CHAP. XV. DESTRUCTION OF THE PYRAMIDS. 291 



Towards the end of 1747 he heard casually that orders had 

 been given by the Court of Spain to erase the pyramids, and 

 this order was carried out before he had time to interpose. In 

 the pages to which I have referred he bemoans their fate, and 

 recapitulates the details of their construction in a way which will 

 almost raise a smile with those who do not know the country ; 

 but so little is this country changed that the account reads like a 

 narration of operations which have just been conducted, rather 

 than a relation of things which happened a century and a half ago. 

 He especially laments the supposed destruction of tlie two great 

 stones bearing the inscriptions, but concludes in the spirit of a 

 true man by declaring that all such things are of no importance 

 in comparison with the loss of the measure of the base, — ^^that 

 length, which I had taken so much trouble to preserve, is now 

 lost for ever.^' 



La Condamine heard subsequently that orders were given for 

 the reinstatement of the pyramids, though he probably never 

 knew whether they were actually re-erected. When I was at Quito 

 I felt a strong desire to learn what was their state, and to find 

 out, if possible, whether they occupied the same positions as before. 

 My friend, Senor Rafael Rebolledo, heard of my enquiries, and told 

 me that there was on a farm at no great distance from one of his 

 properties to the north-east of Quito a stone which he believed 

 was part of the original pyramid of Oyambourou, and he invited 

 me to go over to examine it. On the 15th of May, 1880, we rode 

 over to his farm of Olalla, close to the little town of Pifo, and on 

 the next day went to inspect the stone. It was about four feet 

 long and six inches thick, placed in the middle of one side of the 

 courtyard, and was used as a mounting-block. There had been an 

 inscription upon it, but it was completely worn out in the centre 

 through the use to which it had been put. At its two ends some 

 letters could still be made out, and going down on hands and knees 

 to compare them with the printed description that I carried, which 

 gives the original inscription line by line, I found that it was the 



