The walls were of split and flattened bamboo, tied together with the long fibres of a dried climbing plant; the roof was of palm-leaves, and the ceiling of reeds. When an earthquake shook the district—for earthquakes were frequent—the inmates of such a fabric merely felt as if shaken in a basket, without sustaining any harm. In front of the cottage lay a woody ravine, extending almost to the base of the Andes, gorgeously clothed in primeval vegetation—magnolias, palms, bamboos, tree-ferns, acacias, cedars; and, towering over all, the great almendrons, with their smooth, silvery stems, bearing aloft noble clusters of pure white blossom. The forest was haunted by myriads of gay insects, butterflies with wings of dazzling lustre, birds of brilliant plumage, humming-birds, golden orioles, toucans, and a host of solitary warblers. But the glorious sunsets seen from his cottage-porch more than all astonished and delighted the young engineer; and he was accustomed to say that, after having witnessed them, he was reluctant to accuse the ancient Peruvians of idolatry. But all these natural beauties failed to reconcile him to the harassing difficulties of his situation, which continued to increase rather than diminish. He was hampered by the action of the Board at home, who gave ear to hostile criticisms on his reports; and, although they afterwards made handsome acknowledgment of his services, he felt his position to be altogether unsatisfactory. He therefore determined to leave at the expiry of his three years engagement, and communicated his decision to the directors accordingly. On receiving his letter, the Board, through Mr. Richardson, of Lombard street, one of the directors, communicated with his father at Newcastle, representing that if he would allow his son to remain in Colombia the Company would make it “worth his while.” To this the father gave a decided negative, and intimated that he himself needed his son’s assistance, and that he must return at the expiry of his three years’ term,—a decision, writes Robert, “at which I feel much gratified, as it is clear that he is as anxious to have me back in England as I am to get there.” {199} At the same time, Edward Pease, a principal partner in the Newcastle firm, privately wrote Robert to the following effect, urging his return home:—“I can assure thee that thy business at Newcastle, as well as thy father’s engineering, have suffered very much from thy absence, and, unless thou soon return, the former will be given up, as Mr. Longridge is not able to give it that attention it requires; and what is done is not done with credit to the house.” The idea of the manufactory being given up, which Robert had laboured so hard to establish before leaving England, was painful to him in the extreme, and he wrote to the manager of the Company, strongly urging that arrangements should be made for him to leave without delay. In the mean