miles apart, were awaked simul- taneously ; the former, silent for centuries, sent forth dense masses of earth and volcanic matter to a distance of many miles, covering thousands of acres; the latter thundered every half hour instead of hourly, as before. Still, the greatest earthquakes do not occur in the vicinity of active volcanoes. Lisbon and Lima (where, on an average, forty- five shocks occur annually, and two fearful ones in a cen- tury) are far distant from any volcanic vent; likewise North- ern India, South Africa, Scotland, and the United States. An earthquake is beyond the reach of calculation. Pro- fessor Perrey, of Dijon, France, is endeavoring to prove that there is a periodicity in earthquakes, synchronous with that in the tides of the ocean, the greatest number occur- ring at the time of new and full moon.* If this theory be sustained, we must admit the existence of a vast subterra- nean sea of lava. But all this is problematical. Earth- quakes appear independently of the geology of a country, though the rate of undulation is modified by the mineral structure. Earthquake waves seem to move more rapidly through the comparatively undisturbed beds of the Missis- sippi Valley than through the contorted strata of Europe. Meteorology is unable to indicate a coming earthquake, for there is no sure prophecy in sultry weather, sirocco wind, * Professor Quinby, of the University of Rochester, has, at our request, cal- culated the position of the moon at the late earthquake: ‘‘ August 16th, 1868, 1 a.m., the moon was on meridian 137° 21’ east of that of Quito, or 42° 39’ past the lower meridian of Quito, assuming the longitude of Quito west of Greenwich to be 79°, which it is very nearly. This is but little after the ver- tex of the tidal wave should have passed the meridian of Quito, on the suppo- : sition that the interior of the earth is a liquid mass. The age of the moon at that time was 27.36 days, z. e., it was only about two days before new moon.” At the time of the earthquake, 8 a.m., March 22, 1859, the moon was on me- ridian 25° 48’ east of that of Quito, and was 17.6 days old. Shocks have since occurred, March 20th at 3 a.m., and April 10th at § a.m., 1869. EARTHQUAKES. 163 and leaden sky. The Lisbon shock came without a warn- ing. Sudden changes of the weather, however, often oc- cur after an earthquake. Since the great convulsion of 1797 the climate of the Valley of Quito is said to be much colder. A heavy rain often follows a violent earthquake in Peru. No amount of familiarity with earthquakes enables one to laugh during the shock, or even at the subterranean thunders which sound like the clanking of chains in the realm of Pluto. All animated nature is terror-stricken. The horse trembles in his stall; the cow moans a low, mel- ancholy tune; the dog sends forth an unearthly yell; spar- rows drop from the trees as if dead; crocodiles leave the trembling bed of the river and run with loud cries into the forest ; and man himself becomes bewildered and loses all capacity. When the earth rocks beneath our feet (the motion resembling, in the words of Darwin, “that felt by a person skating over thin ice which bends under the weight of his body”), something besides giddiness is pro- duced. We feel our utter insignificance in the presence of a mysterious power that shakes the Andes like a reed. But more: there is an awful sensation of insecurity. “A moment (says Humboldt) destroys the illusion of a whole life: our deceptive faith in the repose of nature vanishes, and we feel transported, as it were, into a region of un- known destructive forces.” A judgment day seems im- pending, and each moment is an age when one stands on a world convulsed. 164 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. CHAPTER XI. “‘The Province of the Orient,” or the Wild Napo Country.—The Napos, Za- paros, and Jivaros Indians.—Preparations to cross the Continent. On the eastern slope of the Ecuadorian Andes, between the Marafion and its tributary the Putumayo, lies the Napo country. This almost unknown region has the area of New York and New England together. The government of Quito, by a sonorous decree in 1854, baptized it “ La Pro- vincia del Oriente.” Peru likewise claims it, but neither republic has done any thing to colonize it. A dense pri- meval forest, broken only by the rivers, covers the whole territory, and is the home of wild races untouched by civ- ilization.* There is not a road in the whole province. A footpath, open only in the dry season, and barely passable then, connects Quito and the Rio Napo. Congress lately promised to put Canélos in communication with the capi- tal; but the largest villages in this vast and fertile region— Archidona, Canélos, and Macas—still remain isolated from the outer world.t Ecuador once appointed a functionary under the high-sounding title of “Governor of the Orient,” with a salary of $700; but now the Indians are not troub- led with any higher official than an alcalde. * The boundary-line between Ecuador and Peru is about as indefinite as the eastern limit of Bolivia, Brazilians claiming ‘‘ as far west as the cattle of the empire roam.” + Quito might be made more accessible on the Atlantic than on the Pacific side. But Ecuadorians dote on Guayaquil, and refuse to connect themselves directly with the great nations of the East. We believe there is a glorious future for Quito, when it will once more become a city of palaces. But it will not come until a road through the wilderness and a steamer on the Napo open a short communication with the wealth of Amazonia and the enterprise of Europe. Napvo Iyprans. 