Letter from M. HumloUt to C. Delambrei, 167 



iiriecl. Dr. Mutis, who showed me a thousand marks of 

 kindness, and for whose sake I \\ent up the river in forty 

 days, gave me a manuscript of nearly a hundred magnify 

 cent drawings representing new genera, and new species of 

 his Flora of Bosota. I have thought that this collection, 

 as interesting to botany as remarkable for the beauty of the 

 colouring, could not be in better hands than in those of 

 Jussieu, Lamarck, and Desfontaines ; and I have presented 

 it to the National Institute as a small mark of my attach- 

 ment. This collection and cinchona were sent oft" for Car- 

 thagcna of the Indies about the month of June this year; 

 and Dr. Mutis took upon him to transmit them to Vans'. 

 A third letter for the Institute was dispatched from Ouito 

 with a geological collection of the productions of Pinchin- 

 cha, Catopaxi, and Chimborazo. It is distressing to re- 

 main under a melancholy uncertainty in regard to the ar- 

 rival of those objects, as well as to that of the collection of 

 rare seeds, which three years ago I addressed to the Jardin 

 des Plarites at Paris. 



Want of time at present will not allow me to give you an 

 accountof my travels and occupations since our return from 

 Kio Negro. You know that at the Havannah we receixed 

 he false intelligence of the departure of captain Baudin for 

 Aicnos Ayres. Faithful to the promise which I made of 

 j<ning him wherever I could, and persuaded that I should 

 b*more useful to the sciences by uniting my labours to 

 thse of the naturalists who accompanied captain Baudin, 

 I 0:1 not hesitate a moment to sacrifice the little glory of 

 lini!)ing my own expedition; and I immcdiatelv freighted 

 a snill vessel to Bataban, that I might proceed to Cartha- 

 genaof the Indies, This short passage was lengthened 

 more than a month by stormy weather ; the winds had 

 ccasc( in the South Seas, where I expected to find captain 

 Baudn ; and I entered on the difficult route to Quito by 

 ilonu, Iba&aie, the passage of the mountain of Ouindin, 

 Popayn, and Pastos. IVly health continued in a wonderful 

 maime to withstand the change of temperature to which one 

 IS exptjied in this route, descending every day from snowy 

 regions jf Sltjo toises in height to scorching valleys where 

 tlie thenuometer does not fall below 26" or 24". My com- 

 paiion lionpland, whose knowledge, courage, and immense 

 acti/ity were of great assistance to me in my botanical re- 

 sear.'hes and comparative anatomy, was afflicted for two 

 iiioiv.hs with a tertian fever. The season of the great rains 

 i"inu upon us in the most critical passage, the high plain 

 pt Pa;tos, and after a journey of eight months wc ariived 

 I'i at 



