XXI TO THE CINCHONA FORESTS 263 
divided into two factions, whereof one held Quito and the whole 
of the Sierra, and the other Guayaquil and the low country. Both 
maintained as large an army as they could raise in support of 
their cause, and pressed into their ranks all the suitable men they 
could lay hold on. Only those of pure Indian extraction were 
exempt from forced military service ; but, when the troops were 
marching about, they continually seized on Indians to carry their 
baggage and to drive laden beasts. . . . 
My preparations for entering the forest being completed, I was 
awaiting the coming of the dry season, when a severe attack of 
rheumatism so far disabled me, that I determined to delegate my 
commission to Dr. James Taylor of Riobamba. Animated, how- 
ever, by his assurance that in the warm forest I might expect to 
recover the use of my limbs, I finally resolved to proceed thither 
in his company. . . . 
We started from Ambato for the forest on the nth of June. 
Our road w^as the same as I had travelled the preceding year, until 
reaching the paramo of Sanancajas beyond the village of Mocha, 
where it turns to the right towards the southern shoulder of Chim- 
borazo. In consequence of my having needed two long rests on 
the way, night came on and found us still on the paramo. Thin 
clouds had enveloped Chimborazo most of the day, but towards 
evening they gradually cleared away, and after sunset the majestic 
dome was entirely uncovered, though a slender meniscus of cloud, 
assuming exactly the form of the cope of the mountain, and still 
illumined by the rays of the sun (which had set for us), hung for 
some time like a "glory" over the monarch of the Andes. When 
this at length melted away, the light reflected from the snow by a 
clear star-lit sky enabled our beasts to pick their way. It was 
8 o'clock when we reached the tambo of Chuquipogyo, a solitary 
house at between 12,000 and 13,000 feet of altitude. The rude 
accommodation and the inhospitable climate offered no induce- 
ment to a prolonged stay at Chuquipogyo, but as I was so much 
exhausted as neither to be able to sleep nor on the following 
morning to mount my horse, there was no alternative but to remain 
there all the day and night of the 12th. At 7 a.m. of the 13th we 
resumed our march. The day was fortunately fine, and we had 
only now and then a few drops of small rain and sleet, instead of 
the snowstorms with which the traveller has too frequently to 
contend in the pass of Chimborazo. The vegetation consisted 
chiefly of hassocks of a Stipa and a Festuca, so that the general 
aspect was that of a grey barren waste ; but at short intervals we 
crossed deep gullies whose sides were lined with mosses, and 
sprinkled with calceolarias, lupines, and other pretty plants. To- 
wards noon we came out on the Arenal (the moraine of the 
glacier), near the limit of all vegetation. In a hollow a little 
below it was a marsh with a rivulet — one of the sources of the 