165 The country is very thinly inhabited. The chief tribes are the semi-Christianized Napos (sometimes called Quijos), dwelling on the north bank of the Napo; the peaceful but uncivilized Zaparos, living between the Napo and Pastassa, and the warlike Jivaros, spread over the unexplored region between the Pastassa and Santiago. These oriental tribes would probably be assigned by D’Orbigny to the Antisian branch of the Alpine races of South America. Dwelling amid the darkness of primeval forests, and on the gloomy banks of mountain torrents, they have acquired modifications of character, physical and mor- al, which distinguish them from the natives of the high and open regions, or the steaming lowlands of the Ama- - zon. In color, however, they do not appear to us to be en- titled to the name of “ white men;” they approach nearer to the bronze complexion of the Quichuans than the yellow cast of the Brazilians. We see no evidence of that “ bleach- ing process” resulting from a life under the dense canopy of foliage of which the learned French naturalist speaks, neither did we perceive the force of his statement that the color of the South American bears a very decided re- lation to the humidity of the atmosphere. The features of the Napo Indians are Quichuan, espe- cially the low forehead, squarely-built face, and dull ex- pression; but in stature they exceed the mountaineers. From a skull in our possession we take the following measurements, adding for comparison the dimensions of an ancient Peruvian cranium in Dr. Morton’s collection: Napo. Peruvian. Longitudinal diameter...................2. 63 in. 6.1 in. Parietal Se os iis Re eee Ree 5g SS 6s Frontal - HON | Tice osboscsceooBeREEeD 4% aT Vertical MEMES RER GT cies oc 5c2eie0s, 42 5apiee Capacityenc.carsascmeeveacueeey eter scces cds: 8344 cub.in. 83 cub. in. Facial anglet: tcencsdstetspscabecesiie ses 70° 81° 166 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. From this it will be seen that the capacity of this indi- vidual Napo is 8 cubic inches greater than the average bulk (75 cubic inches) of the old Peruvians; a trifle less than the average North American (84); 10 cubic inches less than the European (94); and the same as the average Polynesian and native African. He has a rounded head, somewnat prominent vertex, not an excessive protuberance of brain behind—a line through the meatus dividing it into very nearly equal parts; but a narrow front as viewed from above, small vertical diameter, quadrangular orbits, vertical teeth, and low facial angle. These characters place him between the Toltecan and the more barbarous tribes of the New World. The Napos are nominally subject to the Ecuadorian government, which is represented by three or four petty alcaldes; but the Jesuit missionaries, who have established a bishopric and three curacies, generally control affairs— spiritual, political, and commercial. The Indians of each village annually elect one of their number governor, who serves without salary, and whose only show of authority is a silver-headed cane about four feet long. He is attend- ed by half a dozen “justices,” whose duty it is to supply the curate, alcalde, and any traveling blanco who may happen to be in town with daily food at a reasonable rate. The religion of the Napos is a mixture of Paganism and Christianity. In common with all the other orient tribes, they believe in good and evil principles, and in metempsy- chosis. They swear in the name of the devil. They bury their dead horizontally, in a coffin made of a part of a ca- noe, with a lid of bamboo. They are very kind to the aged. Monogamy is the rule: the usual age of wedlock is sixteen or seventeen. The parents negotiate the marriage, and the curate’s fee is one castellano ($3 50). When a person dies they hold an Irish “wake” over the body, and then Inpian FEstIvALs. 167 take the widow to the river and wash her. They have seven semi-religious feasts in a year. To us they appeared to be nothing more than meaningless drunken frolies. Attired in their best, with head-dresses consisting of a cir- clet of short, richly-colored feathers from the breast of the toucan, surmounted with the long tail-feathers of the ma- caw, and with necklaces of beads, seeds, and monkeys’ teeth, they keep up a constant monotonous tapping on little drums, and trot around a circle like dogs on a tread- mill, stopping only to drink chicha. This is kept up for three weeks, when they all start off, with wives and chil- dren, for the forest to hunt monkeys for meat. Chicha, the favorite drink of all the Andean Indians, is here brewed from yuca, not from corn and barley as in the Quito Valley. So true is it, ds Humboldt remarks, that almost every where man finds means of preparing some kind of beverage from the vegetable kingdom. The Chi- lotans, Darwin informs us, make chicha from a