The Andes and the Amazon Part 18

The semi-civilized Ticunas, Mundurucus, etc., have one costume--the men in trowsers and white cotton shirts, the women in calico petticoats, with short, loose chemises, and their hair held in a knot on the top of the head by a comb, usually of foreign make, but sometimes made of bamboo splinters. The wild tribes north and south go nearly or quite nude, while those on the western tributaries wear cotton or bark togas or ponchos. The habitations are generally a frame-work of poles, thatched with palm-leaves; the walls sometimes latticed and plastered with mud, and the furniture chiefly hammocks and earthen vessels.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Native Comb.]

[Footnote 181: Authors compute in South America from 280 to 700 languages (Abbe Royo said 2000), of which four fifths are composed of idioms radically distinct.]

The Mundurucus are the most numerous and warlike tribe in Amazonia. They inhabit both banks of the Tapajos, and can muster, it is said, 2000 fighting men. They are friendly to the whites, and industrious, selling to traders large quant.i.ties of farina, sarsaparilla, rubber, and tonka beans. Their houses are conical or quadrangular huts, sometimes open sheds, and generally contain many families. According to Wallace, the Mundurucus are the only perfectly tattooed nation in South America. It takes at least ten years to complete the tattooing of the whole person.

The skin is p.r.i.c.ked with spines, and then the soot from burning pitch rubbed in. Their neighbors, the Pararauates, are intractable, wandering savages, roaming through the forest and sleeping in hammocks slung to the trees. They have delicately-formed hands and feet, an oval face, and glistening black eyes. On the west side of the Tapajos, near Villa Nova, are the Mauhes, an agricultural tribe, well formed, and of a mild disposition. On the Lower Madeira are the houseless, formidable Araras, who paint their chins red with achote (anatto), and usually have a black tattooed streak on each side of the face. They have long made the navigation of the great tributary hazardous. Above them dwell the Parentintins, light colored and finely featured, but nude and savage. In the labyrinth of lakes and channels at the mouth of the Madeira live the lazy, brutal Muras, the most degraded tribe on the Amazon. They have a darker skin than their neighbors, an extraordinary breadth of chest, muscular arms, short legs, protuberant abdomens, a thin beard, and a bold, restless expression. They pierce the lips, and wear peccari tusks in them in time of war. The Indians on the Purus live generally on the communal principle, and are unwarlike and indolent. The Puru-purus bury in sandy beaches, go naked, and have one wife.

On the great northwest tributary of the Rio Negro, the Uacaiari, there are numerous tribes, collectively known as the Uaupes. They have permanent abodes, in shape a parallelogram, with a semicircle at one end, and of a size to contain several families, sometimes a whole tribe.

One of them, Wallace informs us, was 115 feet long by 75 broad, and about 30 high. The walls are bullet-proof. Part.i.tions of palm-leaves divide it into apartments for families, the chief occupying the semicircular end. The men alone wear clothes and ornaments, but both s.e.xes paint their bodies with red, black, and yellow colors in regular patterns. The men have a little beard, which they pull out, as also the eyebrows, and allow the hair to grow unshorn, tying it behind with a cord and wearing a comb; while the women cut theirs and wear no comb.

They are an agricultural people--peaceable, ingenious, apathetic, diffident, and bashful.

