account of the travels between the tropics of messrs. humboldt and bonpland, in 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804.

By j. c. delametherie.

AFTER making phyſical reſearches for eight years in Germany, Poland, England, France, Swiſſerland, and Italy, M. Humboldt came to Paris in 1798, where the Muſeum of Natural Hiſtory afforded him an opportunity of making a voyage round the world with Captain Baudin.

When on the point of ſetting out for Havre, with Alexander Aimé Gonjou Bonpland, a pupil of the School of Medicine and Garden of Plants, the war which recommenced with Auſtria, and the want of funds, induced the Directory to put off the voyage of Baudin till a more favourable occaſion. M. Humboldt, who, ſince 1792, had conceived the deſign of undertaking, at his own expence, a voyage to the tropics, in order to promote the phyſical ſciences, reſolved then to accompany the men of ſcience who were deſtined for Egypt.— The battle of Aboukir having interrupted all direct communication with Alexandria, his plan was, to take advantage of a Swediſh frigate which was to carry the conſul Sezioldebrant to Algiers, to accompany the caravan thence to Mecca, and to proceed to India by Egypt and the Perſian Gulph; but the war, which broke out in an unexpected manner in the month of October 1798, between France and the Barbary Powers, and the troubles in the Eaſt, prevented M. Humboldt from ſetting out from Marſeilles, where he waited to no purpoſe for two months.— Impatient at this new delay, but always firm in the project of joining the expedition in Egypt, he ſet out for Spain, hoping he ſhould be able to proceed more eaſily under the Spaniſh flag from Carthagena to Algiers or Tunis.

He took the road to Madrid, through Montpellier, Perpignan, Barcelona, and Valentia; but the news from the Eaſt became every day more diſtreſſing.

The war there was carried on with unexampled fury, and he was at length obliged to renounce the deſign of going through Egypt to Indoſtan.

A happy concurrence of circumſtances ſoon indemnified M. Humboldt for this delay.

In the month of March 1799, the Court of Madrid granted him full permiſſion to proceed to the Spaniſh Colonies in both the Americas, in order to make ſuch reſearches as might be uſeful to the ſciences.

His Catholic Majeſty even deigned to ſhow particular intereſt for the ſucceſs of this expedition; and M. Humboldt, after reſiding ſome months at Madrid and Aranjues, ſet out from Europe in June 1799, accompanied by his friend Bonpland, who unites an extenſive knowledge of botany and zoology to that indefatigable zeal and love for the ſciences which induce men to ſubmit with indifference to every kind of hardſhip.

With this friend M. Humboldt travelled for five years, at his own expence, between the tropics, paſſing over, by ſea and land, nearly nine thouſand leagues.

Theſe two travellers, provided with recommendations from the Court of Spain, embarked in the Pizarro frigate, at Corunna, for the Canaries.

They touched at the iſland of Gracioſa, near Lancerotta, and at Teneriff, where they aſcended to the crater of the Peak, in order to analyſe the atmoſpheric air, and make geological obſervations on the baſaltes and porphyritic ſchiſt of Africa.

In the month of July they arrived at the port of Cumana, in the gulph of Cariaco, a part of South America, celebrated by the labours and misfortunes of the indefatigable Löfling.

In the courſe of 1799 and 1800 they viſited the coaſt of Paria, the Indian miſſions of Chaymas, and the province of New Andaluſia, one of the hotteſt, but, at the ſame time, healthieſt, countries in the world, though convulſed by dreadful and frequent earthquakes.— They traverſed the provinces of New Barcelona, Venezuela, and Spaniſh Guyana.

After determining the longitude of Cumana, Caraccas, and ſeveral other points, by obſervations of the ſatellites of Jupiter; after collecting plants on the ſummits of Caripe and Silla de Avila, crowned by befaria, they ſet out for the capital of Caraccas in February 1800, and the beautiful valleys of Aragua, where the large lake of Valentia calls to remembrance that of Geneva, but embelliſhed by the majeſtic vegetation of the tropics.

From Portocabello they proceeded ſouth, penetrating from the coaſt of the ſea of the Antilles as far as the boundaries of Brazil towards the equator.— They firſt traverſed the immenſe plains of Calabozo, Apure, and Lower Orenoko; the Llanos, deſerts ſimilar to thoſe of Africa, where, by the reverberation of the heat, but under the ſhade, Reaumur’s thermometer riſes to 33° or 37°, and where the ſcorching ſoil, for more than two thouſand leagues, differs in its level only five inches.

The ſand, ſimilar to the horizon at ſea, exhibits every where the moſt curious phenomena of refraction and elevation.

Without any vegetation, in the dry months it affords ſhelter to the crocodile and the torpid boa.

The want of water, the heat of the ſun, and the duſt raiſed by the ſcorching winds, haraſs in turns the traveller, who directs himſelf and mule by the courſe of the ſtars, or by ſome ſcattered trunks of the mauritia and embothrium, which are diſcovered every three or four leagues.

