428 ULLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 



anfwers they received only tended to increafe their doubts and aftonifhment. They 

 faw that thofe people, though naturally hardy, robuft, and inured to • fatigues, could 

 not be prevailed upon, not with Handing the encouragement of double pay, to continue 

 any time with us. The ferenity in which we lived on thofe dreaded places was not 

 unknown to them ; and they faw with what tranquillity and conftancy we pafled from 

 one fcene of folitude and labour to another. This to them appeared fo ftrange, that 

 they were at a lofs what to attribute it to. Some confidered us as little better than 

 lunatics, others more fagacioufly imputed the whole to covetoufnefs, and that we were 

 certainly endeavouring to difcover fome rich minerals by particular methods of our 

 own invention ; others again fufpeded that we dealt in magic ; but all were involved 

 in a labyrinth of confulion wdth regard to the nature of our defign. And the more 

 they refledled on it, the greater was their perplexity, being unable to difcover any thing 

 proportionate to the pains and hardfhips we underwent. And even when we informed 

 tham of the real motive of this expedition, which caufed fo much aftonifhment, their 

 ignorance of its importance would not fuffer them to give credit to what we faid ; fuf- 

 psding that we concealed, under the veil of an incomprehenfible chimera, our real 

 praftices, of which, as I have already obferved, they had no good opinion. 



Among feveral pleafant adventures which this occafioned, I Ihall only mention two, 

 both of which are Hill frefh in my memory ; and may ferve to illuflrate the ftrange 

 ideas thefe ignorant people formed of us. While we were at the fignal of Vengotafm, 

 ere6ted on a defert at no great diflance from the town of Latacunga, about a league 

 from the place where we had pitched our field-tent was a cow-houfe, where we con- 

 flantly pafled the night ; for the afcent not being remarkably difEcult, we could every 

 morning, in fair weather, return foon enough to the tent to begin our obfervations. 

 One morning as we were pafling to the fignal, we faw at a diflance three or four 

 Indians, in appearance on their knees ; and we found indeed, on our approaching 

 nearer, that this was their real poflure ; we alfo obferved that their hands were joined, 

 and that they uttered words in their language with the greatefl fervour and the moft 

 fupplicant accent; but by the pofition of their eyes, it was evident that we were the 

 perfons whom they thus addreffed. We feveral times made ligns for them to rife, 

 but they flill kept their poflure till we were got at a confiderable dillance. We had 

 fcarce begun to prepare our inflruments within the tent, when we were alarmed with 

 a repetition of the fame fupplicant vociferations. On going out to know the caufe, we 

 found the fame Indians again on their knees before the tent ; nor were we able, by all 

 the figns we could make, to raife them from that pofture. There fortunately happened 

 at that time to be with us a fervant who underflood both the Indian and Spanifh lan- 

 guages ; and having directed him to afk thefe poor people what they wanted of us, 

 we were informed that the eldeft of them was the father of the others, and that his 

 afs being either ftrayed or flolen, he came to us, as perfons who knew every thing, 

 to entreat us to cominiferate his great lofs, and put him in a method of recovering his 

 beaft. This fimplicity of the Indians afforded us no fmall entertainment ; and though 

 we did all we could, by means of our interpreter, to undeceive them, we found they 

 were equally tenacious of this ftrange error as of genuflexion ; and would ftill believe, 

 that nothing was hid from us ; till having wearied ihemfelves with thefe clamorous 

 vociferations, and finding we took no notice of them, they retired, with all the marks 

 of extreme forrow that we would not condefcend to inform them where they might find 

 the afs ; and with a firm perfuafion that our refufal proceeded from ill-nature, and not 

 from ignorance. 6 



The 



