Page:Whymper - Travels amongst the great Andes of the equator.djvu/22

xiv for their undeserved attentions, and particularly to the Eight Hon. H. C. Childers (at that time chairman of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company), who most courteously granted me the use of one of his cabins in order that work might be carried on uninterruptedly. Upon arrival at Guayaquil we were at once received into the house of Mr. George Chandlers, H.B.M.’s Consul, and were treated with genuine hospitality.

It is now my duty to acknowledge in the most prominent manner the invaluable services which were rendered throughout the journey by the cousins Carrel. Travellers are not always fortunate in their assistants, and, occasionally, even fall out with them. Under circumstances which were frequently trying, our party, although exceedingly small, was always closely united. The imperturbable good temper of the one man, and the grim humour of the other, were sources of continual satisfaction. I trusted my person, property, and interests to their care with perfect confidence, and they proved worthy of the trust, and equal to every demand which was made upon them.

We travelled through Ecuador unarmed, except with passports which were never exhibited, and with a number of letters of introduction which for the most part were not presented; adopting a policy of non-intervention in all that did not concern us, and rigidly respecting the customs of the country, even when we could not agree with them: and traversed that unsettled Republic without molestation, trusting more to our wits than to our credentials, and believing that a jest may conquer where force will fail, that a bon-mot is often better than a passport.