The Catauishes inhabit the banks of the Teffe. They perforate the lips, and wear rows of sticks in the holes. At the mouth of the Jurua are the uncivilized, but tall, n.o.ble-looking Marauas. They pierce the ears and lips, and insert sticks. They live in separate families, and have no common chief. Above them live the treacherous Arauas.[182] On the opposite side of the Amazon are the nearly extinct Pa.s.ses and Juris, the finest tribes in central South America. They are peaceable and industrious, and have always been friendly to the whites. The Pa.s.ses are a slenderly-built, light-colored, dignified, superior race, distinguished by a large square tattooed patch in the middle of the face. The Juris tattoo in a circle round the mouth. Near by are the Uaenambeus, or "Humming-birds," distinguished by a small blue mark on the upper lip. Higher up the j.a.pura is the large cannibal tribe of Miranhas, living in isolated families; and on the Tocantins dwell the low Caishanas, who kill their first-born children. Along the left bank of the Amazon, from Loreto to j.a.pura, are the scattered houses and villages of the Tucunas. This is an extensive tribe, leading a settled agricultural life, each horde having a chief and a "medicine-man," or priest of their superst.i.tions. They are good-natured and ingenious, excelling most of the other tribes in the manufacture of pottery; but they are idle and debauched, naked except in the villages, and tattooed in numbers of short, straight lines on the face. The Marubos, on the Javari, have a dark complexion and a slight beard; and on the west side of the same river roam the Majeronas--fierce, hostile, light colored, bearded cannibals. In the vicinity of Pebas dwell the inoffensive Yaguas. The shape of the head (but not their vacant expression) is well represented by Catlin's portrait of "Black Hawk," a Sauk chief. They are quite free from the enc.u.mbrance of dress, the men wearing a girdle of fibrous bark around the loins, with bunches looking like a mop hanging down in front and rear, and similar bunches hung around the neck and arms. The women tie a strip of brown cotton cloth about the hips. They paint the whole body with achote.[183] They sometimes live in communities. One large structure, with Gothic roof, is used in common; on the inside of which, around the walls, are built family sleeping-rooms. The Yaguas are given to drinking and dancing. They are said to bury their dead inside the house of the deceased, and then set fire to it; but this conflicts with their communal life. Perhaps, with the other tribes on the j.a.pura, Ica, and Napo, they are fragments of the great Omagua nation; but the languages have no resemblance. Of the Oriente Indians we have already spoken. The tall, finely-built Cucamas near Nauta are shrewd, hard-working canoe-men, notorious for the singular desire of acquiring property; and the Yameos, a white tribe, wander across the Maranon as far as Sarayacu. On the Ucayali are numerous vagabond tribes, living for the most part in their canoes and temporary huts. They are all lazy and faithless, using their wives (polygamy is common) as slaves. Infanticide is practiced, _i.e._, deformed children they put out of the way, saying they belong to the devil. They worship nothing. They bury their dead in a canoe or earthen jar under the house (which is vacated forever), and throw away his property.[184] The common costume is a long gown, called _cushma_, of closely-twilled cotton, woven by the women. Their weapons are two-edged battle-axes of hard wood, as palo de sangre, and bows and arrows. The arrows, five or six feet long, are made from the flower-stalk of the arrow-gra.s.s (_Gynerium_), the head pointed with the flinty chonta and tipped with bone, often anointed with poison. At the base two rows of feathers are spirally arranged, showing the Indian's knowledge of the rifle principle. When they have fixed abodes several families live together under one roof, with no division separating the women, as among the Red Indians on the Pasta.s.sa. The roof is not over ten feet from the ground. The Piros are the highest tribe; they have but one wife. The Conibos are an agricultural people, yet cannibals, stretching from the Upper Ucayali to the sources of the Purus. They are a fair-looking, athletic people, and, like the Shipibos, of ten wear a piece of money under the lip. The Campas are the most numerous and warlike.[185] They are little known, as travelers give them a wide berth. Herndon fancied they were the descendants of the Inca race. They are said to be cannibals, and from the specimen we saw we should judge them uncommonly sharp. He was averse to telling us any thing about his tribe, but turned our questions with an equivocal repartee and a laugh. The Cashibos, on the Pachitea, is another cannibal tribe. They are light colored and bearded. The dwarfish, filthy Rimos alone of the Ucayali Indians tattoo, though not so perfectly as the Mundurucus, using black and blue colors.

The other tribes simply paint. It was among these wild Indians on the Ucayali that the Franciscan friars labored so long and zealously, and with a success far greater and more lasting than that which attended any other missionary enterprise in the valley.

[Footnote 182: Near the sources of this river Castlenau locates the Canamas and Uginas; the former dwarfs, the latter having tails a palm and a half long--a hybrid from an Indian and Barigudo monkey.]

