Page:The lives of celebrated travellers (Volume 2).djvu/338

 *quence. The affair was this:—There being upon the top of the rock no room for pitching a tent for them, they used every evening to retire to a cave at the foot of the mountain, where, besides a natural diminution of the cold, they could keep a continual fire, and consequently enjoyed more comfortable quarters than their masters. Before they withdrew at night they fastened on the outside the door of our hut, which was so low that it was impossible to go in or out without stooping; and as every night the hail and snow which had fallen formed a wall against the door, it was the business of one or two to come up early and remove this obstruction, that when we pleased we might open the door. For though our negro servants were lodged in a little tent, their hands and feet were so covered with chilblains that they would rather have suffered themselves to be killed than move. The Indians, therefore, came constantly up to despatch this work between nine and ten in the morning; but we had not been there above four or five days when we were not a little alarmed to see ten, eleven, and twelve o'clock come without any news of our labourers; when we were relieved by the honest servant mentioned above, who had withstood the seduction of his countrymen, and informed us of the desertion of the four others. After great difficulty he opened a way for us to come out, when we all fell to clearing our habitation from the masses of snow. We then sent the Indian to the corregidor of Quito with advice of our condition, who, with equal despatch, sent others, threatening to chastise them severely if they were wanting in their duty."

The fear of punishment, however, was insufficient to reconcile the Indians to the rigours of a mountain life, and it was found necessary to have recourse to milder regulations. On this wild rock they continued twenty-three days, without being able to complete their observations; for when one of the points