458 C0NDAM1NE*S TRAVELS 



nomical zeal, In 1762; and M. TAbbe Chappe d'AuterocTie, an academician, the 

 junior of tlie lafl mentioned, whom he took for his model, Experienced in California^ 

 in 1769, a fmiilar deftiny. 



Of my companions on the voyage to the equator, M. Couplet, the rtioft robuft and 

 one of the youngeft, was carried off, three days after his arrival at Quito, by a putrid 

 fever. M. Seniergues, our furgeon, was killed in a popular commotion at Cuenca. 

 M. Bouguer in 1758 died of an abfcefs of the liver. M. Godin, after entering the 

 Spanifh fervice, in which he was appointed to the diredtion of the Academy of Naval 

 Guards at Cadiz, younger than M. Bouguer, furvived the latter but two years. M. de 

 Morainville, who remained in the province of Quito, met with death by falling 

 from the fcantling of a church, of which he was the architect, at Cicalpa, in the vicinage 

 of Riobomba. Of M. Hugo, who married at Quito, I have received no intelligence 

 thefe fifteen years back. I do not enumerate how many of our fervants, white as well 

 as of colour, who died in the courfe of our travels ; two of them of a violent death. 



Commander Don Jorge Juan, the fuperior of the two Spanifh officers attached to our 

 party, made a pofl-captain on his return to Spain, and afterwards commandant of the 

 Naval Guards, commodore, and ambaifador to Morocco, though younger than mod 

 of us, died lately of apoplexy at Madrid. Dr. Jofeph de Juffieu, long detained by the 

 Audencia Real of Quito for the benefit of his profefTional afTiftance, and afterwards by 

 the Viceroy of Lima, returned to Paris tv/o years back : as formerly the famous 

 M. Mabillon, he has lofl his memory, but, not fo fortunate as he, to M. de Juffieu it has 

 never returned ; for this laft gentleman and myfelf Iknow not whether in juflice we can 

 both together be reckoned equivalent to one living being. A deafnefs, which I began 

 to experience in America, is become exceffive ; and for thefe lafl five years I have been 

 deprived of all external feeling in my lower members, the vitality of which I am ren- 

 dered fenfible of only by the pains I experience in them on change of weather. Thus, 

 of eleven travellers in the Torrid Zone, exclufive of fervants, the only ones deferving 

 to be reckoned alive, are M. Verguin, naval engineer at Toulon ; Don Antonio de 

 UHoa, com.modore in the Spanifli navy, and late governor of Louifiana (nor indeed are 

 either of thefe exempt from infirmities) ; and M. Godin des Odonais, who, after thirty- 

 eight years' abfence, has lately reached Paris, and who has furnifhed me with matter 

 calculated to afford you entertainment. I received from him, in the month of Auguft 

 lafl, in confequence of entreaty that he would favour me with a narrative of the travels 

 of his wife, a lady known to me from her infancy, and of whofe adventures I had 

 heard but a confufed account, the letter of which I inclofe you a tranfcript : by it you 

 will fee what miracles may be efFe£led by refolution and perfeverance. Callous indeed 

 mufl be that heart which can remain unmoved at the recital of the fliocking misfortunes 

 of an amiable woman brought up with tendernefs, who, by a feries of events not to be 

 avoided by human forefight, found herfelf in the depth of impervious forefts, the haunts 

 of ferocious beafls and dangerous reptiles, and there expofed to all the horrors incident 

 on thirfl, on hunger, and fatigue ; and who, after beholding feven perfons who accom- 

 panied her fink under the weight of fuch dillrefs, and expire by her fide, v/andered, an 

 infulate being, the only one furviving for feveral days through this defert ; finally, 

 who, by providence, bordering on a miracle, efcaped all the perils of her critical fitua- 

 tion. You will at the fame time notice the munificence of His Portuguefe Majefly 

 towards M. Godin, and the liberal demeanor of the officers charged with the execution 

 of his orders. 



Upon reprefentation made to him by M. Godin, the beneficent minifler (M. le 

 Due de Vrilliere), whofe department embraces the Academies, has rt^cently obtained for 



