ULLOa's voyage to south AMERICA. 429 



The other adventure I (hall mention, happened to myfelf in particular, and not with 

 Ample and ignorant Indian peafants, but with one of the principal inhabitants of 

 Cuenca. While the whole company were on the mountain of Bueran, not far from the 

 town of Cannar, I received a meflage from the priefl of that place, informing me, that two 

 Jefuits of my acquaintance were paffing that way, and, if I was defirous of feeing them, 

 1 might find them at his houfe. As I was cheerfully defcending the mountain to enjoy 

 this pleafmg invitation, I happened to be overtaken by a gentleman of Cuenca, who 

 was going to take a view of his lands in that jurifdiclion, and had obferved me coming 

 from our tent. He was, it feems, acquainted with my name, though he had never 

 {een me ; but obfeiving me dieifed in the garb of the Meftizos, and the loweft clafs 

 of people, *the only habit in which we could perform our operations, he took me for 

 one of the fervants, and began to examine me ; and I was determined not to undeceive 

 him till he had finifhed. Among other things, he told me, that neither he nor any 

 body elfe would believe, that the afcertaining the figure and magnitude of the earth, 

 as w^e pretended, could ever induce us to lead fuch a difmal and uncouth life ; that, 

 however we might deny it, we had doubtlefs difcovered many rich minerals on thofe 

 lofty deferts ; adding, that perfons in his circumftances were not to be fatisficd with 

 fine words. Here I laboured to remove the prejudices he entertained againft our ope- 

 rations ; but all I could fay only tended to confirm him in his notion ; and, at parting, 

 he added, that doubtlefs, by our profound knowledge in the magic art, we m.ight 

 make much greater difcoveries than thofe who were ignorant of it. Thefe opinions 

 were blended with others equally abfurd and ridiculous ; but I found it impollible to 

 undeceive him, and accordingly left him to enjoy his own notions. 



Our feries of triangles in the fouth part being finifhed, and a fecond bafe meafured 

 by each company, to prove the truth of our work, we began our aftronomical obfer- 

 vations ; but our inftruments not being perfectly adapted to that intention, we were 

 obliged, in the month of December of the fame year, to return to Quito, in order to 

 conftrud another, on whofe accuracy we could fafely rely ; and this employed us till 

 the firfl of Auguft of the following year 1740 ; when, without any farther lofs of time, 

 we again repaired to Cuenca, and immediately began our obfervations ; but thefe being 

 very tedious, were not finiflied before the end of September ; the atmofphere of that 

 country being very unfavourable to aftronomical obfervations. For, in the deferts, 

 the clouds in which we were fo frequently involved hindered us from difcerning the other 

 fignals ; and in the city, over which they fpread a kind of perpetual pavilion, they hid the 

 itars from us while they paffed the meridian ; but patience and refolution, infpired by 

 the importance of our enterprife, having enabled us at laft to perform our tafk on the 

 fouth fide of the equator, we prepared for our journey to the north of it, in order to 

 make the aftronomical obfervations at the other extremity of the arch of the meridian, 

 and thus put the finilhing hand to our work : but this was for fome time retarded by 

 an accident of importance which called u^ to Lima. 



In December 1743, the reafons which detained us at Lima, Guayaquil, and in 

 Chili, no longer fubfifting, we returned to Quito in January 1 744, when Don George 

 Juan and I prolonged the arch of the meridian four triangles, by which it was extended 

 to the place where M. Godin, in 1740, had made the fecond aftronomical obfervation, 

 and which he now repeated, and finiflied in the month of May 1744. 



Meffrs. Bouguer and M. de la Condamine having at that time finiflied the feveral parts 

 afligned to them, had left Quito, in order to return to France; the former by the way. 

 of Carthagena,. and the latter by the river of the Amazons ; but the reft of the com- 

 pany remained there fome time j fome for fear of being taken by the enemy, fome for 



want; 



