xiv INTRODUCTION. 



for their undeserved attentions, and particularly to the Right Hon. 

 H. C. Childers (at that time chairman of the Royal Mail Steam 

 Packet Company), who most courteously granted me the use of 

 one of his cabins in order that work might be carried on uninter- 

 ruptedly. Upon arrival at Guayaquil we were at once received 

 into the house of Mr. George Chambers, H.B.M.^s Consul, and were 

 treated with genuine hospitality. 



It is now my duty to acknowledge in the most prominent 

 manner the invaluable services which were rendered throughout 

 the journey by the cousins Carrel. Travellers are not always 

 fortunate in their assistants, and, occasionally, even fall out with 

 them. Under circumstances which were frequently trying, our 

 party, although exceedingly small, was always closely united. The 

 imperturbable good temper of the one man, and the grim humour 

 of the other, were sources of continual satisfaction. I trusted my 

 person, property, and interests to their care with perfect confidence, 

 and they proved worthy of the trust, and equal to every demand 

 which was made upon them. 



We travelled through Ecuador unarmed, except with passports 

 which were never exhibited, and with a number of letters of intro- 

 duction which for the most part were not presented ; adopting a 

 policy of non-intervention in all that did not concern us, and 

 rigidly respecting the customs of the country, even when we could 

 not agree with them : and traversed that unsettled Republic with- 

 out molestation, trusting more to our wits than to our credentials, 

 and believing that a jest may conquer where force will fail, that a 

 hon-mot is often better than a passport. 



