286 BOUGUER*S VOYAGE TO PERU. 



but they lived ; they had recourfe to fruits and various forts of vegetables, which never 

 failed them. Cheefe they were never without ; and, as the cattle could always find 

 rich pafturage in the extenfive open plains of the mountains, meat was always cheap, 

 and at a price, although I have noticed the reafon of the advance, which will furprize, 

 when compared with that of bread ; beef was more than two or three fous a pound 

 of our money. 



Every thing neceffary for clothing is there as eafily obtained. Flax grows very 

 well : • I have feen fome which had been cultivated in the country, which was very fine. 

 The wools are not of quite fo good a quality as ours, but by ufing the better fort of it 

 they might make better cloths than they do. The Vicuna is not feen at Quito, but 

 they have an animal of much the fame fpecies, which the Indians call Llamas ; it may 

 better be compared to a fmall camel, and this they ufe to carry burthens of from fifty 

 to fixty pounds weight : the Vicuna is to be found in Chili, and will live, no doubt, 

 in many places of the Cordelier of Peru. Ingredients are found proper for dyeing. 

 Indigo is common in the low countries ; in the higher, there is a Ihrub grows that gives 

 a very fair yellow, ^nd in many places they attend to the breeding of the infed, known 

 under the name of the Cocheneal, which gives the crimfon colours. They carry on a 

 commerce with Ambato, a place twenty leagues fouth of Quito, where the temperature 

 is nearly the fame ; perhaps the thermometer may fland at one or two degrees higher. 

 There is now no want of fpices, or, what is the fame thing, they have it in their power to 

 fubftitute, for thofe with which we are acquainted, others produced in the country, 

 which they do efFeftively, and more fuccefsfuUy. Laflly, it is fufficient to chufe a fitu- 

 ation either a little higher or lower (for we have fhewn this long valley does not 

 form a perfedly even plain), to enjoy the air and the advantages of the mod different 

 climates. 



From the circumftance of the fphere being here very much equal, the days are 

 always nearly of the fame length with the nights ; it is a perpetual equinox, and the 

 degree of temperature is nearly the fame throughout the year in the fame place : the 

 rains only mark the feafons, and they fall nearly as they do in the low countries in 

 the forefts, from the month of November till May : thefe rains, together with the 

 earthquakes, and frequent volcanic eruptions, which are in great numbers, conftitute 

 the bad qualities, of which but few good ones are, behind to balance, of thefe countries. 

 It is eafy enough for a traveller who penetrates into the interior of the valley, to fatisfy^ 

 himfelf he does not defcend within as he afcends without, and that he is at a confiderable 

 height above the level of the fea, but to what degree is difficult, nay impoffible, for 

 him to eflimate. There is no time for reflexion in fuch a journey; man, in purfuing 

 it, is then but a machine. All the collefted waters difcharging themfelves from the 

 two Cordeliers, fall in all directions of the horizon, on the outfide of them, either to 

 the North or South Sea, which mark their great height ; thefe waters form the higheft 

 cataracts in the world ; but they mark out nothing precifely to the fimple traveller. 

 Thus it is not aftonifliing that the inhabitants of Quito Ihould have had the information 

 from us, that of all the people of the known world, they are the higheft fituated ; 

 that their elevation above the fea was from fourteen to fifteen jiundred toifes, and that 

 they breathed an air more rarified by one third than other men * Nor need any part 

 of the known world be excepted in this obfervation, as from every circumftance we 

 have reafon to believe, that the mountains of the temperate and frozen zones are un- 

 inhabitable, and even inacceffible to half their height. 



* The mercury in the barometer at Quito kept its ftation at twenty inches one h'ne. 



We 



