Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

ON A RAFT TO GUAYAQUIL 309
we got on slowly, on account of having to wait
between tides, but we reached Guayaquil at noon
on the 2/th without any further accident, and I
immediately went on shore and sought out a
carpenter, to assist Mr. Cross in nailing laths over
P.M. of
the soil and in fixing on the sashes. By 5
the 28th everything was completed. The plants,
thanks to Mr. Cross's tender care of them, bore
scarcely any traces of the rough treatment they had
undergone in their descent from Limon, and in
their late voyage from Aguacatal, and the only
thing against them was that they were growing too
rapidly, owing to the increased temperature to
which they had lately been subjected.
On the 29th, a large goods steamer came in,
which goes to and fro between Lima and Guayaquil.
She was not to sail again until the 2nd of January,
and the plants, if sent by her, would have to remain
at Payta until the i3th or i4th, when another
steamer should pass from Lima to Panama ;
but, as
there was no alternative, we had them put on
board her, and commodiously arranged on the
poop-deck. I then took leave of Mr. Cross and
the plants, satisfied that so long as they were under
his care they were likely to go on prosperously,
to conduct
and having done all I could on my part
the enterprise to a successful issue. During its
performance, all engaged in it had run frequent
risk ol life and limb ;
but
a far greater source of
anxiety to me were the contretemps (a few only
of which have been indicated in
pages)
the preceding
that every now and then threatened to
bring our work to naught. It is difficult for