358 Account of Travels ietweeji tjie Tropics. 



aftd 1600 directly to Europe, and to freight a small galliot 

 in the port of Butabano to proceed to Carthagena in the 

 Indies, and thence, as soon as posfiblc, by the isthmus of 

 Panama to the South Sea. He hoped to find captain 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 uncertamty for three 

 years, till his arrival at Philadelphia, were saved ; but a 

 third of the collections were lost at sea by shipwreck : for- 

 tunately this loss, and that of some insects from the Ore- 

 noko and Rio Negro, extended only to duplicates ; but 

 this shipwreck proved fatal to a friend to whom M. Hum- 

 boldt had intrusted his plants and insects, Fray Juan Gon- 

 zales, a Franciscan, a young man of great courage and ac- 

 tivity, who had penetrated in this unknown world from 

 Spanish Guyana much farther than any other European. 



M. HuniDoldt set out from Batabano in March 1801, 

 coasting along the south side of the island of Cuba, and 

 determining astrononjically several points in that group of 

 small isles called the King's Gardens, and the approaches 

 10 the port of Trinidad. A navigation which ought to have 

 been only thirteen or fifteen days, was prolonged by cur- 

 rents beyond a month. The galliot was carried by them 

 too far east, beyond the moulths of the Atracto. They 

 touched at Rio Sinu, where no botanist had ever searched 

 for plants ; but thev 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. Hum- 

 boldt an opportunity of observing the eclipse of the moon 

 "on the 2d of March ISOl. Unfortunately they learned on 

 this coast that the season for navigating the South Sea from 

 Panama to Guyaquil was already too far adv^lnced : it was 

 necessary to give up the design of crossing the isthmus 5 

 and the desire of seeing the celebrated Mutis, and exa- 

 mining his inmiense treasures in natural history, induced 

 M. Humboldt to spend some weeks in the forests of Tur- 

 baco, ornanienced with guatnvia, ioliiifera, arwcardiiim ca~ 

 rucoli, and the CavanUtesca 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 



