. Travels amongst the great Andes of the equator . d. I saw it has gone over a preci-pice. It is dead ! Oneof the mules had met withan accident a few minutesafter we left them. Returning together, our arriero, pointing tothe place where the fall had happened, said that the animal hadrolled over and over down the slope and disappeared. We couldsee nothing of it; for the side of the mountain (a commonplacedeclivity of earth and boulders) was broken in some places byirregularities. Cevallos and Verity descended to search, and reappeared withrueful faces, carrying a bundle of clothing s
. Travels amongst the great Andes of the equator . d. I saw it has gone over a preci-pice. It is dead ! Oneof the mules had met withan accident a few minutesafter we left them. Returning together, our arriero, pointing tothe place where the fall had happened, said that the animal hadrolled over and over down the slope and disappeared. We couldsee nothing of it; for the side of the mountain (a commonplacedeclivity of earth and boulders) was broken in some places byirregularities. Cevallos and Verity descended to search, and reappeared withrueful faces, carrying a bundle of clothing saturated with slime,driving before them our unhappy, tottering beast, who aftertumbling head over heels for a hundred feet had shot over a cliffabout eighty feet high, and had been pulled up in a muddy poolunderneath. Beyond knocking the breath out of its body, andlosing the tip of one of its ears, it took no harm. But thepacking-cases had burst; the family soup-tureens, the doubleand treble pots, and other precious relics of a past civilization,. THE INCA VASE. 286 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. xiv. bounding down the declivity, had been hopelessly smashed intothousands of fragments, and we abandoned the wreck of ourfragile treasures on the dreary paramo. When night fell we were still some hours from Malchingi,stumbling and floundering among ruts and camellones. The othersimplored me to stop, and we dropped down and camped in amuddy ditch on the open moorland. I have reposed on betterand cleaner couches; though, after all, a muddy ditch is not theworst of beds — one soon becomes attached to it. At Malchingithe dilapidated mule was left to recruit, and I pushed on to Quito— Cevallos following at his leisure ; and arrived at the Capitalat 10 on the 3rd of May, feeling more dead than alive, andlooking, I was told, fit for the grave.
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