292 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



In a position of independence and at my own cost, my friend 

 Bonpland and I have spent the last two years in travelling 

 through the districts of South America watered by the Orinoco, 

 the Casiquiare, the Rio Negro, and the Amazon. Our health 

 lias been preserved amid the pestilential atmosphere pervading 

 these rivers. While buried in these forests we have often 

 spoken of you, of our futile interviews with Citizen Francois de 

 Neufchateau, and of the disappointment experienced through 

 the shipwreck of our hopes. As we were on the point of 

 leaving Havana for Mexico and the Philippines, the news 

 reached us that your perseverance had at length been rewarded 

 by success, and that you had started on your voyage. On con- 

 sidering your probable route, we felt convinced that you would 

 touch the coast at Valparaiso, Lima, or Guayaquil, and there- 

 fore at once changed our plans. Undismayed by the impetuous 

 gales off this coast, we embarked in a small pilot-boat to seek 

 you in the Southern Ocean, in the hope of being able to recur 

 to our former projects of uniting our labours with yours, and 

 navigating in .concert the great Pacific. . . . 



' A disastrous voyage of twenty-one days from Havana to 

 Cartagena intimidated us from prosecuting the route to Panama 

 and Gruayaquil, since we feared the gales would blow with still 

 greater vehemence in the Pacific Ocean ; we therefore intend' 

 proceeding by land up the Eio Magdalena, and by way of Santa 

 Fe, Popayan, and Quito. 



; We hope to arrive at Quito in June, or at the beginning of 

 July, where we shall await the news of your arrival at Lima. 

 Pray send me a few lines to the following address in Spanish : 

 Al Sr. Baron de Humboldt, Quito, Casa del Sr. Grobernador Bn. 

 de Caroudelet. If I should hear nothing from you, I shall 

 probably pass the time till November in visiting Chimborazo, 

 Loxa, &c., and proceed to Lima with my various instruments 

 in December or January. 



4 You will perceive from these projects, that this tropical 

 elimate has not had the effect of rendering me phlegmatic, and 

 that I regard nothing as a sacrifice that is needed for carrying 

 out plans of usefulness or of scientific enterprise. I have ad- 

 dressed you with frankness ; I am aware that I am asking of 



