CHAP. X. RENCONTRE WITH SENOR REBOLLEDO. 187 



two places passing over some road that was several degrees worse 

 than the Camino Real between Mufiapamba and Tambo Gobierno, 

 with mud two to three feet deep. I had been rebuked in Quito 

 for objecting to that ' Royal ^ route, because our animals had sunk 

 halfway up their flanks. Upon asking my monitor what he con- 

 sidered a bad road, he said, " A road is bad when the beasts tumble 

 into mud - holes and vanish right out of sight. '^ This nearly 

 occurred at one place. Our narrow track (at this spot, a mere 

 rut between two walls of earth) divided. On the right there was 

 a steep and greasy passage, and on the left a pool, eight or ten 

 feet across. My animal stopped on the brink, unwilling to pro- 

 ceed. Dismounting, I gave it a touch with the whip, it went head 

 first into the slough, and emerged on the other side a miserable 

 object, dripping with filth, which for a second had risen above its 

 hindquarters. This mud-hole was about four feet deep, and was 

 the finest we discovered in Ecuador. 



On quitting Pintac, however, the track became better, and 

 highly interesting ; at some parts leading between deep, mossy 

 banks laden with semi - tropical ferns and creepers, underneath 

 branches and roots, and crossing sparkling streams — rare things 

 in this country. After passing the large farm of Pinantura,^ our 

 ardour was damped by one of the afternoon deluges, and when 

 this ceased we found our path ran roughly parallel to a great 

 stream of lava, which descended from the clouds, and spread out 

 into the valley of the Isco. 



AVhilst winding in and out of the bends, amongst the arched 

 foliage, in advance of the others, I was surprised — not having met 

 a soul in the course of the day — to see a grave and very unshaven 

 man approaching, well mounted on a fast ambler ; by dress, as 

 Avell as by demeanour, evidently no common wayfarer. He drew 

 rein, and there was scarcely time to wonder who was this dis- 

 tinguished stranger before another horseman cantered round the 



1 Insects were abundant here, and several novelties were secured whilst on the 

 march. See Supp. App., pp. 20 and 60. 



