182 The Andes and the Amazon. 



los, moreover, was a good man ; he had an honest, Quaker- 

 like air about him, and his face reminded us of George 

 Washington's. In all his transactions we noticed no at- 

 tempt to prevaricate or deceive ; what he promised he per- 

 formed to the letter. It was refreshing to meet one such 

 upright soul in Ecuador, though we found him not of Cau- 

 casian blood, nor dwelling under the tiled roofs of the 

 proud capital. The old man was the spiritual father of 

 Papallacta, and, in the absence of the curate, officiated in 

 the little church. With him, therefore, and not with our 

 host the governor, we negotiated for peons to take us 

 through the wilderness. 



The journey from Papallacta to the Napo occupied us 

 thirteen days, including four days of rest. It was perform- 

 ed on foot, for the " road" is a trail. But the untraveled 

 reader can have little idea of a trail in a tropical forest : 

 fording bridgeless rivers, wading through interminable 

 bogs, fens, marshes, quagmires, and swamps, and cutting 

 one's way through dense vegetation, must be done to be 

 understood. Half the year there is no intercourse between 

 Quito and its Oriental province, for the incessant heavy 

 rains of summer swell every rivulet into a furious torrent, 

 and the path is overgrown and rendered impassable even 

 by an Indian. The only time for travel is between No- 

 vember and April, for then, though it rains nearly every 

 day, the clouds drop down in showers, not floods. But 

 even then the traveler must sometimes wait two or three 

 weeks beside a swollen river in imminent danger of starv- 

 ing, and throughout the journey entertain the comforting 

 prospect that his Indians may eat up his provisions to light- 

 en their load, or suddenly desert him as they did Dr. Jam- 

 eson. There are other routes across South America much 

 more feasible than the one we chose ; these will be de- 

 scribed in Chapter XXIII. But they all yield in interest 



