3 2 4 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



[Who can wonder that, after the receipt of such 

 a letter as this, H anbury and Spruce became, for 

 the remainder of their joint lives, the most attached 

 and sympathetic of friends !] 



To Mr. Jo Jin Teasdale 



PlURA, PERU, Jan. 12, 1863. 



I embarked at Guayaquil, on the night of the ist 

 of January, on the steamer that plies between that 

 port and Lima, my destination being Payta, and 

 thence overland to Piura. 



At 9 A.M. of the 3rd we reached Payta, and by 

 noon I had got my baggage through the custom- 

 house, and hung up my hammock in the only fonda 

 in the place. But I only remained there a few 

 hours to get together the mules required for the 

 journey to Piura 45 miles across the desert. It 

 is usual to travel here by night, the burning heat 

 of the desert by day causing great (and sometimes 

 mortal) fatigue to man and beast. I was myself 

 conveyed in a litter, being unable to sit on a horse 

 for more than an hour at a time. We started at six 

 in the evening, and at nine on the following morn- 

 ing reached Piura, having rested three hours at a 

 tambo erected at midway of the route, where lucerne 

 and water can be had for the beasts, and coffee, 

 bread, and chicha for their riders, by paying a high 

 price for them. The track is still indicated, in some 

 parts, by long poles stuck in the ground, as it was 

 in the time of the Incas; in other parts by the 

 rare Algarroba trees, which are almost the sole 

 vegetation, where there is any at all. Woe to the 