[Footnote 183: Query: Is the name Yagua (blood) derived from the practice of coloring the body red?]

[Footnote 184: Compare the ancient burial custom on the Andes: "On the decease of the Inca his palaces are abandoned: all his treasures, except those that were employed in his obsequies, his furniture and apparel, were suffered to remain as he left them, and his mansions, save one, were closed up forever."--_Prescott_.]

[Footnote 185: The women circ.u.mcise themselves, and a man will not marry a woman who is not circ.u.mcised. They perform the singular rite upon arriving at the age of p.u.b.erty, and have a great feast at the time.

Other tribes flog and imprison their daughters when they reach womanhood.]

The remaining inhabitants of the Amazon are mixed-breeds, Negroes, and whites. The amalgamations form the greater part of the population of the large towns. Von Tschudi gives a catalogue of twenty-three hybrids in Peru, and there are undoubtedly as many, or more, in Brazil. The most common are Mamelucos (offspring of white with Indian), Mulattoes (from white and Negro), Cafuzos or Zambos (from Indian and Negro), Curibocos (from Cafuzo and Indian); and Xibaros (from Cafuzo and Negro). "To define their characteristics correctly," says Von Tschudi, "would be impossible, for their minds partake of the mixture of their blood. As a general rule, it may be said that they unite in themselves all the faults without any of the virtues of their progenitors. As men they are generally inferior to the pure races, and as members of society they are the worst cla.s.s of citizens." Yet they display considerable talent and enterprise, as in Quito; a proof that mental degeneracy does not necessarily result from the mixture of white with Indian blood. "There is, however," confesses Bates, after ten years' experience, "a considerable number of superlatively lazy, tricky, and sensual characters among the half-castes, both in rural places and in the towns." Our observations do not support the opinion that the result of amalgamation is "a vague compound, lacking character and expression."

The moral part is perhaps deteriorated; but in tact and enterprise they often excel their progenitors.

Negroes are to be seen only on the Lower Amazon. By the new act of emanc.i.p.ation, such as are slaves continue so, but their children are free. Negroes born in the country are called creoles.

Of the white population, save a handful of English, French, and German, the Portuguese immigrants are the most enterprising men on the river.

They are willing to work, trade, or do any thing to turn a penny. Those who acquire a fortune generally retire to Lisbon. The Brazilians proper are the descendants of the men who declared themselves "free and independent" of the mother country. Few of them are of pure Caucasian descent, for the immigration from Portugal for many years has been almost exclusively of the male s.e.x. "It is generally considered bad taste in Brazil to boast purity of descent" (Bates, i, 241). Brazilians are stiff and formal, yet courteous and lively, communicative and hospitable, well-bred and intelligent. They are not ambitious, but content to live and enjoy what nature spontaneously offers. The most a Brazilian wants is farina and coffee, a hammock and cigar. Brazilian ladies have led a dreary life of constraint and silence, without education or society, the husband making a nun of his wife after the old bigoted Portuguese notion; but during the last twenty years the doors have been opened. Brazil attained her independence in 1823; Brazilian women in 1848.

Here, in this virgin valley, where every plant is an evergreen, possessing the most agreeable and enjoyable climate in the world, with a brilliant atmosphere, rivaled only by that of Quito, and with no changes of seasons--here we may locate the paradise of the lazy. Life may be maintained with as little labor as in the Garden of Eden. Perhaps no country in the world is capable of yielding so large a return for agriculture. Nature, evidently designing this land as the home of a great nation, has heaped up her bounties of every description--fruits of richest flavors, woods of finest grain, dyes of gayest colors, and drugs of rarest virtues; and left no sirocco or earthquake to disturb its people. Providence, moreover, has given the present emperor a wise and understanding heart; and the government is a happy blending of imperial dignity and republican freedom. White, Negro, half-caste, and Indian may be seen sitting side by side on the jury-bench. Certainly "the nation can not be a despicable one whose best men are able to work themselves up to positions of trust and influence."

