IN THE CINCHONA FORESTS 295 
surest-footed beast goes on continually stumbling. 
So we made our frames of palm-fronds, our buckets 
of bamboos, and invented similar contrivances for 
other needful articles. The closed communication 
with Guayaquil was felt to be a sore obstacle, as 
we might have sent thither for canvas and other 
things required for the plants, and also for a little 
wine and porter for the invalids. 
The mornings were always cool and sometimes 
dull, but at 7 o'clock or so the sun would often 
come out blazing hot. In the afternoons, when the 
fog seemed to have set in for the day, it would 
sometimes clear away for a brief space, and admit 
the scorching rays of the sun. On these occasions, 
and on the days of sustained heat, the only means 
of keeping the plants from withering was to give 
them abundance of water ; and then there was the 
risk, on the other hand, of their damping off. 
Water was supplied to the trapiche, for the service 
of the still and for culinary purposes, by a small 
acequia (canal) carried along the hill-side from the 
head of a rivulet about a mile off. We had bv this 
means generally sufficient water for our plantation, 
but as the acequia was ill made and protected by 
no fence, the cattle, roaming about, generally trod 
and dammed it up at least once every day, when 
the Indians had to seek out and repair the damaged 
spots. But when the supply of water failed just at 
the moment of one of those outbursts of sun, there 
was no alternative but for all hands to run with 
buckets down to the deep glen, where there was a 
considerable stream, although the steep ascent from 
it was very toilsome. In a few weeks the cuttings 
began to root, and then they were attacked by 
