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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 exempt
pure Indian extraction were
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 was 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 Chimborazo.
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 inducement
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 i2th. At 7 A.M. of the 131)1 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 ol
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 -cncral
aspect was that of a grey barren waste ; but at short intervals \\e
crossed deep gullies whose sides were lined with mosses, and
sprinkled with calceolarias, lupines, and other pretty plants. Towards
noon we came out on the A renal (the moraine of the
glacier), near the limit of all vegetation. In a hollou a little
below it was a marsh with a rivulet one of the sources ol the