Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

xx AMBATO 225
country has prevented me leaving the higher
grounds. The facilities of getting about and of
procuring provisions have also limited the explora-
tions of all previous travellers almost entirely to
" "
callejon (lane) they call it here
the central plain
-of the Ouitonian Andes, and to the adjacent snowy
summits ; but I am certain that the forests on the
eastern and western slopes are still almost entirely
to Sooo feet. I see
unexplored, from a height of 3000
scarcely any real trees described among Hartweg's
plants. These forests contain also the finest ferns.
That they are still almost intact is not to be wondered
at, when their exploration involves the risk
of life, health, and everything ;
especially
those on
the eastern side. I hope by little and little to go
over them and send you their gleanings.
. . . The
among
To Mr. John Teasdalc
AMBATO, Afn-n 14, 1859.
introduction of the Christian religion
the South American Indians I have visited
has been, for the most part, a decided injury to
them. Formerly they had either no religion
at all
or they were nearly pure theists now art-
; they
decided idolaters, as many Catholic priests have
candidly admitted to me. Among the vices they
have contracted in their "civilised" state, not the
least frightful is the readiness to sell or hire their
wives and daughters to the lustful white man. At
from 50 to 100 miles from where I am writing, on
the eastern slope of the Andes, there are still
powerful independent
tribes who refuse to receive
VOL. II '.'