124 QUITO— GALLAPAGOS ISLANDS. [1823. 



1797, which overwhelmed the entire province of Quito, and destroyed 

 in a single instant 40,000 people, seems to have entirely changed the 

 character of the climate. 



Previous to this horrible event, Quito was blest with a. perpetual 

 spring in her mountain eyrie, though situated nearly under the equator. 

 Since that period, however, the atmosphere has bedome cloudy and 

 lowering, and the cold at times severe, while earthquakes are con- 

 tinually agitating the devoted city. But " notwithstanding the horrors 

 and the dangers with which nature has thus surrounded them, the 

 population of Quito, amounting to 50,000 individuals, breathes nothing 

 but gayety and luxury ; and nowhere, perhaps, does there reign a more 

 decided or a more general taste for pleasure. The inhabitants of the 

 town are lively and amiable."* «> 



The city of Quito still retains, it is said, many monuments of its 

 ancient splendour, while the country was under the government of the 

 incas, and previous to its being conquered and partially devastated by 

 the Spaniards, under the ambitious and ferocious Don Francisco 

 Pizarro. The city of Cuzco, also, the ancient capital of Peru, is said 

 to exhibit several antiquities of this character ; of which the fortress 

 of the incas is considered to be not the least remarkable. The walls 

 of the temple of the sun are still standing, having been converted 

 into a Dominican monastery, the altar of which occupies the precise 

 spot where the golden image of the bright luminary was formerly 

 adored. The residence of the virgins of the sun has been converted 

 into a dwelling for the nuns of Cuzco, some of whom may possibly 

 dream of Rollas and Alonzos, less noble and virtuous than the lover 

 and the husband of Cora. 



At Caxamarca, the capital of a territory of the same name, on the 

 river Tunguragua, are still to be seen the remains of the palace of the 

 unfortunate inca Atahualpa, who was strangled by order of Pizarro, 

 after having been plundered of immense treasures, which the friends 

 of the unhappy captive had collected for his ransom ! The ruins of ' 

 this palace are still inhabited by a poor family that claims the honour 

 of being lineally descended from the incas. 



September 27th. — Having received on board a sufficient supply of 

 such vegetables and other refreshments as our circumstances required, 

 together with an adequate quantity of wood and water, we took our 

 leave of the friendly inhabitants of Tacames, and directed our course 

 to the Gallapagos Islands, where we arrived on the 3d of October. 



This archipelago is situated under the equator, about two hundred 

 and twenty leagues west of the American continent, between the 

 meridians of eighty-nine and ninety-two, west of Greenwich. It com- 

 prises a large group of uninhabited islands, which were first discovered 

 by the Spaniards, and afterward explored by those celebrated naviga- 

 tors Vancouver, Colnett, and Hall, to whom we are indebted for an 

 accurate knowledge of their several situations. Thirteen of these 

 islands, being the principal ones of the group in size and importance, 

 have been named as follows: — Chatham, Hood's, Charles's, Indefati- 



* M. Malte Brun. 



