Besides Thirst And Famine, They Were Very Much Distressed During A Considerable Part Of The Way By Quantities Of Hot

Ashes falling upon them, which they afterwards learnt were thrown up by a volcano in the neighbourhood of Quito, which

Burns with such violence that its ashes are often carried by the wind to the distance of eighty leagues, and its noise like prodigious thunder is sometimes heard at a hundred leagues from Quito. In the whole march, which was nearly under the equinoctial line, the troops of Alvarado found everywhere abundance of emeralds. After a long and difficult march through these _arcabucos_, where they were for the most part obliged to cut their way through the thick brushwood by means of axes and their swords, they came at length to a high chain of mountains covered with snow, over which it was necessary to pass. In this difficult and dangerous passage by an extremely narrow road, it snowed almost continually, and the cold was so extremely severe, that although every one put on all the clothes they had along with them, more than sixty men perished from the extreme severity of the weather. One of the soldiers happened to be accompanied by his wife and two young children, and seeing them entirely worn out with fatigue, while he was unable to assist them, he preferred to remain with them and perish, although he might have saved himself. At length, after infinite toil and danger, they found that they had reached the top of the mountain, and began joyfully to descend into the lower grounds of the kingdom of Quito.

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