species of Bromelia. In every zone, too, we find nations in a low degree of civilization living almost exclusively upon a sin- gle animal or plant. Thus the Laplander has his reindeer, the Esquimaux his seal, the Sandwich Islander his tara- root, the Malay his sago-palm, the Napo Indian his yuca. Yuca is the staple food in this region. It is more com- monly roasted, but is sometimes ground into flour. The manufacture of chicha is primitive, and not a little dis- gusting. A “bee,” usually old women, sit around a wooden trough; each one takes a mouthful of yuca root, and, mas- ticating it, throws it into the trough. The mass is then transferred to large earthen jars containing water, and left to ferment. The liquor is slightly acid, but not intoxica- ting unless taken in excess. This is done on feast-days, when the poor Indian keeps his stomach so constantly dis- tended for weeks that the abdominal protrusion is not only 168 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. unsightly, but alarming to a stranger. Chicha-drinking is a part of the worship of these simple aborigines. They seem to think that the more happy they make themselves while paying their devotions to the Creator, the better he is satisfied. The Jesuits have found it impossible to change this method of praise. Here, as among all rude nations, an ancient custom is one half the religion. In eating meat (usually monkey, sea-cow, and peccari), we observed that they did not tear or bite it, but, putting one end of a long piece in the mouth, cut off what they could not get in, as Darwin noticed among the Fuegians. They keep no domestic animals except fowls. As to dress, they make use of a coarse cotton cloth, call- ed dienzo, woven bythe more enlightened Indians of Qui- to, dyeing it a dull brown by means of achote juice. The men wear a strip of this around the loins, and the women a short skirt. On feast-days, or when musquitoes are thick, the men add a little poncho and pantaloons. They do not properly tattoo, but color the skin with achote or anatto. This substance, which serves so many purposes in this part of the world, is the red powder which covers the seeds con- tained in the prickly bur of the Bixza orellana. The pig- ment is an article of commerce on the Amazon, and is exported to Europe, where it is used for coloring butter, cheese, and varnish. They have no fixed pattern; each paints to suit his fancy. Usually, however, they draw hor- izontal bands from the mouth to the ears, and across the forehead; we never saw curved lines in which higher sav- ages, like the Tahitians, tattoo. The Napos have the provoking apathy of all the New World aborigines. As Humboldt observed of another tribe, “their poverty, stoicism, and uncultivated state ren- der them so rich and so free from wants of every kind, that neither money nor other presents will induce them to Napvo Inprans. 169 turn three steps out of their ways.” They maintain a pass- ive dignity in their bearing not seen in the proudest pope or emperor. They seldom laugh or smile, even under the inspiration of chicha, and months of intercourse with them did not discover to us the power of song, though Villavi- cencio says they do sometimes intone fragments of prose in their festival orgies. They manifest little curiosity, and little power of mimicry, in which wild men generally ex- cel the civilized.* The old Spartans were never so la- conic. In conversation each says all he has to say in three or four words till his companion speaks, when he replies in the same curt, ejaculatory style. A long sentence, or a number of sentences at one time, we do not remember of hearing from the lips of a Napo Indian.+ The women do most of the work, while their lazy lords drink up the chicha and swing in their hammocks, or pos- sibly do a little hunting.t They catch fish with bone hooks, seines, spears, and by poisoning the water with dar- basco.§ This last method is quite common throughout equatorial America. Mashing the root, they throw it into the quiet coves of the river, when almost immediately the fish rise to the surface, first the little fry and then the larger specimens. ‘The poison seems to stupefy rather than kill, * All savages appear to possess to an uncommon degree the power of mim- icry.— Darwin. + Gibbon observes of his Indian paddlers on the Mamoré: ‘‘ They talk very little; they silently pull along as though they were sleeping, but their eyes are wandering all the time in every direction.” t Some of these feminines, however, have a method of retaliation which happily does not exist farther north. They render their husbands idiotic by giving them an infusion of floripondio, and then choose another consort. We saw a sad example of this near Riobamba, and heard of one husband who, after being thus treated, unconsciously served his wife and her new man like a slave. Floripondio is the seed of the Datura sanguinea, which is allied to the poisonous stramonium used by the priests of Apollo at Delphi to produce their frantic ravings. § Jacquinia armillaris, an evergreen bush. The Indians on the Tapajos use a poisonous liana called timbdé (Paullinia pinnata). 