G.o.d bless the Empire of the South!

CHAPTER XXIII.

How to Travel in South America.--Routes.--Expenses.--Outfit.--Precautions.--Dangers.

The most vague and incorrect notions prevail in respect to traveling in South America. The sources of trustworthy and desirable information are very meagre. Murray has not yet published a "Hand-book for the Andes;"

routes, methods, and expenses of travel are almost unknown; and the imagination depicts vampires and scorpions, tigers and anacondas, wild Indians and fevers without end, impa.s.sable rivers and inaccessible mountains as the portion of the tourist. The following statements, which can be depended upon, may therefore be acceptable to those who contemplate a trip on the Andes and the Amazon.

The shortest, cheapest, most feasible, and least interesting route across the continent is from Valparaiso to Buenos Ayres. The breadth of South America is here only eight hundred miles. By railroad from Valparaiso to the foot of the Andes; thence a short mule-ride by the Uspallata Pa.s.s (alt.i.tude 12,000 feet), under the shadow of Aconcagua to Mendoza; thence by coach across the pampas to the Rio Plata. The Portillo Pa.s.s (traversed by Darwin) is nearer, but more lofty and dangerous.

Bolivia offers the difficult path of Gibbon: From the coast to Cochabamba; thence down the Marmore and Madeira. There are three routes through Peru: First, from Lima to Mayro, by way of Cerro Pasco and Huanaco, by mule, ten days; thence down the Pachitea, by canoe, six days; thence down the Ucayali to Iquitos, by steamer, six days (forty-five hours' running time). When the road from Lima to Mayro is finished the pa.s.sage will be shortened four days. No snow is met in crossing the Andes in summer, but in winter it is very deep. Second (Herndon's route), from Lima to Tinga Maria, by way of Huanaco, by mule, fifteen days, distance three hundred miles (the pa.s.sage is difficult in the rainy season); thence by canoe fifteen days down the Huallaga to Yurimaguas. Third and best, by mule from Truxillo to Caximarca, five days (note the magnificent ruins); thence to Chachapoyas, seven days (here are pre-Incarial relics); thence to Moyabamba, eight days; thence on foot to Balsa Puerto, four days; thence by canoe to Yurimaguas, two days. Price of a mule from Truxillo to Moyabamba is $30; canoe-hire, $10. The Peruvian steamers arrive at Yurimaguas the fifth of every month and leave the seventh; reach Nauta the ninth and Iquitos the tenth; leave Iquitos the sixteenth and arrive at Tabatinga the nineteenth, to connect with the Brazilian line. Going up, they leave Tabatinga the twenty-first and arrive at Iquitos the twenty-fourth, stopping six days.

Running time from Yurimaguas to Tabatinga, forty-eight hours; fare, $70, gold; third-cla.s.s, $17. La Condamine's route, _via_ Loxa and the Maranon, is difficult; and Md. G.o.din's, _via_ the Pasta.s.sa, is perilous on account of rapids and savages. The transit by the Napo we will now give in detail.

Six hundred dollars in gold will be amply sufficient for a first-cla.s.s pa.s.sage from New York to New York across the continent of South America, making no allowance for stoppages. For necessary expenses in Ecuador, take a draft on London, which will sell to advantage in Guayaquil; so will Mexican dollars. American gold should be taken for expenses on the Amazon in Brazil; at Para it commands a premium. On the Maranon it is below par; Peruvian gold should therefore be bought at Guayaquil for that part of the route. Also French _medios_, or quarter francs; they will be very useful every where on the route, especially on the Upper Amazon, where change is scarce. Fifty dollars' worth will not be too many; for, as the Scotchman said of sixpences, "they are canny little dogs, and often do the work of shillings." Take a pa.s.sport for Brazil.

Leave behind your delicacies and superfluities of clothing; woolen clothes will be serviceable throughout. A trunk for mountain travel should not exceed 24 by 15 by 15 inches--smaller the better. Take a rubber air-pillow and mattress: there is no bed between Guayaquil and Para. A hammock for the Amazon can be bought on the Napo.

