444 A VOYAGE TO Book VJ. 



I cannot exactly determine the date of its appearance, 

 the paper on which I had wrote an account of it 

 being lost, when I was taken by the English : but 

 the particulars, which I remember, are as follow. 



About nine at night, a globe of fire appeared to 

 rise from the side of mount Pichincha ; and so large, 

 that it spread a light all over the part of the city 

 facinp- that mountain. The house where I lodired 

 looking that way, I was surprised Mith an extraor- 

 dinary light darting through the crevices of the 

 window shutters. On this appearance, and the bustle 

 of the people in the streets, 1 hastened to the window, 

 and came time enough to see it in the middle of its 

 career, which continued from west to south, till I 

 lost sight of it, being intercepted by the mountain of 

 Panecillo, which lies in that quarter. It was rouiuJ, 

 and its apparent diameter about a foot. I said that 

 it seemed to rise from the sides of Pichincha : for, 

 to judge from its course, it was behind, that mountain 

 wljere this congeries of inflammable matter was 

 kindled. In the first half of its visible course, it 

 emitted a prodigious eifulgency; then gradually be- 

 gan to grow dim, so that at its occultation behind the 

 Panecillo, its light was very faint. 



I SHALL conclude this chapter with an account of 

 the manner of hunting, which is the only diversion 

 in the country; and in which they passionately de- 

 light. Indeed the most remarkable circumstance in 

 it is the ardour and intrepidity of the hunters ; and 

 •which a stranger, at first, will naturally consider as 

 mere rashness, till he sees persons of the greatest pru- 

 dence, after having made one single trial, join in these 

 parties; trusting entirely to their horses; so that it is 

 rather to be termed a dextrous and manly exercise, 

 and proves the superiority botlyof the riders and horses 

 to the n.ost celebrated in Europe; and that the boast- 

 ed fieetnees of the latter is dulness, when-compared to 



the 



