The indians had their usual dresses, composed of white drawers, brown capisayas, and sandals made of bullock's hide. Each carried on his back a basket, like those of the yumbo indians, having a girth passing under the bottom of it, which crossed the forehead; another was fastened round the basket, one end of which the indian held in his hand to steady his cargo. My carrier had a chair made of canes, and just large enough for me to squeeze myself into; it had a board to rest my feet upon, and two or three canes formed an arch over my head; these were for the purpose of placing leaves on when it might happen to rain. The two hind feet of the chair rested on two straps, which passed round the arms of the indian close to his body, and one attached to the top went round his forehead; so that when seated my back was towards the back of my supporter.
Leaving Quito, we travelled along the plain of Añaquito about two leagues, and then began to ascend the skirts of Pichincha, at a small village called Cotocollo: the ascent was very gentle, and after a journey of five leagues, we rested on the western side of the summit, at a small hamlet called Yana Cancha. We had here a most beautiful prospect of the crater of Pichincha, which was only about half a mile distant, and during the whole of the night I could hear a rumbling noise, and I sometimes imagined that I felt a tremulous motion. These appalling circumstances kept me awake for a considerable time, though they had no such effect on my indians and the guard, nor on the inhabitants of the house, who all slept soundly, and many of them snored most lustily. At sunrise the view from Yana Cancha was most enchanting; from the slope of the mountain, apparently from the crater, the river Mindo rolled down to the fertile valley which it irrigates, dispensing its necessary support to the many small plantations of sugar-cane, camotes, yucas, bananas and plantains, which are cultivated at the bottom of the ravine: to the westward immense forests extended themselves, forming the boundary of the horizon to the naked eye; but with the assistance of a good eye-glass I could perceive the Pacific Ocean beyond the limit of the woods.
Having crossed two eminences called Yarumos, and another called Inga Chaca, the remainder of the road to the place of embarkation on the river Piti was quite level, being intersected about every three leagues with small rivulets. The whole distance from Quito to Piti being only eighteen leagues, without any obstacles whatever to prevent it from being converted into a most excellent road, makes a difference between this and that leading to Guayaquil of about fifty leagues of land travelling.
When on our journey we had to halt for the night, the indians unloaded themselves, and cut down six or eight slender poles, ten feet long, which they stuck into the ground; they then cut others, which they tied crossways to the former, with strips of bark; they next pulled the upper part forward till this half roof formed an angle with the ground of about forty-five degrees, and sticking a pole into the ground in front, they tied the cross pole to the top of it to keep the building in a proper position. The next business was to cover it, and for this purpose each of them had procured when at Yana Cancha a roll of about twenty vijao leaves, which were laid in rows along it from the bottom to the top, each leaf hanging over the next inferior one, so that the rain was entirely carried off, and to secure the dryness of this rude, yet comfortable cabin, a small gutter was always dug at the back to carry off the water. During this operation part of the indians were engaged in procuring water, either from some neighbouring rivulet, or, after we had descended the hill called el Castillo, from the huadhuas. These are large canes, the largest species I believe of the gramina tribes; they grow to the height of forty feet, perfectly straight, and at the bottom are about six inches in diameter. The whole of the cane is divided by knots, from ten to fifteen inches asunder; when green, they are filled with excellent water, so that from each division about two quarts may be obtained by cutting a notch in the cane; when they are approaching to a state of ripeness, the water becomes like a jelly, and when quite ripe it is converted into a white calcareous substance, some of the knots holding upwards of two ounces of this matter, which a few months before was held in solution in a perfectly transparent fluid: on this account the indians object to drink the water, on the supposition that it may produce calculi.
The leaves are in shape somewhat similar to those of the banana, about a yard long, and half a yard broad; the upper side is of a beautiful pale green, the under white; it is covered with a substance which melts when held near the fire, and collected has the appearance and possesses all the qualities of bees' wax. A small portion of it being added to tallow hardens it considerably, and the candles made from this composition are rendered much more durable in hot climates. These leaves are preferable to those of the plantain, or banana, for they are quite pliable, and are therefore often used for packing instead of paper, whereas the banana leaf is easily torn into shreds; this, however, may be prevented by holding them over the fire till they become pliable. It is customary for the indians to pay a real at Yana Cancha for the loan of each bundle, which they engage to deliver on their return, or they give two bundles for one instead of a real; thus travellers carry under their arms during the day the roof which is to shelter them at night.
The soil of the country between Quito and Piti is very rich, and abounds in many kinds of most excellent timber, suitable for buildings as well as for the cabinet maker; among these there are cedars, huachapeli, ebony, cascol, guayacan, lumas, and many others. One kind, called sangre de drago, dragon's blood, grows in many places near to Piti. It attains the height of forty or fifty feet; the leaf is somewhat similar to that of the laurel, and the gum which it produces, and which gives it the name it bears, oozes immediately whenever an incision is made in the bark; it is then received on a leaf, or in a small hollow cane, or else it is left to harden in the sun, by which means each drop becomes in size and shape like an almond; the indians collect it and carry it to Quito, where it is sold as a dye.
The appearance of the yarumos scattered in clusters in different parts of the woods is most beautiful from an eminence. They are a species of bombax; the wood is porous and light, the leaves extremely large, and of a very pale green colour, so that amid the dark green foliage of these extensive woods they look like enormous flowers.
The richness of the soil, the plenteousness of water, even for irrigation should it be necessary, the serenity of the climate, and the facility of procuring indians as labourers, with every advantage that can be desirable, render it very probable, that this part of Quito will soon become populous, and that Panama, and the mines of Chocó, will in a few years be supplied with the produce of land now in an uncultivated state. There can be no doubt but that herds of cattle and fields of grain will crown the labours of those who may form establishments in this charming territory, where maize, wheat, rice, and plantains, the daily bread of the four quarters of the globe, will be produced in abundance to reward the labour of the husbandman.
At Piti I found an old man, his wife, and two sons living in a comfortable house, built like those of the Puna in the Guayaquil river, shaded with half a dozen lofty coro palms, and fanned with the magnificent leaves of the plantain, while the banana, several orange, lemon, palta, guava, arnona, and other intertropical fruit trees were laden with fruit, at the same time that small patches of sugar-cane, yucas, and camotes, seemed to vie with each other in luxuriance: numbers of turkeys, fowls and ducks ran about on a small plot of ground lying between the house and the river, which is here about a hundred yards wide. Two canoes were tied to two trees, in one of which there was a small casting net, several harpoons and fishing lines—every thing seemed to bespeak comfort, nay, even profusion.
The old man informed me, that he was a native of Guayaquil; but that he had resided on this spot for more than fifty years, on which account the natives of the country had surnamed him taita Piti, father Piti. He shewed me forty-eight tiger or jaguar skins, and assured me, that the animals had all been slain by his own lance; but he was sorry, he said, that the sport was at an end, not because he was old, but because there were no tigers left in the neighbourhood for him to kill, upwards of seven years having elapsed since he took the last skin. He assured me, that whenever he found the track of a tiger he always followed it alone, and never rested till he had slain his victim. The skins were hung on the inside of the roof and round the sides of the house, forming a very pretty, but rather uncommon kind of tapestry.