The Pacific Mail steamships, which leave New York on the first and sixteenth of each month, connect at Panama without delay with the British Steam Navigation line on the South Pacific. Fare, first-cla.s.s, from New York to Guayaquil, by way of Panama and Paita, $215, gold; second-cla.s.s, $128. Time to Panama, eight days; to Paita, four days; to Guayaquil, one day. A coasting steamer leaves Panama for Guayaquil the thirteenth of each month. There are two so-called hotels in Guayaquil.

"Los tres Mosqueteros," kept by Sr. Gonzales, is the best. Take a front room ($1 per day), and board at the Fonda Italiana or La Santa Rosa ($1 per day). Here complete your outfit for the mountains: saddle, with strong girth and crupper; saddle-bags, saddle-cover, sweat-cloth, and bridle ($40, paper), woolen poncho ($9), rubber poncho ($4), blanket ($6), leggins, native spurs and stirrups, knife, fork, spoon, tea-pot, chocolate (tea, pure and cheap, should be purchased at Panama), candles, matches, soap, towels, and tarpaulin for wrapping up baggage. Convert your draft into paper, _quantum sufficit_ for Guayaquil; the rest into silver.

Besides this outer outfit, an inner one is needed--of patience without stint. You will soon learn that it is one thing to plan and quite another to execute. "To get out of the inn is one half of the journey"

is very appropriately a Spanish proverb. Spaniards do nothing _d'appressado_ (in a hurry), but every thing _manana_ (to-morrow). You will find fondas, horses, and roads divided into the bad, the worse, and the worst, and bad is the best. But fret not thyself. "Serenity of mind," wrote Humboldt, "almost the first requisite for an undertaking in inhospitable regions, pa.s.sionate love for some cla.s.s of scientific labor, and a pure feeling for the enjoyment which nature in her freedom is ready to impart, are elements which, when they meet together in an individual, insure the attainment of valuable results from a great and important journey."

The journey to Quito must be made between May and November; in the rainy season the roads are impa.s.sable. From Guayaquil to Bodegas by Yankee steamer; fare, $2; time, eight hours. At Bodegas hire beasts at the _Consignacion_ for Guaranda; price for riding and cargo beasts, $4 each.

No extras for the _arriero_. A mule will carry two hundred and fifty pounds. Buy bread at Bodegas and Guaranda. The Indians on the road are very loth to sell any thing; buy a fowl, therefore, at the first opportunity, or you will have to live on dirty potato soup, and be glad of that. At the tambos, or wayside inns, you pay only for _yerba_ (fodder). Never unsaddle your beast till it is cool; an Indian will even leave the bridle on for a time. To Guaranda, three full days. There take mules (safer than horses in climbing the mountains) for Quito; $6 25, silver, per beast; time, five days. Be sure to leave Guaranda by 4 a.m., for in the afternoon Chimborazo is swept by furious winds. Also start with a full stomach; you will get nothing for two days. Drink sparingly of the snow-water which dashes down the mountain. You will be tempted to curse Chuquipoyo; but thank heaven it is no worse.

There are two hotels in Quito, French and American; the former has the better location, the latter the better rooms. Best front room, furnished, half a dollar a day; cheaper by the month. Meals (two), twenty-five cents each. The beef is excellent, but the _cuisine_--oh, onions! "G.o.d sends the meat, and the evil one cooks." You can hire a professional male cook (Indian) for $5 a month, but you can't teach him any thing. Fish is not to be had in Quito. Gibbon speaks of having some in Cuzco, but does not tell us where it came from.[186] Price of best flour, $3 60 per quintal; b.u.t.ter, thirty cents a pound; beef, $1 an arroba (twenty-five pounds); refined sugar, $3 50 an arroba; brown sugar (_rapidura_),[187] five cents a pound; cigars, from six to sixteen for a dime; cigarettes, five cents a hundred. Horse hire, from fifty cents to $1 per day. If you are to remain some time, buy a beast: a good mule costs $40; an ordinary horse, $50. The Post-office Department is a swindle. If you "pay through" you will find on your arrival home that your letters have been paid at both ends. Ask our consul at Guayaquil to forward them.

