THE 

 PLATEAU, OR TABLE-LAND, 



OP 



CAXAMARCA, 



THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OP THE INCA ATAHUALLPA, 



AND THE 



FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN, 

 From the Ridge of the Andes. 



AFTER having sojourned for a whole year on the ridge of the 

 Andes, or Antis, (1), between 4 north and 4 south latitude, 

 amidst the table-lands of New Granada, Pastos, and Quito, and 

 consequently at an elevation varying between 8500 and 13,000 

 feet above the level of the sea, it is delightful to descend gradu- 

 ally through the more genial climate of the Cinchona or Quina 

 Woods of Loxa, into the plains of the Upper Amazon. There 

 an unknown world unfolds itself, rich in magnificent vegetation. 

 The little town of Loxa has given its name to the most effi- 

 cacious of all fever barks, the Quina, or the Cascarilla fina 

 de Loxa. This bark is the precious produce of the tree, 

 which we have botanically described as the Cinchona Conda- 

 minea ; but which, (from the erroneous supposition that all the 

 Cinchona known in commerce was obtained from one and the 

 same tree,) had previously been called Cinchona officinalis. 

 The fever bark first became known, in Europe, about the 

 middle of the seventeenth century. Sebastian Badus affirms, 

 that it w r as brought to Alcala de Henares in the year 1632; 

 but according to other accounts, it was brought to Madrid in 

 1640, wh^n the Countess de Chinchoii (2), the wife of the Peru- 



