Ch. ÍI. south AMERICA. aij 



their cattle on the sides of the mountains, tf()r the sake 

 of the timber and ropes. To remedy which, the only 

 expedient was to make the very tents in v/hi-ch we 

 lodged, serve for signals ; for tha order-; ofthema-^ 

 gistrate?, and threatenings of the priests, v/ere of lit* 

 tle consequence in such a desert couütry, where it was 

 almost impossible to discover the delinquents. 



The deserts of the mountains of Pambamarca and 

 Pichincha were the noviciates, in which We v/ere 

 inured to the severe life wc led from the beginning 

 of August i7j7, to the end of July 1739. Durin* 

 which ti-fnc, cur company occupied thirty-rive deserts; 

 and that of Don George Juan, thirty-two; the par- 

 ticulars of which shall be enumerated, together with 

 the names of all those on which we erected signals 

 for forming the triangles ; in ail which, the inconve- 

 niencies were the same, except that they became less 

 sensible, in proportion as our bodies became inured to 

 fatigue, and naturalized to the inclemencies of those 

 I'egions ; so tliat in time we were reconciled to a con- 

 tinual solitude, coarse provisions, and often a scarcity 

 of these. The diversity of temperatures did ftót in 

 the least affect us, when we descended from the in*' 

 tense cold of one of those deserts into the pb.ins and 

 valleys, where the heat, though but moderate, seemei 

 excessive to those coming from such frozen regions. 

 Lastly, without any concern, we encountered the dan- 

 gers unavoidable among those steep precipices, and á 

 great v^ariety of others to which we were continually 

 exposed. The little cabins of the Indians> and the 

 stalls for cattle scattered up and down en che skirts 

 of the mountains, and where v/e used to lodge in out 

 passage from one defert to anotlier, were to us spa- 

 cious palaces; mean villages appeared like splendid 

 cities, and the conversation of a priest, and tAi^o of 

 three of his companions, charmed us like the ban- 

 quet of Xenophon : the little markets he'd in tho*e 

 towns, when we happened to pass through rhem on 



::3uaaa' 



