Page:Whymper - Travels amongst the great Andes of the equator.djvu/21

Rh personal trouble he took that my wishes might be efficiently represented in the right quarters. Through his instrumentality, I was put in communication with the Ecuadorian Consul-General in Great Britain (Mr. Edmund Heuer of Manchester), and subsequently received from His Excellency the President of the Republic assurance that I should be heartily welcome in his country; and, upon application at the Foreign Office, Lord Salisbury was pleased to direct Her Majesty’s representatives at Guayaquil and Quito to afford every assistance in their power—an instruction which they interpreted sympathetically. Upon the introduction of Mr. Mathews, George Dixon, Esq., M.P. for Birmingham, rendered most valuable service by undertaking to send out in advance and to place in secure hands at Guaranda and Quito a quantity of my heavy baggage.

Through my old friend Mr. Douglas Freshfield, the Caucasian exploiter, the projected journey became known to Freiherr von Thielmann, who had recently ridden through Colombia and Ecuador, and he most kindly met me at Ostend, to give the benefit of his experiences; and from this accomplished diplomatist-traveller it was communicated to Dr. Alphons Stübel, of Dresden, who with rare liberality presented me with a copy of the unpublished altitudes in Ecuador which had been deduced from the observations made by him in 1871–73 in conjunction with Dr. W. Reiss. Many other equally friendly services were performed both by friends and strangers, especially by the fraternity of mountain-travellers, and amongst the very last communications which reached me, just before departure, came a cheering bon voyage from the veteran Boussingault, who forty-eight years earlier had himself endeavoured to ascend Chimborazo.

Similar good fortune continued on the outward voyage. My sincere thanks are due to the agents of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and to the Acting-Consuls at Colon and Panama,