Napo Peon.]

[Footnote 111: The king of this fabulous land was said to wear a
magnificent attire fragrant with a costly gum, and sprinkled with gold
dust. His palace was of porphyry and alabaster, and his throne of
ivory.]

An Indian will carry three arrobas (seventy-five pounds) besides his own
provisions, his provisions for the journey consisting of about
twenty-five pounds of roasted corn and barley-meal. The trunk or bundle
is bound to his back by withes, which pass across the forehead and
chest; a poncho or a handful of leaves protects the bare back from
chafing. All our luggage (amounting to nearly fifteen hundred pounds)
was divided and packed to suit this method of transportation, so that we
required twenty Indians. So many, however, of the right kind--for they
must be athletic young men to endure the fatigues of such a
journey--could not be furnished by the little village of Papallacta, so
we were obliged to wait a few days till more Indians could be summoned
from a neighboring town. When these arrived, the little world of
Papallacta, men, women, and children, assembled in front of the
governor's house, while Don Carlos sat by our side on a raised seat by
the doorway. A long parley ensued, resulting in this: that we should pay
one hundred Ecuadorian dollars for the transfer of our baggage to
Archidona; while Carlos solemnly promised for the young men that they
should start the next morning, that they should arrive at Archidona
within a stipulated time, and that they should not depend upon us for an
ounce of food. The powerful influence of the curate, which we had
secured, and the proclamation from the president, which Carlos read
aloud in the ears of all the people, together with the authoritative
charge of Carlos himself, had the desired effect; not a transportation
company in the United States ever kept its engagement more faithfully
than did these twenty peons--and this, too, though we paid them in
advance, according to the custom of the country. Upon a blanket spread
at our feet the money was counted out, and Carlos slowly distributed it
with a grave and reverend air, to every Indian five dollars.[112]

[Footnote 112: We give below the autograph of this wisest man in all the
Oriente: "Recibio del Senor James Orton la suma de centos (100) pesos
por vente (20) peones hasta Archidona.

[Illustration: reproduction of a signature is here]

"Papallacta, 4 Nov., 1867."]

Tuesday morning, November 5th, the