A BOMB FROM COTOPAXI. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE ASCENT OF COTOPAXI, AND A NIGHT ON THE SUMMIT. 



AVe started from Machachi for Cotopaxi on February 14. The 

 party consisted of Jean-Antoine and Louis, Mr. Perring, six 

 natives of Machachi as porters^ nine mules and three arrieros, and 

 a couple of sheep — a pair of ungraceful and graceless animals, who 

 displayed the utmost reluctance to go to the slaughter. They 

 squatted on their haunches and refused to move, and when at 

 last, after infinite persuasion, they were induced to get up, they 

 ran between our legs and tried to upset us. 



It was our intention to travel direct to Cotopaxi, but a 

 violent storm drove us for refuge into Pedregal, a little hamlet 

 composed of a farm and a cluster of cottages, situated on open 

 ground, at the northern foot of Euminahui. The hacienda was 

 surrounded by the customary high wall, with a huge portal at the 

 entrance to the courtyard, and had a ruined chapel on the farther 

 side, in which we took up our quarters, by invitation. At dusk 

 the bells were tolled for prayer, and young and old, in twos and 

 threes, came over the moorland to hold a service of their own, 

 without the aid of priest. 



In the morning of February 15 we pursued our way up the 

 valley of the Rio Pita, over gently undulating land, which became 



