Vaccination. 97 
of kissing his majesty’s hand on occasion of his return from 
a voyage round the world, executed with the sole object of 
carrying to all the possessions of the crown of Spain situ- 
ated beyond the seas, and to those of several other nations, 
‘the inestimable gift of vaccine inoculation. His majesty has 
inquired, with the liveliest interest, into all that materially 
related to the expedition, and learned, with the utmost sa- 
tisfaction, that its result has exceeded the most sanguine ex- 
pectations that were entertained at the time of the enterprise. 
. This undertaking had been committed to the diligence of 
several members of the faculty and subordinate persons, 
carrying with them twenty-two children who had never 
undergone the small-pox, selected for the preservation of 
the precious fluid, by transmitting it successively from one 
to another daring the course of the voyage. The expedi-. 
tion set sail from Corunna, under the direction of Balmis, 
on the 30th of November 1803. It made the first stoppage 
at the Canary Islands, the second at Porto-Rico, and the 
third at the Characas. On leaving that province, by the port 
of La Guayra, it was divided into two branches: one part 
sailing to South America, under the charge of the subdi- 
rector don Francis Salvani;-the other, with the director 
Balmis on board, steering for the Havannah, and thence for 
Yucatan. There a subdivision took place: the professor 
Francis Pastor proceeding from the port of Sisal to that of, 
Villa Harmosa, in the province of Tobasca, for the purpose 
of propagating vaccination in the district of Ciudad Real of 
Chiapa, and on to Goatemala, making a circuit of four 
hundred leagues, through a long and rough road, comprising 
Oaxaca; while the rest of the expedition, which arrived 
without accident at Vera-Cruz, traversed not only the vice- 
royalty of New Spain, but also the interior provinces ; 
whence it was to return to Mexico, which was the point of 
reunion. 
This precious preservative against the ravages of the small- 
pox has already been extended through the whole of North 
America, to the coasts of Sonora and Sinaloa, and even to 
the Gentiles and Neophites of High Pimeria. In each ca- 
pital a council has been instituted, composed of the prin- 
53 cipal 
