INTRODUCTION. xiii 



personal trouble he took that my wishes might be efficiently re- 

 presented in the right quarters. Through his instrumentality, I 

 was put in communication with the Ecuadorian Consul-General 

 in Great Britain (Mr. Edmund Heuer of Manchester), and subse- 

 quently received from His Excellency the President of the Republic 

 assurance that I should be heartily welcome in his country ; and, 

 upon application at the Foreign Office, Lord Salisbury was pleased 

 to direct Her Majesty's representatives at Guayaquil and Quito 

 to afford every assistance in their power — an instruction which 

 they interpreted sympathetically. Upon the introduction of Mr. 

 Mathews, George Dixon, Esq., M.P. for Birmingham, rendered 

 most valuable service by undertaking to send out in advance 

 and to place in secure hands at Guaranda and Quito a quantity 

 of my heavy baggage. 



Through my old friend Mr. Douglas Freshfield, the Caucasian 

 explorer, the projected journey became known to Freiherr von Thiel- 

 mann, who had recently ridden through Colombia and Ecuador,^ 

 and he most kindly met me at Ostend, to give the benefit of his 

 experiences ; and from this accomplished diplomatist-traveller it 

 was communicated to Dr. Alphons Stiibel, of Dresden, who with rare 

 liberality presented me with a copy of the unpublished altitudes in 

 Ecuador^ which had been deduced from the observations made by 

 him in 1871-73 in conjunction with Dr. W. Reiss. Many other 

 equally friendly services were performed both by friends and 

 strangers, especially by the fraternity of mountain-travellers, and 

 amongst the very last communications which reached me, just 

 before departure, came a cheering bon voyage from the veteran 

 Boussingault, who forty-eight years earlier had himself endeavoured 

 to ascend Chimborazo. 



Similar good fortune continued on the outward voyage. My 

 sincere thanks are due to the agents of the Royal Mail Steam 

 Packet Company, and to the Acting-Consuls at Colon and Panama, 



' And made the ascent of Cotopaxi. 



* Alturas tomadas en la Repuhlica del Ecuador, Quito, 1873. 



