Journey through Colombia and Ecuador. 305 



large force of woraen^ who are provided with sacks for the 

 lootj and their very name strikes terror into the heart of an 

 Ecuadorian. They are a fine, good-looking race, bnt the 

 word " Pastuso " is a term of insult in Colombia, and 

 signifies everything that is stupid and contemptible, for 

 notliing good can come out of Pasto. We stayed here but 

 ten days, and experienced much difficulty in getting mules 

 for the long distance to Quito. We found this stage of our 

 journey still more trying and arduous than that through the 

 country already traversed, for we were continuously at very 

 high altitudes and often exposed to snowstorms, our only dip 

 into warmer regions being at the hot valley of the Chota, 

 where we found the country all rock and sand, and everything 

 burnt up. In this barren place we lost two of our horses from 

 exhaustion, and were delayed two days at Ibarra before 

 finding others. Fortunately, on this portion of our route, we 

 generally managed to stop for the night in towns or villages, 

 as the road passes through Tiiquerres, Ipiales, Tulcan (the 

 frontier town), Ibarra, Otavalo, and other less important 

 localities ; but in most of them it is extremely difficult to 

 get anything to eat, and at many places impossible. When 

 we left Pasto we were not able to procure quite as many 

 mules as we needed, so, among other things, we left behind 

 the boxes of bird-skins that we had collected in the Cauca 

 and Patia valleys. These were to follow us later, but they 

 appear not to have been sent off for two or three months, 

 and by that time a revolution had begun in Ecuador, so 

 that the mules were seized by the revolutionists when they 

 crossed the frontier, and, so far as we could ascertain, our 

 boxes were rifled and left on the roadside. At any rate we 

 never recovered them, and the work of several months 

 was lost, with the exception of a few skins we had carried 

 with us. 



We made Quito our headquarters for several months, and 

 thoroughly explored all the country round, besides taking 

 trips down to the low forest-land on the Pacific side, as well as 

 to the Valle de Viciosa, in the eastern mountains at the back 

 of Cotopaxi. This little-known valley, or plateau, stands at 



SER. VIII. — VOL. I. X 



