FROM QUITO TO MEXICO. 323 



so-called summer-house of the Inca. It is a couch cut in the 

 rock, ornamented with arabesque devices. Our English gardens 

 contain nothing more elegant. The good taste of the Inca is 

 everywhere visible ; the seat is so placed as to command a most 

 enchanting prospect. In the sandstone rock of a neighbouring 

 wood is to be seen a circular spot of yellow ironstone, which 

 the Peruvians have ornamented with figures, supposing it to 

 represent the sun. Of this I made a drawing. 



' We remained only ten days at Cuenca, whence we set out for 

 Lima, passing through the province of Jaen, where we spent a 

 month in the vicinity of the Amazon. We arrived at Lima 

 on the 23rd of October, 1802. 



6 1 think of setting out in December for Acapulco, en route 

 for Mexico, in the hope of reaching Havana in May 1803. I 

 shall then embark without delay for Spain. You will perceive 

 that I have given up the idea of returning by way of the Phi- 

 lippines. I should have to encounter a sea voyage of prodigious 

 length, to see scarcely more than Manilla and the Cape ; and 

 had I made up my mind to visit the East Indies I should have 

 been very inefficiently provided, as the necessary equipments 

 could not have been procured here.' 



Additional details may be gathered from the letter to De- 

 lambre, already referred to at page 315, dated Lima, Novem- 

 ber 25, 1802, wherein Humboldt remarks : 



. . . . ' After crossing Assuay and passing through Cuenca, 

 where bull-fights were given in our honour, we took the road 

 .to Loxa, in order to complete our investigations upon the Cin- 

 chona. We spent a month in the province of Jaen de Braca- 

 moros, and visited the Pongo of the Amazon, where the banks 

 of the river are ornamented with the Andira and the Bougain- 

 villea of Jussieu. It was to me a matter of considerable inte- 

 rest to determine the longitude of Tomependa and Chuchungat, 

 which, from being included in La Condamine's map, gives me 

 a line of connection with the coast. La Condamine was only 

 able to obtain the longitude of. the mouth of the Napo, and as 

 chronometers were unknown in those days, the longitudes then 

 taken have great need of revision. My chronometer by Louis 

 Berthoud performs admirably. ... 



' On leaving the Amazon we crossed the Andes, near the 



Y 2 



