XX 
AMBATO 
expedition to the Pacific side I have found scarcely 
any ferns, and still fewer shells and beetles. " 
This statement was, however, somewhat modi- 
fied in the following year, when he found that the 
Cinchona forests of Limon, about 70 miles to 
the north-west, had a rich and interesting flora, with 
an abundance of ferns and orchids. The superior 
richness of the eastern slopes as a whole seems, 
however, to be an undoubted fact.] 
To Mr. John Teas dale 
Ambato, Nov. 15, 1859. 
Before I left Ambato for Guataxi (July 22), the 
first Act of the Revolution was played out on the 
flanks of Chimborazo, at a site called Tumbiico, 
where a battle was fought between the Government 
troops (consisting chiefly of blacks and Zambos 
from the low country around Guayaquil) and the 
insurgents, who were " serranos," or people of the 
hill-country, some whites, some Indians, but the 
most part of mixed race. The latter were defeated, 
and the victorious army marched on Ambato. It 
was something to see the flight of the inhabitants 
of Ambato, and the files of mules laden with all 
their movable goods, even to glass windows, when 
the news of the battle of Tumbiico arrived. I had 
nowhere to flee to, so I laid in a stock of live pigs 
and fowls, and of potatoes, stuck out the Union 
Jack, and prepared for a siege. Well, the turbu- 
lent blacks came on us by slow marches, but they 
respected my house and cattle ; and indeed the 
whole town was let off with a requisition of pro- 
visions and horses. Yet the danger was not 
