2o6 A V O Y A G E T O Book V. 



month having been converfant only with the produdts 

 of hot and moift countries, very foreign to thefe, 

 ■which nearly refemble thofe of Europe, and excited 

 in our minds the pleafing idea of our native foil. 



The corregidor entertained us in his houfe at Gua- 

 randa till the 21 ft of the fame month, when we con- 

 tinued our journey to Quito. The thermometer was 

 for three days fucceffively at ioo4f. 



On the 2 2d, we began to crofs the defert of Chim- 

 borazo, leaving the mountain of that name on the 

 left, and travelling over different eminences and 

 'heights, moil of which were of fand, the fnow for a 

 great diftance forming, as it were, the fides of the 

 mountain. At half an hour after five in the evening 

 v;e arrived at a place called Rumi Machai, that is, 

 a ftony cave, an appellation derived from a vaft ca- 

 vity in a rock, and which is the only lodging travel- 

 lers find here. 



This day's journey was not without its trouble; 

 for thougli we had nothing to fear from precipices, 

 or dangerous pafies, like thofe in the road to Gua- 

 randa, yet we fu fleered not a little from the cold of 

 that deiert, then increafed by the violence of the w^ind. 

 Soon after we had paffed the large fandy plain, and 

 being thus got over the fevereft part of the deiert, we 

 came to the ruins of an ancient palace of Yncas, 

 fituated in a valley between two mountains ; but thefe 

 ruins are little more than the foundations of the walls. 



On the 23d, at three quarters after five in the morn- 

 ing, the thermometer was at 1000, or the freezing 

 point, and accordingly we found the whole country 

 covered with a hoar froft and the hut in which we 

 lay, had ice on it. At nine in the morning we fet out, 

 fiill keeping along the fide of Chimborazo. At two 

 in the afternoon we arrived at Mocha, a fmall, mean 

 place but v^here we were obliged to pafs the night. 



On the 24th, at fix in the morning, the thermometer 

 was at iOo6'; and at nine we fet out for Hambato, 



which 



