172 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. ix. 



Upon the day following our arrival, His Excellency the 

 President of the Republic sent a very polite message through 

 Mr. Hamilton, intimating his Avish to see me. He received us 

 without formality and with much cordiality, dismissing a visitor 

 (who was, I believe, a Colonel in the Ecuadorian Army) to the 

 farther end of the apartment. Out of regard to his time, after 

 a little general conversation, we rose to go ; but he insisted upon 

 our remaining, and presently inquired if there was anything he 

 could do for me. I answered that there was. At this, just a 

 shade of displeasure appeared on his mobile features, though he 

 kindly asked, '' In what way ? " I said that it would afford me 

 gratification if he would permit his name to be connected with 

 one of the Great Andes. '^ AVith the highest point of Chim- 

 borazo,^' I went on, '^ one cannot meddle. Its second peak has 

 not been christened, and I ask permission to be allowed to 

 associate your name with it.^' 



The President now became interested in Ohimborazo, and 

 desired to know its height, and upon hearing it expressed sur- 

 prise, saying, '* I should have thought it was thirty thousand 

 feet high, at the least. ^^ " Pardon me, your Excellency," I replied, 

 one could not have proposed to associate the name of Veinte- 

 milla with a peak thirty thousand feet high." He forgave this 

 impromptu by asking for an account of the ascent, and Mr. 

 Hamilton engrossed the GeneraFs attention with a graphic 

 description of it. Presently, finding himself in want of a black- 

 board, and seeing nothing more like one than a black hat which 

 was upon the table, he used it to illustrate the spiral ascent, 

 and excited my admiration by the vigour and accuracy with 

 which he traced our route, as he drove a deep furrow through 

 the shining nap, to shew how we sank in the snow. 



While this tete-a-tete was progressing, the President leaning 

 forwards on his elbows, intently following Mr. Hamilton's dis- 

 course, I noticed a movement at the other end of the room ; 

 and, glancing round, found that the Colonel was writhing in 