At St. Fernando d’Apure, in the province of Varinas, Meſſrs. Humboldt and Bonpland began a laborious navigation of nearly five hundred nautical leagues in canoes, during which they made a chart of the country by the help of time-keepers, the ſatellites, and lunar diſtances.— They deſcended the river Apure, which falls into the Orenoko in the latitude of ſeven degrees.

Having eſcaped from the danger of imminent ſhipwreck near the iſland of Pananuma, they aſcended the latter river as far as the mouth of the Rio Guaviare, paſſing the famous cataracts of Atures and Maypure, where the cavern of Ataruipe contains mummies of a nation deſtroyed by the war of the Caribs and Maravitains.

From the mouth of the Rio Guaviare, which deſcends from the Andes of New Granada, and which Father Gumilla erroneouſly took for the ſources of the Orenoko, they quitted the latter and aſcended the ſmall rivers Atabapo, Tuamini, and Temi.

From the miſſion of Javita they proceeded by land to the ſources of the Guiainia, which the Europeans call the Rio Negro, and which Condamine, who ſaw it only at its mouth in the river Amazon, calls a freſh water ſea.

Thirty Indians carried their canoes through buſhy trees of hevea, lecythis, and the laurus cinnamomoides, to Cano Pimichin.

By this ſmall ſtream our travellers proceeded to the Rio Negro, which they deſcended as far as the ſmall fortreſs of San Carlos, which has been erroneouſly believed to be ſituated under the equator, and as far as the frontiers of the Grand Para, the Captainry General of Brazil.

A canal from Temi to Pimichin, which, on account of the level nature of the ground is very practicable, would form an interior communication between the provinces of Caraccas and the capital of Peru much ſhorter than that of Caſquiare.

By this canal alſo, ſuch is the aſtoniſhing diſpoſition of the rivers in this new continent, one might deſcend in a canoe from Rio Guallaga, within three days journey of Lima, or the South Sea, by the river Amazon and Rio Negro, as far as the mouths of the Orenoko oppoſite to Trinidad, a navigation of nearly two thouſand leagues.

The miſunderſtanding which prevailed then between the Courts of Madrid and Liſbon prevented M. Humboldt from carrying his operations beyond St.

Gabriel de las Cochuellas, in the Captainry General of Great Para.

La Condamine and Maldonado having determined aſtronomically the mouth of the Rio Negro, this obſtacle was leſs ſenſible, and it remained to fix a part more unknown, which is the arm of the Orenoko called Caſquiare, forming the communication between the Orenoko and the river Amazon, and reſpecting the exiſtence of which there have been ſo many diſputes for fifty years paſt. To execute this labour, Meſſrs. Humboldt and Bonpland aſcended from the Spaniſh fortreſs of St. Carlos along the Rio Negro and the Caſquiare to the Orenoko, and on the latter to the Miſſion of Eſmeraldo, near the volcano Duida, or as far as the ſources of that river.

The Guaica Indians, a very white, ſmall, and almoſt pigmy race of men, but exceedingly warlike, who inhabit the country to the eaſt of the Paſimoni; and the Guajaribes, of a dark copper colour, extremely ferocious, and ſtill anthropophagi, render fruitleſs every attempt to reach the ſources of the Orenoko, which the maps of Caulin, though in other reſpects meritorious, place in a longitude much too far eaſt.

From the miſſion of Eſmeralda, an aſſemblage of huts ſituated in the moſt remote and moſt ſolitary corner of this Indian world, our travellers deſcended, with the aſſiſtance of the floods, 340 leagues; that is to ſay, the whole of the Orenoko, as far as towards its mouths at St.

Thomas de la Nueva Guyana or Angoſtura, paſſing a ſecond time the cataracts, to the ſouth of which the two hiſtoriographers of theſe countries, Father Gumilla and Caulin, never penetrated.

In the courſe of this long and painful navigation, the want of food and ſhelter; the nocturnal rains; living in the woods; the moſquitoes, and a multitude of other ſtinging and venemous inſects; the impoſſibility of cooling themſelves by the bath, on account of the ferocity of the crocodile and of the ſmall carib fiſh; together with the miaſmata of a hot and damp climate, expoſed our travellers to continual ſuffering.

They returned from the Orenoko to Barcelona and Cumana by the plains of Cari and the Miſſions of the Carib Indians, a very extraordinary race of men, and, next to the Patagonians, the talleſt and moſt robuſt perhaps in the world.

After a ſtay of ſome months on the coaſt, they proceeded to the Havannah by the ſouth of St. Domingo and Jamaica.

This navigation, performed when the ſeaſon was far advanced, was both long and dangerous, the veſſel having been in great danger of being loſt on the bank of Vibora, the poſition of which M. Humboldt determined by the time-keeper.

He ſtaid in the iſland of Cuba three months, during which time he employed himſelf on the longitude of the Havannah, and the conſtruction of a new kind of ſtove in the ſugar-houſes, which was ſpeedily and generally adopted.