[Footnote 186: The Guayaquil market is well supplied with fish of a fair quality. Usually the fish of warm tropical waters are poor, but the cold "Humboldt current," which pa.s.ses along the west coast of Ecuador, renders them as edible as those of temperate zones.]

[Footnote 187: Called _chancaca_ in Peru. In flavor it is very nearly equal to maple-sugar.]

The necessary preparations for the Napo journey have been given in a previous chapter (Chap. XI). We might add to the list a few cans of preserved milk from New York, for you will not see a drop between the Andes and the Atlantic. Fail not to take plenty of lienzo; you must have it to pay the Indians, and any surplus can be sold to advantage. A bale of thirty varas costs about five dollars. Rely not at all on game; a champion sharpshooter could not live by his rifle. Santa Rosa and Coca will be represented to you as small New Yorks; but you will do well if you can buy a chicken between them.

From Quito to Papallacta, two days and a half; riding beast, $2 silver, and $1 20 for each cargo of three arrobas. At Papallacta hire Indians for Archidona; each carries three arrobas, and wants $5 silver in advance. You take to your feet; time, nine days, including one day of rest at Baeza. At Archidona you take a new set of peons for Napo at twenty-five cents apiece; time, one day. From Napo down the river to Santa Rosa, one day. You give two and a half varas of lienzo to each Indian, and the same for the canoe. From Santa Rosa to Pebas, on the Maranon, fifteen days; cost of an Indian, twenty-five varas; ditto for a canoe. We advise you to stop at Coca and rig up a raft or craft of some kind; we ascribe our uninterrupted good health to the length and breadth of our accommodations. The Peruvian steamer from the west arrives at Pebas on the sixteenth of each month; fare to Tabatinga, $15 gold; time, four days; running time, eleven hours. Brazilian steamer leaves Tabatinga the twentieth of each month; fare to Manaos, $44 44 gold; time, five days; distance, one thousand miles. From Manaos to Para, $55 55 gold; time, six days; distance, one thousand miles. The Brazilian steamers make semi-monthly trips. We found two hotels in Para--the "Italiana," dear and poor; the "Diana," unpretending but comfortable.

Charges at the latter for room and board, $2 a day. The best time for traveling on the Amazon is between July and December. The United States and Brazilian steamships on their homeward voyage call at Para the seventh of each month; fare to New York, $150 gold (the same as down the whole length of the Amazon); second cla.s.s, $75; time, fourteen days; distance by way of St. Thomas, 1610 + 1400 miles. Steamer for Rio the ninth of each month; fare, $125; time, twelve days; distance, 2190 miles. Fare from Rio to New York, $200. Fare by sailing vessel from Para to New York, from $50 to $75; time, three weeks. A British steamer from Rio stops at Para and Lisbon.

A word about health. First, take one grain of common-sense daily; do as the natives do, keep out of the noon-day sun, and make haste slowly.

Secondly, take with you quinine in two-grain pills, and begin to take them before leaving New York, as the great African traveler, Du Chaillu, recommended us. As preventive against the intermittent fevers on the lowlands and rivers, nothing is better than Dr. Copeland's celebrated pills--quinine, twelve grains; camphor, twelve grains; cayenne pepper, twelve grains. Mix with mucilage, and divide into twelve pills: take one every night or morning as required. On the Amazon carry guarana. Woolen socks are recommended by those who have had much experience of tropical fevers. Never bathe when the air is moist; avoid a chill; a native will not bathe till the sun is well up. Rub yourself with _aguardiente_ (native rum) after a bath, and always when caught in a shower. Freely exercise in Quito to ward off liver complaints. Drink little water; coffee or chocolate is better, and tea is best. Avoid spirits with fruit, and fruit after dinner. The sickliest time in Guayaquil is at the breaking up of the rainy season.

