210 CHANGE OF ROUTE. 



ceeding to Guayaquil, aud in that case the voyage on the 

 Pacific would be extremely lingering, as they would have 

 to sail against contrary winds and currents. The persons 

 they consulted all agreed that the journey by land along 

 the Cordilleras, by Santa Fe de Bogota, Popayan, Quito, 

 and Caxamarca, would be preferable to the sea- voyage, 

 and would furnish an immense field for exploration. 

 The predilection of Europeans for the cold and temperate 

 climate that prevailed on the back of the Andes, gave 

 further weight to these counsels. The distances were 

 known, but Humboldt was deceived with respect to the 

 time it would take to traverse them on mules' backs. He 

 did not imagine that it would require over eighteen 

 months to go from Carthagena to Lima. Notwithstand- 

 ing this delay, or rather owing to the slowness with 

 which he passed through Cundinamarca, the provinces 

 of Popayan, and Quito, he did not regret having sacri- 

 ficed the passage of the isthmus to the route of Bogota, 

 for every step of the journey was full of interest both 

 geographically and botanically. This change of direc- 

 tion gave him occasion to trace the map of the Rio Mag- 

 dalena, to determine astronomically the position of eighty 

 points situated in the inland country between Cartha- 

 gena, Popa}^an, and the upper course of the river Ama- 

 zon and Lima, to discover an error in the longitude of 

 Quito, to collect several thousand new plants, and to ob- 

 serve on a vast scale the relations between the rocks of 

 syenitic porphyry and trachyte, with the fire of vol- 

 canoes. 



During the six days of their stay at Carthagena their 

 most interesting excursions were to the Boca Grande, and 

 the hill of Popa. A small portion of hilly land sepa- 