When on the point of ſetting out for La Vera Cruz, intending to proceed by the way of Mexico and Acapulco to the Philippines, and thence, if poſſible, by Bombay, Buſſorah, and Aleppo, to Conſtantinople, falſe intelligence reſpecting the voyage of Captain Baudin alarmed him, and induced him to alter his plan.

The American papers announced that this navigator would ſet out from France for Buenos-Ayres, and that, after doubling Cape Horn, he would proceed along the coaſts of Chili and Peru.

M. Humboldt, at the time of his departure from Paris in the year 1798, had promiſed to the Muſeum and to Captain Baudin, that, in whatever part of the world he might be, he would endeavour to join the French expedition as ſoon as he ſhould hear of its having been ſet on foot.

He flattered himſelf that his reſearches and thoſe of Bonpland would be more uſeful to the progreſs of the ſciences if they united their labours to thoſe of the men of ſcience who were to accompany Captain Baudin.

Theſe conſiderations induced M. Humboldt to ſend his manuſcripts of the years 1799 and 1800 directly to Europe, and to freight a ſmall galliot in the port of Batabano to proceed to Carthagena in the Indies, and thence, as ſoon as poſſible, by the iſthmus of Panama, to the South Sea.

He hoped to find Capta in Baudin at Guyaquil or at Lima, and to viſit New Holland and the iſlands of the Pacific Ocean, ſo intereſting in a moral point of view, and by the richneſs of their vegetation.

It appeared to him imprudent to expoſe the manuſcripts and collections already formed to the dangers of this long navigation.

The manuſcripts, reſpecting the fate of which M. Humboldt remained in painful uncertainty for three years, till his arrival at Philadelphia, were ſaved; but a third of the collections were loſt at ſea by ſhipwreck.

Fortunately this loſs, and that of ſome inſects from the Orenoko and Rio Negro, extended only to duplicates; but this ſhipwreck proved fatal to a friend to whom M. Humboldt had intruſted his plants and inſects, Fray Juan Gonzales, a Franciſcan, a young man of great courage and activity, who bad penetrated in this unknown world from Spaniſh Guyana much farther than any other European.

(To be continued.)

account of the travels between the tropics of messrs. humboldt and bonpland, in 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804.

By j. c. delametherie.

(Continued from p. 558. No. 130.)

M. HUMBOLDT ſet out from Batabano in March, 1801, coaſting along the South ſide of the iſland of Cuba, and determining aſtronomically ſeveral points in that group of ſmall iſles called the King’s Gardens, and the approaches to the part of Trinidad.

A navigation which ought to have been only thirteen or fifteen days, was prolonged by currents beyond a month.

The galliot was carried by them too far eaſt, beyond the mouths of the Atracto.

They touched at Rio Sinu, where no botaniſt had ever ſearched for plants; but they found it difficult to land at Carthagena, on account of the violence of the breakers of St. Martha.

The galliot had almoſt gone to pieces near Giant’s Point: they were obliged to ſave themſelves towards the ſhore in order to anchor; and this diſappointment gave M. Humboldt an opportunity of obſerving the eclipſe of the moon on the 2d of March, 1801.

Unfortunately they learned on this coaſt that the ſeaſon for navigating the South Sea, from Panama to Guyaquil, was already too far advanced: it was neceſſary to give up the deſign of croſſing the iſthmus; and the deſire of ſeeing the celebrated Mutis, and examining his immenſe treaſures in natural hiſtory, induced M. Humboldt to ſpend ſome weeks in the foreſts of Turbaco, ornamented with guſtavia, toluifera, anacardium caracoli, and the Cavanilleſca of the Peruvian botaniſts; and to aſcend in thirty-five days the beautiful and majeſtic river of the Magdalen, of which he ſketched out a chart, though tormented by the moſquitoes, while Bonpland ſtudied the vegetation, rich in heliconia, pſychoſtria, melaſtoma, myrodia, and dychotria emetica, the root of which is the ipecacuanha of Carthagena.

Having landed at Honda, our travellers proceeded on mules, the only way of travelling in South America, and by frightful roads through foreſts of oaks, melaſtoma and cinchona, to Santa Fé de Bagota, the capital of the kingdom of New Grenada, ſituated in a beautiful plain 1360 toiſes above the level of the ſea, and, in conſequence of a perpetual ſpring temperature, abounding in the wheat of Europe and the ſeſamum of Aſia.

The ſuperb collections of Mutis; the grand and ſublime cataract of Tequendama, 98 toiſes or 588 feet in height; the mines of Mariquita, St.

Ana, and Zipaguira; the natural bridge of Icononzo, two detached rocks which by means of an earthquake have been diſpoſed in ſuch a manner as to ſupport a third; occupied the attention of our travellers at Santa Fé till September 1801.

Though the rainy ſeaſon had now rendered the roads almoſt impaſſable, they ſet out for Quito; they re-deſcended by Fuſagaſuga, in the valley of Magdalena, and paſſed the Andes of Quindiu, where the ſnowy pyramid of Tolina riſes amidſt foreſts of ſtyrax paſſiflora in trees, bambuſa, and wax palms.