As to dangers: First, from the people. Traveling is as safe in Ecuador as in New York, and safer than in Missouri. There are no Spanish banditti, though some places, as Chambo, near Riobamba, bear a bad name.

It is not wise to tempt a penniless footpad by a show of gold; but no more so in Ecuador than any where. We have traveled from Guayaquil to Damascus, but have never had occasion to use a weapon in self-defense; and only once for offense, when we threatened to demolish an Arab sheik with an umbrella. Secondly, from brutes. Some travelers would have us infer that it is impossible to stir in South America without being "affectionately entwined by a serpent, or sprung upon by a jaguar, or bitten by a rattlesnake; jiggers in every sand-heap and scorpions under every stone" (_Edinburgh Review_, xliii, 310). Padre Vernazza speaks of meeting a serpent two yards in diameter! But you will be disappointed at the paucity of animal life. We were two months on the Andes (August and September) before we saw a live snake. They are plentiful in the wet season in cacao plantations; but the majority are harmless. Dr. Russel, who particularly studied the reptiles of India, found that out of forty-three species which he examined not more than seven had poisonous fangs; and Sir E. Tennent, after a long residence in Ceylon, declared he had never heard of the death of an European by the bite of a snake. It is true, however, that the number and proportion of the venomous species are greater in South America than in any other part of the world; but it is some consolation to know that, zoologically, they are inferior in rank to the harmless ones; "and certainly," adds Sidney Smith, "a snake that feels fourteen or fifteen stone stamping on his tail has little time for reflection, and may be allowed to be poisonous." If bitten, apply ammonia externally immediately, and take five drops in water internally; it is an almost certain antidote. The discomforts and dangers arising from the animal creation are no greater than one would meet in traveling overland from New York to New Orleans.

Finally, of one thing the tourist in South America may be a.s.sured--that dear to him, as it is to us, will be the remembrance of those romantic rides over the Cordilleras amid the wild magnificence of nature, the adventurous walk through the primeval forest, the exciting canoe-life on the Napo, and the long, monotonous sail on the waters of the Great River.

CHAPTER XXIV.

IN MEMORIAM.

"A life that all the Muses decked With gifts of grace that might express All comprehensive tenderness, All-subtilizing intellect."--TENNYSON.

On the east of the city of Quito is a beautiful and extensive plain, so level that it is literally a _table-land_. It is the cla.s.sic ground of the astronomy of the eighteenth century: here the French and Spanish academicians made their celebrated measurement of a meridian of the earth. As you stand on the edge of this plain just without the city, you see the dazzling summit of Cayambi looking down from the north; on your left are the picturesque defiles of Pichincha; on your right the slopes of Antisana. Close by you, standing between the city and the plain, is a high white wall inclosing a little plot, like the city above, "four square." You are reminded by its shape, and also by its position relative to Quito and Pichincha, of that other sacred inclosure just outside the walls of Jerusalem and at the foot of Olivet, the Garden of Gethsemane. This is the Protestant Cemetery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: P. Staunton]

Through the efforts of our late representative--now also numbered with the dead--this place was a.s.signed by the government for the interment of foreigners who do not die in the Romish faith. And there we buried our fellow-traveler, COLONEL PHINEAS STAUNTON, the artist of the expedition, and Vice-Chancellor of Ingham University, New York. On the 8th of September, 1867, we bore him through the streets of Quito to this quiet resting-place, without parade and in solemn silence--just as we believe his un.o.btrusive spirit would have desired, and just as his Savior was carried from the cross to the sepulchre. No splendid hea.r.s.e or nodding plumes; no long procession, save the unheard tread of the angels; no requiem, save the unheard harps of the seraphs. We gave him a Protestant Christian burial, such as Quito never saw. In this corner of nature's vast cathedral, the secluded shrine of grandeur and beauty not found in Westminster Abbey, we left him. We parted with him on the mount which is to be the scene of his transfiguration.