]68 STOPrED AT SAN CARLOS. 



on foot, four or five hours before sunrise, was genera] 

 among the Indians of Guiana. 



The travellers left the island of Papa long before day- 

 break ; and notwithstanding the rapidity of the current, 

 and the activity of their rowers, their passage to the fort 

 of San Carlos del Iiio Negro occupied twelve hours. 



They were informed at San Carlos that, on account of 

 political circumstances, it was difficult at that moment to 

 pass from the Spanish to the Portuguese settlements; 

 but they did not know till after their return to Europe 

 the extent of the danger to which they would have been 

 exposed in proceeding as far as Barcellos. It was known 

 at Brazil, through the medium of the newspapers, that 

 Humboldt was going to visit the missions of the Rio 

 Negro, and to examine the natural canal which united 

 t wo great systems of rivers. In those desert forests in- 

 struments had been seen only in the hands of the com- 

 missioners of the boundaries; and at that time the sub- 

 altern agents of the Portuguese government could not 

 conceive how a man of sense could expose himself to the 

 fatigues of a long journey, " to measure lands that did 

 not belong to him." Orders had been issued to seize his 

 person, his instruments, and above all, his registers of 

 astronomical observations. The pair of dangerous na- 

 turalists were to be conducted by way of the Amazon to 

 Grand Para, and thence sent back to Lisbon. But for- 

 tunately for Humboldt, the government at Lisbon, on 

 being informed of the zeal of its ignorant agents, in- 

 stantly gave orders that he should not be disturbed in 

 his operations ; but that on the contrary they should be 

 encouraged, if he traversed any part of the Portuguese 

 possessions. 