For thirteen days they were obliged to drag themſelves through horrid mud, and to ſleep, as on the Orenoko, under the bare heavens, in woods where they ſaw no veſtiges of man.

When they arrived, bare-footed, and drenched with continual rain, in the valley of the river Cauca, they ſtopped at Cathago and Buga, and proceeded along the province of Choco, the country of platina, which is found between rolled fragments of baſaltes, filled with olivin and augite, green rock (the grunſtein of Werner), and foſſil wood.

They aſcended by Caloto and Quilichao, where gold is waſhed, to Popayan, viſited by Bouguer when he returned to France, and ſituated at the bottom of the ſnowy volcanoes of Puracé and Sotara, one of the moſt pictureſque ſituations and in the moſt delightful climate of the univerſe, where Reaumur’s thermometer ſtands conſtantly between 17 and 19 degrees.

When they had reached, with much difficulty, the crater of the volcano of Puracé, filled with boiling water, which from the midſt of the ſnow throws up, with a horrid roaring, vapours of ſulphurated hydrogen, our travellers paſſed from Popayan by the ſteep cordilleras of Almaguer a Parto, avoiding the contagious air of the valley of Patia.

From Paſto, a town ſituated at the bottom of a burning volcano, they traverſed by Guachucal the high plateau of the province of Paſtes, ſeparated from the Pacific Ocean by the Andes of the volcano of Chili and Cumbal, and celebrated for its great fertility in wheat and the erytroxylou Peruvianum, called cocoa.

At length, after a journey of four months on mules, they arrived at the towns of Ibarra and Quito.

This long paſſage through the cordillera of the high Andes, at a ſeaſon which rendered the roads impaſſable, and during which they were expoſed to rains which continued ſeven or eight hours a day, encumbered with a great number of inſtruments and voluminous collections, would have been almoſt impoſſible, without the generous and kind aſſiſtance of M. Mendiunetta, viceroy of Santa Fé, and the baron de Carondelet, preſident of Quito, who, being equally zealous for the progreſs of ſcience, cauſed the roads and the moſt dangerous bridges to be repaired on a route of 450 leagues in length.

Meſſrs. Humboldt and Bonpland arrived on the 6th of January 1802, at Quito, a capital celebrated in the annals of aſtronomy by the labours of La Condamine, Bouguer, Godin, and Don Jorge-Juan and Ulloa; juſtly celebrated alſo by the great amiableneſs of its inhabitants and their happy diſpoſition for the arts.

Our travellers continued their geological and botanical reſearches for eight or nine months in the kingdom of Quito; a country rendered perhaps the moſt intereſting in the world by the coloſſal height of its ſnowy ſummits; the activity of its volcanoes, which in turns throw up flames, rocks, mud, and hydro-ſulphureous water; the frequency of its earthquakes, one of which, on the 7th of February 1797, ſwallowed up in a few ſeconds nearly 40,000 inhabitants; its vegetation; the remains of Peruvian architecture; and, above all, the manners of its ancient inhabitants.

After two fruitleſs attempts, they ſucceeded in twice aſcending to the crater of the volcano of Pinchinca, where they made experiments on the analyſis of the air; its electric charge, magnetiſm, hygroſcopy, electricity, and the temperature of boiling water.

La Condamine ſaw the ſame crater, which he very properly compares to the chaos of the poets; but he was there without inſtruments, and could remain only ſome minutes.

In his time this immenſe mouth, hollowed out in baſaltic porphyry, was cooled and filled with ſnow:

our travellers found it again on fire; and this intelligence was diſtreſſing to the town of Quito, which is diſtant only about four or five thouſand toiſes.

Here M.

Humboldt was in danger of loſing his life.

Being alone with an Indian, who was as little acquainted with the crater as himſelf, and walking over a fiſſure concealed by a thin ſtratum of congealed ſnow, he had almoſt fallen into it.

Our travellers, during their ſtay in the kingdom of Quito, made ſeveral excurſions to the ſnowy mountains of Antiſana, Cotopaxi, Tunguragua, and Chimborazo, which is the higheſt ſummit of our earth, and which the French academicians meaſured only by approximation.

They examined in particular the geognoſtic part of the cordillera of the Andes, reſpecting which nothing has yet been publiſhed in Europe; mineralogy, as we may ſay, being newer than the voyage of La Condamine, whoſe univerſal genius and incredible activity embraced every thing elſe that could be intereſting to the ſciences.

The trigonometrical and barometrical meaſurements of M.

Humboldt have proved that ſome of theſe volcanoes, and eſpecially that of Tunguragua, have become conſiderably lower ſince 1753; a reſult which accords with what the inhabitants of Pellileo and the plains of Tapia have obſerved.

