Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1885-06-27
THE ROAD TO QUITO.
TRAVELLING ACROSS THE BREAST or
kiN6LY cHIM5oaAzo.
A Dangerous, Dinicuit Trail-Passing
Through Every Variety OF Climate
Known to Man The ThIbet Of
the New World.
Ecna.Inr Cor. Inter ncenn I


All roads may have led to Rome but
no roads lead 10 Quito. There is A mule
path from the port of Guayaquil over the
Andes, u dangerous, difficult trail requir'
ing niue days 10 cross during the dry sea-
son. but impossible during the winter, or
rainy season, when no one but the mail
carriers attempt il, and they "cut across
lots arouL ne can go from New York
to Paris in less lime, at less eNVrU.c, and
with infinitely more comfort, lhan from
GuayaQuil, the seaport OF l'aaior,
10 quito, The capital. a dis
tanCc OF only 100 miles You
20 up the river Guayas about lhry miles
on a little steamer built at Ealiaorr 0 a
place called Bodcgas. ard there on get u
mule-lt least You try 10 gel cue ONE
times the animals can not he hlu. They
eau only Toe secured by purcLne m, then
only very poor ones, who i00a .. they
would no, live TO see the end ul .e our
uey. hut the South American nulc IS
better Than hr looks, and iNrIupG who
drspises him is guilty ri an Ut Ill
Justice. To- Il nd where fl' IRON horse
does no; suort ara shr'c!. liu Iga' 8 the
hest Suh-Ijiuic
II you 20 ~ quito yor must Always
furnish your own saddle. bUt % ere at
rope will do very we'll IN guiIr yNU7 AMI.
nal 10y. ir will need 10 curb 10 restrain
him. Then one has 10 take his owU bed
ding-a hammock is the best thing his
own blankets. and pillow If he can not
use a saddle as - substitute Ii usually
requires two or three days to make prep.
araiiOnS, for although people have been
r.nl Gal.
rs much Time. aud ms much iua-laE tn
start Traveller 10 day rs it did 20 grj the
first man who went launched on IN
Journey
But you Gually get started md spend
nine days as miscrabiy AS they CoGDd be
spent, without decent place 20 si,cp, or
y palaiajc mOrScl TO cat and a piCtur" o!
poverty, ignorance. squalor, and degrade.
ton a.wa before you, but set ia the
grandcS' frame That the Almighty Hand
ever created The old hymn speaks of a
place where every prospect plcases. and
only man is vile. That place is Ecua.
dor.
The road rasses over the great bosom of
ChimboraHO. at an altitude OF about | !, 900
feet. where although directly under the
equator. the frozen wind sweeps down
upon travellers, who have often been
hurled over icy precipices by the fright.
full blast. Julio itself sits in the top Of
the mountains at an altitude OF $500 feet,
OF 1900 feet Above the Hospice of the
Great 81. Bernard in the Alps While il
is not The highest city on the globe. no
where else can lie seen such an asscmblage
Of towering mountains, presided over by
the kingly CbimboraZo. whose untroddeI
summit Is mile higher Than Popocata
pctl and nearly two miles higher than tn,
tallest peak in the nited States NJ
where does nature Affect one more deeply
with feeling Of her grandeur; no where
does she exhibit more startling freaks. OF
wilder contrasts. and no where within
the same distance can be found so large "A
variety Of both animal and vegetable life
This path 10 Quito passes through
every variety of climate known To man;
from the murky. miasmatic tropics.
where the crocodile Is king and rain falls
necessarily. over rainless desert into the
zone OF wheat and corn From there il
rises TO n region worthless except for cattle
ranges, and finally ascends into the realm
Of the ice king, whose power even the
tropical sun can not dispute, and whose
only animate subject is the condor with a
fight SURPRISING any other bird. Here is
a valley from which no water can flow, a
table land between the two gigantic
Andean chains. the Thibet Of the New
World. with an area four times as large as
the state Of New ork, and a history as
old rs Moses At one end OF this
valley Potosi Is perched. the highest
city in the world, at the dher
stands Cu,cO. the golden capital of a
strange empire, which. though crushed
by / AFRO In It's budding civilization, and
fabulous nagnidcence. will rank as the
most extraordinary and extensive com
mnDily in the annals Of history. Here
were nunumbered millions Of people,
with patriarchal government. having no
law but the will of an Inca, and familiar
with all the arts but those Of war
Twenty VOLCANOES. and more than Fifty
mountain peaks over 10000 feet high
compose the sublime congregation that
illustrate the Omnipotence OF their Gre.
ator in the valley Of Quito. Here all
the mountain chains Of South Amer
lea eliminate IN one dizzy procession.
as IL the Cordilleras had gathered
around the Inca capital an army of their
grandest giants. One sierra bends of ia
The east. holds in its lap the ancient city
Of Bogota. rolls of 900 streams t0 form
the Orinoco and terminates IN the beauti
full mountains Of Rracas. Another
clings IN the Pacific, whose incessant bill.
lows wash its feet and humbling itsel
when il crosses the isthmus, spreads and
rises again 10 the COrdilleras Of Mexico
and the Rocky mountain chains forming
q backbone for che hemisphere whose
head lies nn pillow Of snow in Alaska.
and whose feel dip into the sea al the land
ri fire i1erre del negO. The third
chain ~ sierrRs follow a well defined par
allel until il droops and finally exhaust'
itself on the pampss Of Patagonia.
old 'Chimbo. the king Of the Andes,
has forbidden man IN study him. Thret
thousand feet 81 impossible snow, cling
ing 20 cone ~ granite whose sides arr
too steep ~ I've climbed even with scaling
ladders. prevent the summit from being
reached There is a legend that thimbt
wss once half mile higher than now
I'm one Of his sides stands massive rock
perhaps The largest piece Of granite In thu
world. which is called the lncas head
The Indian traditions say that this wa
once the crest OF Chimborazo. and that I
fell the day Atahaulpa, the last vt the In
cas-. was sirangled by I'izarro. Geological
inquiry might ascertain the truth Of this
...Isstzn las .l... ~ f,a ~ ha VaaE ran