OBSERVATIONS ON THE CUICHTJNCHULLI. 
137 
under a similar treatment, he at once made up his mind to set 
out in search of the plant that had wrought so much good in 
him, in the hope, as well of procuring a relief for mankind 
against so horrid a disorder, as of deriving some personal ad- 
vantage for the support of his large family. As no vessel then 
offered for Jamaica, he had, in January, 1834, to go coastwise 
to Sasarida in Coro, to Rio Hache, and to Aruba, in order to 
reach this island, whence he soon proceeded to Chagre and 
Panama. There, after a long detention, and in despair of a 
direct opportunity for Guayaquil, he was forced to embark in 
small coasting vessels, going occasionally in directions very 
different from his own, being almost always exposed to great 
privations, to personal hardships, and frequently to the various 
perils that attend this sort of navigation; and when at length 
he succeeded in reaching the coast of the State of the Equator, 
he found a great part of that country disturbed or desolated by 
a far-spread civil war, so that in every attempt he made to 
penetrate into the interior, he was sooner or later supposed by 
one or other of the hostile parties to be a spy, and generally 
compelled to retrace his steps, and encounter fresh difficulties 
or dangers at sea or on shore. In the end, unable to overcome 
obstacles that met him at every step in that distracted country, 
he resolved to make a wide circuit by the way of Peru, and 
finding an American whaler at Tumbes bound to Payta, he 
went on board; and, on his landing there, he proceeded to 
Piura, going for several days over heated sands; and thence, 
crossing the province of Loxa, he was able to enter the state 
of the Equator by roads almost impassable, over mountains of 
astonishing elevation and extremely cold temperatures, living 
for a month on the food of savages, and stopping in Indian 
huts, swarming with vermin, from which no precautions can 
preserve one. Thus harassed, and much bruised withal by 
the falling of his horse while descending a path unusually 
steep, on sliding ground, he arrived at Cuenca, where his first 
care was to inform himself as to the Cuichunchulli. Indians 
were presently brought to him, who assured him that they 
knew the plant perfectly well, and offered to get it for him, 
VOL. II. — NO. II. 18 