M. Humboldt found that all theſe large maſſes were the work of cryſtallization.

“Every thing I have ſeen,” ſays he in a letter to Delametherie, “in theſe regions, where the higheſt elevations of the globe are ſituated, have confirmed me more and more in the grand idea that you threw out in your Theory of the Earth, the moſt complete work we have on that ſubject, in regard to the formation of mountains.

All the maſſes of which they conſiſt have united according to then aſſinities by the laws of attraction, and have formed theſe elevations, more or leſs conſiderable in different parts on the ſurface of the earth, by the laws of general cryſtallization.

There can remain no doubt in this reſpect to the traveller who conſiders without prejudice theſe large maſſes.

You will ſee in our relations that there is not one of the objects you treat of which we have not endeavoured to improve by our labours.”

In all theſe excurſions, begun in January 1802, our travellers were accompanied by M.

Charles Montufar, ſon of the Marquis de Selvalegre, of Quito, an individual zealous for the progreſs of the ſciences, and who cauſed to be reconſtructed, at his own expenſe, the pyramids of Sarouguier, the boundaries of the celebrated baſe of the French and Spaniſh academicians.

This intereſting young man, having accompanied M. Humboldt during the reſt of his expedition to Peru and the kingdom of Mexico, proceeded with him to Europe.

The efforts of theſe three travellers were ſo much favoured by circumſtances, that they reached the greateſt heights to which man had ever attained in theſe mountains.

On the volcano of Antiſana they carried inſtruments 2200, and on Chimborazo, June 23, 1802, 3300 feet higher than Condamine and Bouguer did on Corazon.

They aſcended to the height of 3036 toiſes above the level of the Pacific Ocean, where the blood iſſued from their eyes, lips, and gums, and where they experienced a cold not indicated by the thermometer, but which aroſe from the little caloric diſengaged during the inſpiration of air ſo much rarefied.

A fiſſure eighty toiſes in depth and of great breadth prevented them from reaching the top of Chimborazo when they were diſtant from it only about 224 toiſes.

(To be continued.)

account of the travels between the tropics of messrs. humboldt and bonpland, in 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804.

By j. c. delametherie.

(Concluded from page 17 of our laſt Number.)

DURING his reſidence at Quito, M. Humboldt received a letter from the French National Inſtitute, informing him that Captain Baudin had ſet out for New Holland, purſuing an eaſterly courſe by the Cape of Good Hope.

He found it neceſſary, therefore, to give up all idea of joining him, though our travellers had entertained this hope for thirteen months, by which means they loſt the advantage of an eaſy paſſage from the Havannah to Mexico and the Philippines.

It had made them travel by ſea and by land more than a thouſand leagues to the ſouth, expoſed to every extreme of temperature, from ſummits covered with perpetual ſnow to the bottom of thoſe profound ravines where the thermometer ſtands night and day between 25° and 31° of Reaumur.

But, accuſtomed to diſappointments of every kind, they readily conſoled themſelves on account of their fate.

They were once more ſenſible that man muſt depend only on what can be produced by his own energy; and Baudin’s voyage, or rather the falſe intelligence of the direction he had taken, made them traverſe immenſe countries towards which no naturaliſt perhaps would otherwiſe have turned his reſearches. M.

Humboldt being then reſolved to purſue his own expedition, proceeded from Quito towards the river Amazon and Lima, with a view of making the important obſervation of the tranſit of Mercury over the ſun’s diſk.

Our travellers firſt viſited the ruins of Lactacunga, Hambato, and Riobamba, a diſtrict convulſed by the dreadful earthquake of the year 1797.

They paſſed through the ſnows of Aſſonay to Cuenca, and thence with great difficulty, on account of the carriage of their inſtruments and packages of plants, by the Paramo of Saraguro to Loxa.

It was here, in the foreſts of Gonzanama and Malacates, that they ſtudied the valuable tree which firſt made known to man the febrifuge qualities of cinchona.

The extent of the territory which their travels embraced, gave them an advantage never before enjoyed by any botaniſt, namely, that of comparing the different kinds of cinchona of Santa Fé, Popayan, Cuenca, Loxa, and Jaen, with the cuſpa and cuſpare of Cumana and Rio Carony, the latter of which, named improperly Cortex anguſturæ, appears to belong to a new genus of the pentandria monogynia, with alternate leaves.

From Loxa they entered Peru by Ayavaca and Gouncabamba, traverſing the high ſummit of the Andes, to proceed to the river Amazon.

They had to paſs thirty-five times in the courſe of two days the river Chamaya, ſometimes on a raft, and ſometimes by fording.

They ſaw the ſuperb remains of the cauſeway of Ynga, which may be compared to the moſt beautiful cauſeways in France and Spain, and which proceeds on the porphyritic ridge of the Andes, from Cuſco to Aſſonay, and is furniſhed with cambo (inns) and public fountains.

They then embarked on a raft of ochroma, at the ſmall Indian village of Chamaya, and deſcended by the river of the ſame name, to that of the Amazons, determining by the culmination of ſeveral ſtars, and by the difference of time, the aſtronomical poſition of that confluence.

