2i6 A VOYAGE TO BookV. 



overcome, that I fell down, and remained a long time 

 without sense or motion ; and, as I was told, with all 

 the appearances of death in my face. Nor was I able 

 to proceed after coming to myself, but was obliged to 

 return to the foot of the rock, where our servants and 

 instruments remained. The next day I renewed the 

 attempt of climbing the rocki though probably I 

 ¡should have had no better success than before,;^ had 

 not some Indians assisted me in the most steep and 

 difficult places. 



The strange manner of living which we were redu- 

 ced to, may not, perhaps, prove unentertaining to 

 the reader i and therefore í shall, as a specimen of it, 

 give a succinct account of what we suffered on Pi- 

 chincha. For this desert, both with regard to the 

 operations we performed there, and its inconveniences, 

 differing very little from others, an idea may be very 

 easily formied of the fatigues, hardships, and dangers, 

 to which we were continually exposed. The prin- 

 cipal difference between the several deserts, consisted 

 in their greater or lesser distance from places where 

 we could procure provisions ; and in the inclemency 

 of the weather, which was proportionate to the height 

 of the mountains, and the season of the year when 

 we visited them. 



We generally kept within our hut. Indeed^ we 

 were obliged to do this, both on account of the in- 

 tenseness of the cold, the violence of the wind, and 

 our being continually involved in so thick a fog, that 

 an object at six or eight paces was hardly discernible. 

 When the fog cleared up, the clouds, by their gra- 

 vity, moved nearer to the surface of the earth, and 

 on all sides surrounded the mountain to a vast di- 

 stance, representing the sea, with our rock like an 

 inland in the centre of it. When this happened, we 

 heard the horrid noises of the tempests, which then 

 discharged themselves on Quito and the neighbour- 

 ing country. We saw the lightnings issue from the 



clouds. 



