290 ARRIVAL AT LIMA. 



on a river of the same name, they took ship and de- 

 scended to the Amazon. 



La Condamine, on his return from Quito to Para, 

 embarked on this river only below Quebrada de 

 Chuchunga ; and Humboldt, with the view of com- 

 pleting the map made by the French astronomer, 

 proceeded as far as the cataracts of Rentama. At 

 Tomependa, the principal place of the province of 

 Jaen de Bracamorros, he constructed a map of the 

 Upper Amazon, from his own observations as well 

 as from accounts received from the natives. Bon- 

 pland employed himself, as usual, in examining the 

 subjects of the vegetable kingdom, among which he 

 discovered several new species of cinchona. 



Returning to Peru, our travellers crossed the cor- 

 dillera of the Andes the fifth time. In seven degrees 

 of south latitude they determined the position of the 

 magnetic equator, or the line in which the needle 

 has no inclination. They also examined the mines 

 of Hualgayoc, where large masses of native silver 

 are found at an elevation of 12,790 feet above the 

 sea, and which, together with those of Pasco and 

 Huantajayo, are the richest in Peru. From Caxa- 

 marca, celebrated for its hot-springs and the ruins 

 of the palace of Atahualpa, they went down to 

 Truxillo. In this neighbourhood are the remains 

 of the ancient Peruvian city Mansiche, adorned by 

 pyramids, in one of which an immense quantity of 

 gold was discovered in the eighteenth century. 

 Descending the western slope of the Andes, they 

 beheld for the first time the Pacific Ocean, and the 

 long narrow valley bounded by its shores, in which 

 rain and thunder are unknown. From Truxillo they 

 followed the arid coast of the South Sea, and arrived 

 at Lima, where they remained several months. At 

 the port of Callao, Humboldt had the satisfaction 

 of observing the transit of Mercury, although the 

 thick fog which prevails there sometimes obscures 

 the sun for many days in succession. 



