Page:Narrative of a Voyage around the World - 1843.djvu/68

 22 above them; the whole secured on the head and back of a light-footed Motero.

Some of these men carry enormous burthens; I have already mentioned one case weighing one hundred and seventy-six pounds, brought on the head. It was in this manner, in a chair with the back secured to the head, and the hind legs supported by stirrups to the shoulders, that the Padres travelled in central America and the Equador. It is not improbable that some of these individuals exceeded the above weight.

On my arrival at Panama I found the weather continued so very hazy, and the light of the moon interfered so much, that further operations were delayed until the termination of our survey of the bay, when another attempt was made from Ato. Ormigero to connect Gorgona with Panama by explosion bags.

No one could have felt a greater interest than myself in these operations, and provided I could have been the actor, endued with ubiquity, very possibly I might have been better satisfied with the results. But I have long acted in conjunction with others, and I recollect only two or three instances where comparisons obtained by simultaneous signals from ship to shore, and within three miles, have been satisfactory. I know this from possessing two first-rate pocket chronometers, whose differences could not exceed 0',4", but which nevertheless exhibited as much as two seconds error