CHAPTER VI. 



COLOMBIA AND PEKU. 



Completing about tlie end of April the observations 

 they proposed to make at the northern extremity of the 

 torrid zone, Humboldt and Bonpland were on the point 

 of proceeding to Vera Cruz with the squadron of Admiral 

 Ariztizabal ; but being misled by false intelligence 

 respecting the expedition of Captain Baudin, they were 

 mduced to relinquish the project of passing through 

 Mexico on their way to the Philippine Islands. The 

 public journals announced that two French sloops, the 

 " Geographe" and the " Naturaliste," had sailed for Cape 

 Horn ; that they were to proceed along the coasts of 

 Chili and Peru, and thence to New Holland. This in- 

 telligence revived in Humboldt's mind all the projects he 

 had formed during his stay in Paris, when he solicited 

 the Director}^ to hasten the departure of Captain Bau- 

 din. The travellers at once set to work and divided 

 their precious herbals into three portions, to avoid ex- 

 posing to the risks of a long vo3'age the objects they 

 had obtained with so much difficulty on the banks of the 

 Orinoco, the Atabapo, and the Rio [N'egro. They sent 

 one collection by way of England to Germany, another 

 by way of Cadiz to France, and a third remained at 



