IN THE CINCHONA FORESTS 297 
of those poor animals, and still more that of their 
unfortunate owners, from whom they had been 
taken by force, and who, in losing perhaps their 
only mule, had no means left of conveying to 
market the produce of their industry, and thereby 
supporting their families, it will not be wondered 
at that I cursed in my heart all revolutions. Grave 
indeed must be the motive of complaint which a 
people can have against its rulers to justify it in 
taking up arms to obtain redress.^ 
Towards the end of July the weather improved, 
and in a few sunny days the fruit of the Bark trees 
made visible advances towards maturity. On the 
13th of August I noticed that the finest capsules 
were beginning to burst at the base, and on the 
following day I had all taken off that seemed ripe, 
gathering them in this way : an Indian climbed the 
tree, and breaking the panicles gently off, let them 
fall on sheets spread on the ground to receive them, 
so that the few loose seeds shaken out by the fall 
^ I may here relate an incident bearing on the same subject. Whilst Dr. 
Taylor was bringing up Mr. Cross from Ventanas, a body of some 800 men, 
whose commander I had known at Ambato, arrived from Guaranda. As 
usual, they bivouacked at Limon, and when I turned out on the following 
morning, I saw my four Indians prisoners in the hands of the soldiery, and 
one of them, with his hands tied behind him and a rope round his body, 
about to be dragged off towards Ventanas. Among the beasts of burden 
which accompanied the troops, this poor fellow had recognised his own mule 
— his only mule — as dear to him as Sancho's ass was to Sancho, and, with the 
aid of his companions, had contrived to abstract it during the night and hide 
it away in the forest. In the morning the mule was missed, and my Indians 
were immediately denounced as the delinquents, for they had been seen 
handling the mule the previous evening. I confess my indignation was at 
that moment at the boiling-point, and I wished for a hundred " Rifle 
Volunteers to put the whole disorderly rabble to rout. However, I had 
given up half my dormitory to the colonel, and had treated him with as much 
hospitality as lay in my power, so that I had some right to expect he would 
not deny any request of mine ; and accordingly, after a short parley with him, 
he ordered the Indians to be released. Thus I kept my Indians, and the 
Indian kept his mule, which was all we wanted. 
