Í220 A VOYAGE TO Book V. 



and as every night the hail and snow which had 

 fallen formed a wall against the door, it was the bu- 

 siness of one or two to come up early and remove this 

 obstrucdon, that, when we pleased, we might open, 

 the door. For though our Negro servants were 

 lodged in a lirtle tent, their hands and feet were so co- 

 vered with chilblains, that they would rather have 

 suffered themselves to have been killed than move. 

 The Indians therefore came constantly up to dispatch 

 this work betwixt nine and ten in tiie morningj but 

 we had not been there above four or five days, v;hen 

 we were not a little alarmed to see ten, eleven, and 

 twelve come, without any news of our labourers; 

 when we were relieved by the honest servant men- 

 tioned above, who had withstood the seduction of 

 his countrym.en, and informed us of the desertion of 

 the four others. After great difficulty, he opened a 

 way for us to come out, when we all fell to clearing 

 our habitation from the masses of snow. We then 

 sent the Indian to the corregidor of Quito, with ad- 

 vice of our condition, who, with equal dispatch, sent 

 others, threatening to chastise them severely, if they 

 vere wanting in their duty. 



But the fear of punishment was not sufficient to 

 induce them to support the rigour of our situation ; 

 for within two days we missed them. On this second 

 desertion the corregidor, to prevent other inconve- 

 niences, sent four Indians under the care of an alcalde, 

 and gave orders for their being relieved every 

 fourth day. 



Twenty-three tediousdays we spent on this rock, 

 viz. to the 6th of September, and even without any 

 possibility of finishing our observations of the angles; 

 for, vyhen it was fair and clear weather with us, the 

 others, on whose summits were erected the signals 

 which formed the triangles for measuring the degrees 

 of the meridian, were hid in clouds; and when (as we 

 conjectured, for we could never plainly discern theni) 



those 