La Condamine, when he returned from Quito to Para and to France, embarked on the river Amazon only below Quebrada de Chucunga; he therefore obſerved the longitude only at the mouth of the Rio Napo. M.

Humboldt endeavoured to ſupply this deficiency in the beautiful chart of the French aſtronomer, navigating the river Amazon as far as the cataracts of Rentema, and forming at Tomependa, the capital of the province of Jaen de Bracamorros, a detailed plan of that unknown part of the Upper Maranon, both from his own obſervations and the information obtained from Indian travellers. M. Bonpland, in the mean time, made an intereſting excurſion to the foreſts around the town of Jaen, where he diſcovered new ſpecies of cinchona; and after greatly ſuffering from the ſcorching heat of theſe ſolitary diſtricts, and admiring a vegetation rich in new ſpecies of Jacquinia, Godoya, Porteria, Bougainvillea, Colletia, and Piſonia, our three travellers croſſed for the fifth time the cordillera of the Andes by Montan, in order to return to Peru.

They fixed the point where Borda’s compaſs indicated the zero of the magnetic inclination, though at ſeven degrees of ſouth latitude.

They examined the mines of Hualguayoc, where native ſilver is found in large maſſes at the height of 2000 toiſes above the level of the ſea, in mines, ſome metalliferous veins of which contain petrified ſhells, and which, with thoſe of Huontajayo, are at preſent the richeſt of Peru.

From Caxamarca, celebrated by its thermal waters, and by the ruins of the palace of Atahualpa, they deſcended to Truxillo, in the neighbourhood of which are found veſtiges of the immenſe Peruvian city of Manſiſche, ornamented with pyramids, in one of which was diſcovered, in the eighteenth century, hammered gold to the value of more than 150,000l. ſterling.

On this weſtern declivity of the Andes our travellers enjoyed, for the firſt time, the ſtriking view of the Pacific Ocean; and from that long and narrow valley, the inhabitants of which are unacquainted with rain or thunder, and where, under a happy climate, the moſt abſolute power, and that moſt dangerous to man, theocracy itſelf, ſeems to imitate the beneficence of nature.

From Truxillo they followed the dry coaſts of the South Sea, formerly watered and rendered fertile by the canals of the Ynga; nothing of which remains but melancholy ruins.

When they arrived, by Santa and Guarmey, at Lima, they remained ſome months in that intereſting capital of Peru, the inhabitants of which are diſtinguiſhed by the vivacity of their genius and the liberality of their ſentiments. M.

Humboldt had the happineſs of obſerving, in a pretty complete manner, at the port of Callao at Lima, the end of the tranſit of Mercury: a circumſtance the more fortunate, as the thick fog which prevails at that ſeaſon often prevents the ſun’s diſk from being ſeen for twenty days.

He was aſtoniſhed to find in Peru, at ſo immenſe a diſtance from Europe, the neweſt literary productions in chemiſtry, mathematics, and phyſiology; and he admired the great intellectual activity of a people whom the Europeans accuſe of indolence and luxury.

In the month of January 1803, our travellers embarked in the King’s corvette La Caſtora for Guyaquil; a paſſage which is performed, by the help of the winds and currents, in three or four days, whereas the return from Guyaquil requires as many months.

In the former port, ſituated on the banks of an immenſe river, the vegetation of which in palms, plumeria tabernæmontana, and ſcitamineæ, is majeſtic beyond all deſcription.

They heard growling every moment the volcano of Catopaxi, which made a dreadful exploſion on the 6th of January 1803.

They immediately ſet out that they might have a nearer view of its ravages, and to viſit it a ſecond time; but the unexpected news of the ſudden departure of the Atlanta frigate, and the ſear of not finding another opportunity for ſeveral months, obliged them to return, after being tormented for ſeven days by the moſquitoes of Babaoyo and Ugibar.

They had a favourable navigation of thirty days on the Pacific Ocean to Acapulco, the weſtern port of the kingdom of New Spain, celebrated by the beauty of its baſon, which appears to have been cut out in the granite rocks by the violence of earthquakes; celebrated alſo by the wretchedneſs of its inhabitants, who ſee there millions of piaſtres embarked for the Philippines and China; and unfortunately celebrated by a climate as ſcorching as mortal.

M. Humboldt intended at firſt to ſtay only a few months in Mexico, and to haſten his return to Europe; his travels had already been too long; the inſtruments, and particularly the time-keepers, began to be gradually deranged; and all the efforts he had made to get new ones had proved fruitleſs.

Beſides, the progreſs of the ſciences in Europe is ſo rapid, that in travels of more than four years a traveller may ſee certain phenomena under points of view which are no longer intereſting when his labours are preſented to the public.

M. Humboldt flattered himſelf with the hope of being in England in the months of Auguſt or September 1803; but the attraction of a country ſo beautiful and ſo variegated as the kingdom of New Spain, the great hoſpitality of its inhabitants, and the dread of the yellow-fever at Vera Cruz, which cuts off almoſt all thoſe who between the months of June and October come down from the mountains, induced him to defer his departure till the middle of winter.

