244 MULE JOURNEY TO BOGOTA. CHAP. XIII. 



when tested, usually proved worthless. A guide, whom 

 he employed for weeks, kept him buoyed up with the 

 hope of richer mining quarters than he had yet seen ; 

 but when he professed to be able to show him mines of 

 " brass, steel, alcohol, and pinchbeck," Stephenson dis- 

 covered him to be an incorrigible rogue, and immediately 

 dismissed him. At length our traveller reached Bogota, 

 and after an interview with Mr. Illingworth, the com- 

 mercial manager of the mining company, he proceeded 

 to Honda, crossed the Magdalena, and shortly after 

 reached the site of his intended operations on the eastern 

 slope of the Andes. 



Mr. Stephenson used afterwards to speak in glowing 

 terms of this his first mule -journey in South America. 

 Everything was entirely new to him. The variety and 

 beauty of the indigenous plants, the luxurious tropical 

 vegetation, the appearance, manners, and dress of the 

 people, and the mode of travelling, were altogether dif- 

 ferent from everything he had before seen. His own 

 travelling garb also must have been strange even to 

 himself. "My hat," he says, "was of plaited grass, 

 with a crown nine inches in height, surrounded by a 

 brim of six inches ; a white cotton suit ; and a ruana of 

 blue and crimson plaid, with a hole in the centre for the 

 head to pass through. This cloak is admirably adapted 

 for the purpose, amply covering the rider and mule, 

 and at night answering the purpose of a blanket in the 

 net-hammock, which is made from the fibres of the aloe, 

 and which every traveller carries before him on his 

 mule, and suspends to the trees or in houses, as occasion 

 may require." 1 The part of the journey which seems 

 to have made the most lasting impression on his mind 



1 Mr. Stephenson afterwards pub- 

 lished an account of his journey from 

 Caraccas to Sta. Bogota da Fe', in the 

 ' National Magazine and Monthly 

 Critic' (Mitchell, Eed Lion Court, 

 1837), under the title of "Scraps 

 from My Note-Book in Colombia." 



The articles indicate close and accu- 

 rate observation of the scenery, cli- 

 mate, inhabitants, and productions 

 of the country passed through, but 

 do not possess sufficient interest to 

 justify their republication. 



