CHAP. X. SNOW- BLINDNESS. 193 



"Comming," ho says, "one night into a Tambo or Inne, being much 

 afflicted with paine in mine eies, thinking they would fall out, the which 

 dooth commonly happen in those partes, for that they passe thorow places 

 covered with snow, which is the cause of this accident, being troubled with 

 this paine, and out of patience, there came an Indian woman, which said to 

 me, * Father, lay this to thine eies, and thou shalt be cured.' It was a peece 

 of the flesh of vicunas, newly killed and all bloody. I vsed this medicine, 

 and presently the paine ceased, and soone after went quite away." ^ 



On the evening of March 8 I began to recover sight,^ and 

 planned another attempt to scale the misty monntain. I cherished 

 great expectations of a boundless view on the eastern side, when 

 looking down upon the basin of the Amazons — the largest forest- 

 covered region in the world. The only two known ways out of 

 Ecuador, through the Andes, to the great South American river, 

 are those which lead through Papallacta ^ for the Napo route, and 

 through Bafios for the Pastassa. These places are about ninety 

 miles apart, and nothing is known of the intervening country, or 

 of that more north and south. The trails on these routes pass 

 through forest. No distant vistas are possible, and our knowledge 

 of the region has scarcely advanced since it was first made known, 

 shortly after the Spanish Conquest. 



I conjectured that the atmospheric conditions on Antisana 

 strongly resembled those which prevailed on Chimborazo, where 

 it had frequently been noticed, from our Second and Third Camps, 

 that the clouds sank below 10,000 feet at the approach of night, 

 and left the higher regions clear. With the return of day they 

 again mounted, or were re-created, around the summits. The 

 complicated ice - navigation near the top of Antisana could not 



^ Quoted from The Natural and Moral History of the Indies, by Father Joseph 

 de Aeosta (reprinted from the English translated edition of Edward Grimston, 1604, 

 for the Hakluyt Society, 1880 ; vol. 1, pp. 287-8). 



2 The right e3'e remained painful for two months, and did not recover until 

 return to Europe. 



^ Papallacta, according to Dr. M. Villavicensio, means ' country of potatoes.' 

 It is the name of a small village, lying, I am told, about as far to the north of the 

 summit of Antisana as the Hacienda of Antisanilla lies to the Avest of it. 



2C 