After having occupied his attention with plants, the ſtate of the air, the hourly variations of the barometer, the phenomena of the magnet, and, in particular, the longitude of Acapulco, a port in which two able aſtronomers, Meſſrs. Eſpinoſa and Galeano, had before made obſervations, our travellers ſet out for Mexico.

They aſcended gradually from the ſcorching valleys of Meſcala and Papagayo, where the thermometer in the ſhade ſtood at 32° of Reaumur, and where they paſſed the river on the fruit of the creſcentia pinnata, bound together by ropes of agave, to the high table lands of Chilpantzingo, Tehuilotepec, and Taſco.

At theſe heights of ſix or ſeven hundred toiſes above the level of the ſea, in conſequence of the mildneſs and coolneſs of the climate, the oak, cypreſs, fir, and fern, begin to be ſeen, together with the kinds of grain cultivated in Europe.

Having ſpent ſome time in the mines of Taſco, the oldeſt and formerly the richeſt in the kingdom, and having ſtudied the nature of thoſe ſilvery veins which paſs from the hard calcareous rock to micaceous ſchiſt, and incloſe foliaceous gypſum, they aſcended, by Cuernaraca and the cold regions of Guchilaqua, to the capital of Mexico.

This city, which has 150,000 inhabitants, and ſtands on the ſite of the old Tenochtitlan, between the lakes of Tezcuco and Xochimilo, which have decreaſed in ſize ſince the Spaniards, to leſſen the danger of inundations, have opened the mountains of Sincoc, is interſected by broad ſtraight ſtreets.

It ſtands in ſight of two ſnowy mountains, one of which is named Popocatepec; and of a volcano ſtill burning; and, at the height of 1160 toiſes, enjoys a temperate and agreeable climate: it is ſurrounded by canals, walks bordered with trees, a multitude of Indian hamlets, and without doubt may be compared to the fineſt cities of Europe. It is diſtinguiſhed alſo by its large ſcientific eſtabliſhments, which may vie with ſeveral of the old continent, and to which there are none ſimilar in the new.

The botanical garden, directed by that excellent botaniſt M. Cervantes; the expedition of M. Seſſe, who is accompanied by able draftſmen, and whoſe object is to acquire a knowledge of the plants of Mexico; the School of Mines, eſtabliſhed by the liberality of the corps of miners and by the creative genius of M. d’Elhuyar; and the Academy of Painting, Engraving, and Sculpture; all tend to diffuſe taſte and knowledge in a country, the riches of which ſeem to oppoſe intellectual culture.

With inſtruments taken from the excellent collection of the School of Mines, M. Humboldt determined the longitude of Mexico, in which there was an error of nearly two degrees, as has been confirmed by correſponding obſervations of the ſatellites made at the Havannah.

After a ſtay of ſome months in that capital, our travellers viſited the celebrated mines of Moran and Real-del-Monte, where the vein of La Biſcayna has given millions of piaſtres to the Counts De Regla; they examined the obſidian ſtones of Oyamel, which form ſtrata in the pearlſtone and porphyry, and ſerved as knives to the ancient Mexicans.

The whole of this country, filled with baſaltes, amygdaloids, and calcareous and ſecondary formations, from the large cavern of Danto, traverſed by a river to the porphyritic rocks of Actopan, preſents phenomena intereſting to the geologiſt, which have been already examined by M. del Rio, the pupil of Werner, and one of the moſt learned mineralogiſts of the preſent day.

On their return from their excurſion to Moran in July 1803, they undertook another to the northern part of the kingdom.

At firſt they directed their reſearches to Huehuetoca, where, at the expence of ſix millions of piaſtres, an aperture has been formed in the mountain of Sincoc to drain off the waters from the valley of Mexico to the river Montezuma.

They then paſſed Queretaro, by Salamanca and the fertile plains of Yrapuaro, to Guanaxuato, a town which contains 50,000 inhabitants: it is ſituated in a narrow defile, and celebrated by its mines, which are of far greater conſequence than thoſe of Potoſi.

The mine of Count de Valenciana, which has given birth to a conſiderable town on a hill which thirty years ago ſcarcely afforded paſture to goats, is already 1840 feet in perpendicular depth.

It is the deepeſt and richeſt in the world; the annual profit of the proprietors having never been leſs than three millions of livres, and it ſometimes amounts to five or ſix.

After two months employed in meaſurements and geological reſearches, and after having examined the thermal waters of Comagillas, the temperature of which is 11° of Reaumur higher than thoſe of the Philippine iſlands, which Sonnerat conſiders as the hotteſt in the word, our travellers proceeded through the valley of St. Jago, where they thought they ſaw in ſeveral lakes at the ſummits of the baſaltic mountains ſo many craters of burntout volcanoes, to Valladolid, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Michoacan.— They thence deſcended, notwithſtanding the continual autumnal rains, by Patzquaro, ſituated on the margin of a very extenſive lake towards the coaſt of the Pacific Ocean, to the plains of Jorullo, where, in the courſe of one night in 1759, during one of the greateſt convulſions which the globe ever experienced, there iſſued from the earth a volcano 1494 feet in height, ſurrounded by more than 2000 mouths ſtill emitting ſmoke.

