OF THE GALAPAGOS AECHIPELAGO. 457 



to the islands from that port. An English merchant in Lima, who owned some land 

 near Paita, who was going there, promised to make similar inquiries. Both the 

 answers were in the negative, that there was no chance of reaching the islands from 

 that port. My only resource therefore lay in Guayaquil. 



" On arriving there, to my great joy I heard that there were two parties engaged in 

 collecting a kind of moss which grows on the islands, and which is sent to the English 

 market under the name of " Orchilla," and that these parties sent a vessel from time 

 to time to the islands with labourers and provisions to collect and bring away the 

 moss. 



" I also found that one of the parties was engaged repairing a sloop, with the intention 

 of despatching her to the islands. Mr. Rubira, the head of the enterprise, told me 

 that he was himself going there as soon as two vessels now refitting were ready for sea, 

 which he thought would be in about a fortnight. He also expressed himself ready to 

 take me there, thinking that my knowledge of mineralogy might lead to the discovery 

 of some mineralogical wealth, of the existence of which he felt assured. 



" The two weeks for the completion of the repairs turned out to be four, when the 

 larger of the two, a sloop (the ' Calandra '), of about ten tons, was ready to sail. This 

 was on the 28th of March. In this ship I had to go, while Mr. Rubira was to follow 

 in a few days in the other vessel, a schooner-rigged craft of about two tons, which the 

 owners called a pilot-boat. We were to meet in Ballenita, the nearest sea-port. On 

 March 30th we met with a sloop coming from the islands, having made the passage in 

 twenty-three days, in stormy, squally weather, and having on one occasion experienced a 

 continuous downfall of rain of eighty-three hours' dui-ation. 



"We arrived at Ballenita on the afternoon of April 1st, 1868, and proceeded to the 

 town of Santa Elena, two miles distant, where I was hospitably received by Don Jose 

 Valdizan. 



" For a year yellow fever had prevailed in Guayaquil, though of a mild form during 

 my stay in that city. As I had long desired to study that disease, I visited the hospitals 

 during my sojourn in order to' observe the patients afflicted with that disease. Yellow 

 fever also prevailed at Santa Elena and in the neighbouring country and towns ; and the 

 house of Mr. Valdizan seemed to have formed a focus of infection. For several weeks 

 cases had occurred there ; and at the moment of my arrival a gentleman was lying sick 

 with it, and four weeks before the book-keeper of the house died of it. Now the very 

 room which the book-keeper used to occupy, and in which he died, and which since his 

 death had never been touched or cleaned, the very clothing of the deceased hanging on 

 the walls, his coffee-pot and other utensils standing still on the table, his trunk with 

 his garments on the floor — this very room was assigned to me as my lodging during 

 my expected stay. Any one can imagine my feelings as I lay down to bed the first 

 night I slept there. 



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