VJ14 condamine's travels 



feven or eight years have been forwarded to the academy, but of which fome have not 

 arrived in France, while many others have not hitherto appeared, nor even extrads 

 of them, in our colledtions. I Ihall refrain therefore from fpeaking now, of our aflro- 

 nomical or geometrical conclufions on the latitude and longitude of a great many 

 1 places ; of our obfervation of the two folftices in December 1736, and in June 1737 ; 

 of the obliquity of the ecleptic which they determine; of our experiments on 

 the thermometer and barometer; on the decimation and dipping of the needle, 

 on the fwiftnefs of found, on Newtonian attraction, on the length of the pendulum in 

 the province of Quito, at diiferent heights from the level of the fea, and on the expan- 

 fion and condenfion of metals ; I fhall carefully abftain from notice of the two journeys 

 made by me, the one in 1736, from the coaft of the South-Sea to Quito, afcending 

 the river of Emeralds ; the other in 1737, from Quito to Lima. 



Finally, I fhall not advert here to the hiftory of the two pyramids which I caufed to 

 be erected for the purpofe of determining in perpetuity the two extremities of the fun- 

 damental bafe of all our meafures, and of thus remedying thofe inconveniences which 

 were but too lamentably experienced in France, from want of a fimilar precaution, 

 when the bafe of M. Picard was to be verified. The infcription propofed to the Aca- 

 demy of Belles Lettres, before our departure and afterwards, with thofe alterations 

 which circumftances of time and place required, placed on the pyramid, was denounced 

 by the two lieutenants of the navy of the King of Spain, our coadjutors, as offenfive 

 to His Catholic Majefty, and the Spanifh nation. I defended, for two years, a law- 

 fuit inftituted againft myfelf perfonally on this fcore, and at lad gained it, though 

 oppofed by the parliament of Quito. What pafTed on this occafion, and divers other 

 interefling events on our travels, which diftance has much difigured, are better calcu- 

 lated to form an hiftorical narrative than an academical memoir ; in this I now prefent 

 I fhall confine myfelf to what relates to my return to Europe. 



In order to multiply our opportunities of making obfervations, M. Godin, M. 

 Bouguer, and myfelf, planned different routes for our return. For my part I refolved 

 on fele£ling one, almoft unknown, and fuch as I felt perfuaded no one would envy 

 me, that of the river of Amazons, a river which croffes the whole continent of South- 

 America, from wefl to eafl, and which juftly paffes for the largeft in the world. I 

 propofed to render a voyage on this river of litility, by forming a chart of its courfe, 

 and by remarks on fuch objeds as a country fo little known might afford. Such as 

 relate to the manners and fingular cuftoms of the nations which inhabit its banks, 

 would doubtlefs be moft gratifying to the majority of readers ; but, in prefence of an 

 affembly with whom phyfics and geometry are familiar, I deem it inadmiffible I fhould 

 dilate on matters foreign to the objeft of its meeting : neverthelefs, that I may be 

 better comprehended, I cannot difpenfe with giving fome preliminary notion of the 

 river in queftion, and its firft navigators. 



It is commonly believed that the firfl European who difcovered the river of Amazons, 

 was Francis d' Orellana. He embarked in 1539 on the river Coca, in the vicinage 

 of Quito, a river which fomewhat below affumes the name of Napo ; from this river, 

 he defcended into one of larger fize ; and, fuffering his veffel to be carried along 

 conflantly by the current, he arrived without any pilot at the North Cape, on the coaft 

 of Guyana, after a voyage, by eflimation, of 1800 leagues. The fame Orellana 

 perifhed ten jyears afterwards, together with three veffels entrufted to his command 

 by Spain, without ever being able again to find the true mouth of the river. A ren- 

 counter which he flates to have had with certain armed women, againft whom an 

 Indian Cacique had^ previoufly warned him, occafioned his naming this river, that of 



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