They deſcended into the burning crater of the great volcano to the perpendicular depth of 258 feet, jumping over fiſſures which exhaled flaming ſulphurated hydrogen gas.

After great danger, ariſing from the brittleneſs of the baſaltic and ſienitic lava, they reached nearly the bottom of the crater, and analyſed the air in it, which was found to be ſurcharged in an extraordinary manner with carbonic acid.

From the kingdom of Michoacan, one of the moſt agreeable and moſt fertile countries in the Indies, they returned to Mexico by the high table-land of Tolucca, in which they meaſured the ſnowy mountain of the ſame name, aſcending to its higheſt ſummit, the peak of Fraide, which riſes 2364 toiſes above the level of the ſea.

They viſited alſo at Tolucca the famous hand-tree, the cheiranthoſtæmon of M. Cervantes, a genus which preſents a phenomenon almoſt unique,—that of there being only one individual of it, which has exiſted ſince the remoteſt antiquity.

On their return to the capital of Mexico, they remained there ſeveral months to arrange their herbals, abundant in gramineous plants, and their geological collections; to calculate their barometric and trigonometrical meaſurements performed in the courſe of that year; and in particular to make fair drawings of the geological Atlas, which M. Humboldt propoſes to publiſh.

Their return furniſhed them alſo with an opportunity of aſſiſting at the erection of the coloſſal equeſtrian ſtatue of the King, which one artiſt, M. Tolſa, overcoming difficulties of which a proper idea cannot be formed in Europe, modelled, caſt, and erected on a very high pedeſtal: it is wrought in the ſimpleſt ſtyle, and would be an ornament in the fineſt capitals in Europe.

In January 1804 our travellers left Mexico to explore the eaſtern declivity of the cordillera of New Spain: they meaſured geometrically the two volcanoes of Puebla, Popocatepec, and Itzaccihuatl.— According to a fabulous tradition, Diego Ordaz entered the inacceſſible crater of the former, ſuſpended by ropes, in order to collect ſulphur, which may be found every where in the plains.

M. Humboldt diſcovered that the volcano of Popocatepec, on which M. Sonnenſchmidt, a zealous mineralogiſt, had the courage to aſcend 2557 toiſes, is higher than the peak of Orizaba, which has hitherto been conſidered the higheſt coloſſus of the country of Anahuac.

He meaſured alſo the great pyramid of Cholula, a myſterious work conſtructed of unbaked brick by the Tultequas, and from the ſummit of which there is a moſt beautiful view over the ſnowy ſummits and ſmiling plains of Tlaxcala.

After theſe reſearches they deſcended by Perote to Xalapa, a town ſituated at the height of 674 toiſes above the level of the ſea, at a mean height at which the inhabitants enjoy the fruits of all climates, and a temperature equally mild and beneficial to the health of man.

It was here that, by the kindneſs of Mr. Thomas Murphy, a reſpectable individual, who to a large fortune adds a taſte for the ſciences, our travellers found every facility imaginable for performing their operations in the neighbouring mountains.

The level of the horrid road which leads from Xalapa to Perote, through almoſt impenetrable foreſts of oaks and firs, and which has begun to be converted into a magnificent cauſeway, was three times taken with the barometer. M.

Humboldt, notwithſtanding the quantity of ſnow which had fallen the evening before, aſcended to the ſummit of the famous Cofre, which is 162 toiſes higher than the Peak of Teneriffe, and fixed its poſition by direct obſervations.

He meaſured alſo trigonometrically the Peak of Orizava, which the Indians call Sitlalteptl, becauſe the luminous exhalations of its crater reſemble at a diſtance a falling ſtar, and reſpecting the longitude of which M. Ferrer publiſhed very exact obſervations.

After an intereſting reſidence in theſe countries, where, under the ſhade of the liquidambar and amyris, are found growing the epidendrum vanilla and convolvulus jalappa, two productions equally valuable for exportation, our travellers deſcended towards the coaſt of Vera Cruz, ſituated between hills of ſhifting ſand, the reverberation of which cauſes a ſuffocating heat; but happily eſcaped the yellow-fever, which prevailed there at that time.

They proceeded in a Spaniſh frigate to the Havannah to get the collections and herbals left there in 1800, and, after a ſtay of two months, embarked for the United States: but they were expoſed to great danger in the channel of the Bahamas from a hurricane which laſted ſeven days.

After a paſſage of thirty-two days they arrived at Philadelphia; remained in that city and in Waſhington two months; and returned to Europe in Auguſt 1804, by the way of Bourdeaux, with a great number of drawings, thirty-five boxes of collections, and 6000 ſpecies of plants.