he
performed to the letter. It was refreshing to meet one such upright soul
in Ecuador, though we found him not of Caucasian blood, nor dwelling
under the tiled roofs of the proud capital. The old man was the
spiritual father of Papallacta, and, in the absence of the curate,
officiated in the little church. With him, therefore, and not with our
host the governor, we negotiated for peons to take us through the
wilderness.

The journey from Papallacta to the Napo occupied us thirteen days,
including four days of rest. It was performed on foot, for the "road" is
a trail. But the untraveled reader can have little idea of a trail in a
tropical forest: fording bridgeless rivers, wading through interminable
bogs, fens, marshes, quagmires, and swamps, and cutting one's way
through dense vegetation, must be done to be understood. Half the year
there is no intercourse between Quito and its Oriental province, for the
incessant heavy rains of summer swell every rivulet into a furious
torrent, and the path is overgrown and rendered impassable even by an
Indian. The only time for travel is between November and April, for
then, though it rains nearly every day, the clouds drop down in showers,
not floods. But even then the traveler must sometimes wait two or three
weeks beside a swollen river in imminent danger of starving, and
throughout the journey entertain the comforting prospect that his
Indians may eat up his provisions to lighten their load, or suddenly
desert him as they did Dr. Jameson. There are other routes across South
America much more feasible than the one we chose; these will be
described in Chapter XXIII. But they all yield in interest to this
passage along the equatorial line, and especially in the line of
history. Who has not heard of Gonzalo Pizarro and his fatal yet famous
expedition into "the land of cinnamon?" How he was led farther and
farther into the wilderness by the glittering illusions of an El
Dorado,[111] till the faithless Orellana, deserting him, floated down
the Napo and made the magnificent discovery of the mighty Amazon.
Gonzalo, "who was held to be the best lancer that ever went to these
countries--and all confess that he never showed his back to the
enemy"--returned to Quito with a few survivors to tell a tale of almost
unparalleled suffering. A century elapsed (1530-1637) before any one
ascended from Para to Quito by way of the Rio Napo; this was
accomplished by Pedro Teixeira.

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