IN SOUTH AMERICA. iCl 



what I now defcribe, it may be well you Ihould caft your eyes over the chart made by 

 you of the courfe of the Amazons, or that of the province of Quito, inferted in your 

 Hiftorical Journal of the Voyage to the Equator. The Portugueze officer, M. de Re- 

 bello, after landing Triftan at Loreto, returned to Savatinga, in conformity to the orders 

 he had received of waiting there until Madame Godin fhould arrive ; and Triftan, in 

 lieu of repairing to Laguna, the capital of the Spanifh miffions, and there delivering his 

 letters to the Superior, meeting with a miflionary Jefuit, called Father Yefquen, who was 

 on his return to Quito, by an unpardonable overfight, which had every appearance of a 

 bad intent, delivered to his care the packet of letters. This was addreffed to Laguna, 

 fome days' journey from the fpot where Triftan was : but in lieu of attending to this 

 circumftance, he fent it five hundred leagues beyond, to the other fide of the Cordil- 

 leras, and himfelf remained in the Portuguefe miffions, carrying on trade. 



You will pleafe to notice that, befides diiferent articles which I had entrufted him to 

 difpofe of for me, I had furniffied him in addition with more than fufficient to defray all 

 expence in travelling through the Spanifti miffions. 



Spite, however, of his bad condu6t, a vague rumour obtained circulation through the 

 province of Quito, and reached the ears of Madame Godin, not only of letters addreffed 

 to her being on their way in the cuftody of a Jefuit, but alfo, that in the uppermoft 

 miffions of Portugal a velTel equipped by His Moft Faithful Majefty had arrived to tranf- 

 port her to Cayenne. Her brother, a monk of the order of Auguftins, in conjunction 

 with Father Terol, a provincial Dominican, exerted themfelves much to induce the Pro- 

 vincial of the Jefuits to obtain thefe letters. The Jefuit who received them at length 

 made his appearance, and ftated he had delivered them to another ; this other, being 

 interrogated, replied, he had committed them to a third : but, notwithftanding the moft 

 diligent perquifition, the letters never were found. With refped; to the arrival of the 

 veffel, opinions differed, fome giving credit to, while others difputed the faft. To ven- 

 ture on a voyage of fuch length without any certainty, and preparatory thereto to ar- 

 range all family affairs, and part with her furniture, was what Madame Godin could 

 not, without much rifk and imprudence, refolve upon : ffie determined on the com- 

 mendable medium of difpatching a faithful negro, who departed with fome Americans, 

 but who, in confequence of obftacles, was obhged to return. His miftrefs fent him for- 

 ward a fecond time with new inftrudions, and means of furmounting the difficulties 

 which had prevented his progrefs before. More fortunate on this fecond trip, the 

 negro reached Loreto, faw and communicated with Triftan, and, returning, acquainted 

 Madame Godin of the reality of the report, and that Triftan was at Loreto. Upon this 

 fhe determined on her journey, fold part of her furniture, but left the reft, as well as 

 her houfe at Riobamba, a garden and eftate at Guaflen, and another property of ours 

 between Galte and Maguazo, to her brother-in-law. Some idea of the length of time 

 which elapfed fince the month of September i y66, at which epoch the letters were de- 

 livered to the Jefuit, may be formed by computing how long the journey of the reve- 

 rend father to Quito will have occupied, how much time would be loft in feeking the 

 letters, in enquiry into the faft of the rumour, in hefitating about what was beft to do, 

 and by the two journeys of the negro to Loreto and back to Riobamba, by the fale alfo 

 of our effisds, and the requifite preparations for a voyage of fuch length ; in fa£t, thefe 

 prevented her fetting out from Riobamba, forty leagues fouth of Quito, before the 

 I ft of Odober 1769. 



The arrival of the Portuguefe veffel was rumoured at Guayaquil, and even as far as 

 the fliore of the South Sea ; for M. R., who reported himfelf to be a French phyfician, 

 coming from Upper Peru, and on his way to Panama and Porto Bello, in view of paffing 



thence 



