222 A VOYAGE TO Book V, 



panics were both at that timt? on this desert, so that 

 tlie sufferings of both were equal. The Indians who 

 attended us, not willing to bear the severity of the 

 cold, and disgusted with the freqiient labour of clear- 

 ing the tent from the snow, at t|ie first ravages of 

 the wind, deserted us. Thus w^e were obliged to 

 perform every thing ourselves, till others v/ere sent 

 us from a scat about three leagues distant at the bot- 

 tom of the mountain. 



While we were thus labouring under a variety of 

 difficulties from the v/ind, snow, frost, and the cold, 

 which we here found more, severe than in any other 

 part; forsaken by our Indians, little or no provisions, 

 a scarcity of fuel, and, in a manner, destitute of shel* 

 tcr, the good priest of Cannar, a tovv^n situated at the 

 foot of these Cordilleras, south West from the signal 

 of Sinasaguan, about five leagues from it, and the 

 road very difncuk, was offering up his prayers for us ; 

 for he, and all the Spaniards of the town, from the 

 blackness of the clouds, gave us over for lost ; so 

 that, after finishing our observations., when we passed 

 through the town, they viewed us with astonishment, 

 and received us with the most cordial signs of de- 

 light, adding their congratulations, as if w'e had, 

 amidst the most threatening dangers^, obtained agio* 

 rious victory. And, doubtless, our operations must 

 appear to them a very extraordinary performance, if 

 v/e consider the inexpressible horror with which they 

 view those places where we had passed so many days. 



It was at first determined to erect signals of wood 

 in the form of a pyramid ; but to render our stay in 

 the piercing colds of these regions as short as possible, 

 \ve abandoned that intention, of which there would 

 have been no end ; because, after remaining several 

 days in the densest parts of the clouds, when a clear 

 interval happened, the signals couM not be distin-» 

 guishcd: some the v/inds had blown down, and others 

 iad been carried away by the Indians who tended 



tlieir 



