20 A VOYAGE TO Book I. 



French academicians were not yet arrived, nor was 

 there any advice of tiiem. Upon this information, and 

 being by onr inftruilions obliged to wait for them, wc 

 agreed to make the beft ule of our time ; but were un- 

 happily defiitute of intiruments, thoie ordered by his 

 majefty from Paris and Londoi] not being finiihed when 

 we left Cadiz, but were forwarded to us at Quito loon 

 after our arrival. We however fortunately heard that 

 there were ibme in the city, formerly belonging to Bri- 

 gadier Don Juan de Herrera, engineer of Carthagena ; 

 by thefe we were enabled to make obfervations on the 

 latitude, longitude,and variation ofthe needle. We alio 

 drew plans of the place and the bay from thofe of this 

 engineer, with the neceffary additions and alterations. 



In thele operations we employed ourlelves till the 

 middle of November 1735. impatient at the delay of 

 the French academicians. At length, on the i^th, a 

 French armed veñel came to an anchor, during the 

 iiight, under Boca Chica ; and to our great latisfaitioii 

 we learned, that the long-expetrted gentlemen were on 

 board. On tlie i 6th we viñted them, and were received 

 with all imaginable politenefs by Mr. de Rieour, cap- 

 tain of a man of war, and king's lieutenant of Guarico, 

 intheifland of Sl Domingo; and Mefl'. Godin, Bou- 

 guer, and de la Condamine, academicians, who were 

 accompanied by Mefl". Juffieu, botanill; Seniergues, 

 furgeon ; \'erguin. Couplet, and Deflbrdonais, alib- 

 ciates ; Morenvile, draughtiman; and Hugot, clock- 

 maker. 



Our intention being to go to the equator with all 

 poiiil)le expedition, nothing remained but tohxon the 

 raoft convenient and expec^itious route to Quito. Hav- 

 ing agreed to go by the way of Porto Bello, Panama, 

 and Guayaquil, we prepared to fail ; in the mean time, 

 by. help of the inftruments brought by the academi- 

 cians, we repeated our obfervations on the latitude, 

 weight ofthe air, and the variation ofthe needle; the 

 relult of which will appear in the following defcrip- 

 tion. 



The 