170 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. for we observed that some individuals behayed in a most lively manner shortly after they were caught. The In- dians drink the water with impunity. The Napos are not brave; their chief weapons for hunt- ing are spears of chonta wood, and blowpipes (bodaqueras) made of a small palm having a pith, which, when removed, leaves a polished bore, or of two separate lengths of wood, each scooped out with patient labor and considerable skill by means of the incisor teeth of a rodent. The whole is smeared with black wax, a mouth-piece fitted to the larger end, and a sight made of bone imbedded in the wax. Through this tube, about ten feet long, they blow slender arrows cut from the leaf-stalks of a palm. These are winged with a tuft of silk-cotton (common cotton would be too heavy), and poisoned with wrari, of which we shall speak hereafter. This noiseless gun is universally used on the Upper Amazon.* The Zaparos in physiognomy somewhat resemble the Chinese, having a middle stature, round face, small eyes set angularly, and a broad, flat nose. Their language is of simple construction, but nasal and guttural. They have no words for numbers above three, but show their fingers; above ten they know nothing. They take to themselves single names, not double. They reckon time by moons and the ripening of certain fruits. Their name for God is Pidtzo, but we could not learn that it conveyed any distinct idea. They believe the evil spirit, “ Mungia,” is a black spectre dwelling in the woods. They think the souls of the good and brave enter beautiful birds and feed on de- licious fruits, while cowardly souls become dirty reptiles. Polygamy is common. They bury in the sitting posture, * It is there called zarabatana or gravatana; by the Peruvians pucuna. It corresponds to the sumpitan of Borneo. It is difficult to acquire the use of the blow-gun, but the natives will kill at the distance of 150 feet. One which we brought home sent the slender arrow through the panel of a door. Tur Witp Jivaros. fal with the hammock of the deceased wrapped around him. The very old men are buried with the mouth downward. They make use of a narcotic drink called Ayahuasca, which produces effects similar to those of opium. The Zaparos are pacific and hospitable, but there is little social life among them; they never cluster into large villages, but inhabit isolated ranchos. Nomadic in their habits, they wander along the banks of the Napo, between the Andes and the Maraiion. They manufacture, from the twisted fibre of the chambiri-palm,* most of the twine and hammocks seen in Eastern Ecuador. Their government is - patriarchal. The Jivaros, or “ Red Indians” par excellence, are the most numerous and the most spirited of the oriental tribes. They are brave and resentful, yet hospitable and industri- ous. While the Napos and Zaparos live in rude, often temporary huts of split bamboo, the warlike Jivaros erect houses of hard wood with strong doors. Blood relations live together on the communal principle, the women keep- ing the rear half of the house, which is divided by a parti- tion. Many Jivaros approach the Caucasian type, the beard and lighter skin hinting a percentage of Spanish blood ; for this tribe was never conquered by the Incas, nor did it brook Spanish avarice and cruelty, but in one terrible con- flict (1599) the intruder was swept out of existence. The wives of the El Dorado adventurers spent the rest of their days in the harems of the Jivaros. These Indians have the singular custom and art of compressing the heads of their notable captives; taking off the skin entire and drying it over a small mould, they have a hideous mummy which preserves all the features of the original face, but on a re- * This thorny palm is called tucwm in Brazil. The fibres of the budding top are used. A woman will twist a hundred yards of twine a day, and make .a living by selling hammocks for twenty-five cents a piece. 172 Tur ANDES AND THE AMAZON. duced scale.* They also braid the long black hair of their foes into girdles, which they wear as mementoes of their prowess. They use chonta-lances with triangular points, notched and poisoned, and shields of wood or hide. They have a telegraphic system which enables them to concen- trate their forces quickly in time of war; large drums are placed on the tops of the hills, and a certain number of strokes, repeated along the line, rapidly convey intelli- gence to the most distant habitation. An odd custom prevails among these wild Indians when an addition is made to the family circle. The woman goes into the woods alone, and on her return washes herself and new-born babe in the river; then the husband immediate- ly takes to his bed for eight days, during which time the wife serves him on the choicest dainties she can procure.t They have also the unique practice of exchanging wives. The Jivaro speech is sonorous and energetic. They do not use salt; so that they distinguish the Napo tribes as the “ Indians who eat salt.” The chief articles manufac- tured by them are cotton goods and blowpipes. They trade mostly at Canélos and Macas, generally purchasing iron implements, such as hatchets and knives. Canélos consists of about seventy families of Quichua- speaking Indians, and lies on the south bank of the Bobo- naza.