IN SOUTH AMERICA. 359^ 



him from His Majefty a penfion, well earned by his zeal and toll during our operations, 

 and by the long exile he endured from a country to which he was fo anxious to return. 



Letter to M. De la Condamine from M. Godin des Odonais. 



Sir, St. Amand, Berry, 28th July i773» 



You require of me a narrative of the travels of my fpoufe along the Amazons river, 

 the fame route I followed after you. The rumours which have reached your ears of 

 the dangers to which flie was expofed, and which fhe alone of eight perfons furmounted, 

 augment your curiofity. I had refolved never to fpeak of them again, fo painful to me 

 was the recolleftion of them ; but, as an old companion in your travels, a diftinOion. 

 which I prize, I cannot refafe in turn for the intereft you take in our welfare, and the 

 marks of fi iendfliip you have fliewn me, to give you the fatisfaftion you require. 



We landed at Rochelle on the 26th of June laft, after a paffagefrom Cayenne, eiFe£t- 

 ed in fixty-five days, having left this laft place on the 21ft of April. On our arrival, I 

 made enquiries after you, and leart with much grief that four or five months had elapfed 

 fmce you were no more. While yet in tears, my wife and myfelf were delighted on 

 wiping them away, to find that at Rochelle the literary journals, and what regards the 

 Academy, are far lefs read than the news which relates to commerce. Accept, Sir, for 

 yourfelf and Mad. de la Condamine our heartiefl congratulations. 



You will recolleft that the lafl time I had the honour of feeing you in 1742, previous 

 to your leaving Quito, I told you that I reckoned on taking the fame road that you were 

 about to do, along the river of Amazons, as much owing to the wifh I had of knowing' 

 this way, as to infure for my wife the moft commodious mode of travelling, by faving her 

 a long journey over-land, through a mountainous country, in which the only convey- 

 ance is on mules. You took the pains in the courfe of your voyage to give information 

 at the Spanifh and Portugueze miflions eflablifhed on its banks, that one of your compa- 

 nions would follow you ; and, though feveral years elapfed from the period of your 

 leaving them, this had not been forgotten. My wife was exceedingly felicitous of fee- 

 ing France, but her repeated pregnancies, for feveral years after your departure, pre- 

 vented my confent to her being expofed to the fatigues incident on fo long a voyage. 

 Tovv'ards the clofe of 1748 I received intelligence of the death of my father; and my , 

 prefence thence becoming indifpenfable for the arrangement of my family affairs, I re- 

 folved on repairing to Cayenne by myfelf down the river ; and planning every thing on 

 the way to enable my wife to follow the fame road with comfort, I departed in March 

 1749 from the Quito, leaving Mad. Godin at that time pregnant. I arrived at Cayenne- 

 in April following, and immediately wrote toM. Rouille, then minifler of the navy, in- 

 treating him to procure me pafl'ports and recommendations to the court of Portugal, 

 to enable me to afcend the Amazons, for the purpofe of proceeding to my family, and 

 bringing it back with me by the fame channel. Any one but you. Sir, might be fur- 

 prifed at my undertaking thus lightly a voyage of fifteen hundred leagues, for the mere 

 purpofe of preparing accommodations^ for a fecond: but you will know that travels in 

 that part of the world are undertaken with much lefs concern than in Europe ; and by 

 thofe I had made during twelve years for reconnoitring the ground for the meridian of 

 Quito, for fixing fignals on the loftiefl; mountains, in going to and returning from Car- 

 thagena, had made me perfectly a veteran. I availed myfelf of the opportunity afforded 

 by the conveyance which took my letters to forward feveral objeds pertaining to 

 natural hiftory for the King*s garden ; among others, feed of the favfapariila, and of the 



L L 3 five 



