IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



267 



danger ; concluding with offering, if fhe chofe to return, to caufe her to be efcorted 

 back in perfeft fecurity to her refidence of Riobamba ; to thefe he added, that Ma- 

 dame Godin replied, " She was furprifed at his propofals ; that the Almighty had pre- 

 ferred her when alone amid perils in which all her former companions had perifhed ; 

 that the firft of her wiflies was to rejoin her hufband ; that for this purpofe (he had 

 begun her journey ; and, were fhe to ceafe to profecute her intention, that fhe fhould 

 efleem herfelf guilty of counteradling the views of Providence, and render ufelefs the 

 affiflance fhe had received from her two dear Americans and their wives, as well -as all 

 the kindnefs for which fhe was indebted to him, and for which God alone could 

 recompenfe them." My wife was ever dear to me, but fentiments like thefe add vene- 

 ration to tendernefs. Triftan failing to arrive when expeded, M. Romero, wearied with 

 waiting for him in vain, equipped a canoe, and gave diredtions for the tranfport of Ma- 

 dame Godin, without halting any where, to the Portuguefe veifel. Then it was that 

 the governor of Omaguas, knowing of her coming, and that fhe was to flop no where 

 by the way, difpatched a canoe to meet her, loaded with refrefhments. 



The Portuguefe commander, M. de Rebello, hearing of her approach, fitted out a 

 pirogue, commanded by two of his men and flored with provifions, to meet her, which 

 they did at the village of Pevas. This officer, the better to fulfil the orders of his 

 mafler, with great labour, and by doubling the number of oars, worked his veffel up 

 the river as high as the miffion of Loreto, where he received her on board. I learn 

 from her, that from that inflant till (he reached Oyapok, throughout a courfe of nearly 

 a thoufand leagues, fhe wanted for nothing to render her comfortable, not even the 

 nicefl delicacies, and fuch as could not be expefted in the country ; wine and liquors 

 which fhe never ufes, fifh, game, &c. were fupplied by two canoes which preceded the 

 galliot. The governor of Para, moreover, had fent orders to the chief part of the 

 flages at which they had to halt, with additional refrefhments. 



I forgot to mention, that the fufferings of my wife were not at an end, and that one 

 of her thumbs was in a very bad ftate, owing to its being wounded by thorns in the 

 wood, which had not yet been extricated, and which had not only occafioned an abfcefsj 

 but had injured the tendon and even the bone itfelf. It was propofed to take off the 

 thumb, but, by dint of care and fermentations, fhe had only the pain to undergo 

 occafioned by the extraftion of two fplinters at San Pablo, but fhe entirely loft the ufe 

 of the tendon. The galliot continued its courfe to the fortrefs of Curupa about fixty 

 leagues above Para. M. de Martel, knight of the order of Chrift, and major of the 

 garrifon of Para, arrived there the fucceeding day, by order of the governor, to take 

 command of the galliot, and conduft Madame Godin to Fort Oyapok, A little beyond 

 the mouth of the river, at a fpot off the coaft where the currents are very violent, he 

 loft one of his anchors, and as it would have been imprudent to venture with only one, 

 he fent a boat to Oyapok, to feek affiftance, which was immediately forwarded. Hear- 

 ing by this means of the approach of Madame Godin, I left Oyapok on board a galliot 

 belonging to me, in view of meeting her ; and, on the fourth day of my departure, 

 fell in with her veffel oppofite to Mayacare. On board this veffel, after twenty years' 

 abfence, and a long endurance on either fide of alarms and misfortunes, I again met 

 with a cherifhed wife, whom I had almoft given over every hope of feeing again. In 

 her embraces I forgot the lofs of the fruits of our union, nay, I even congratulated 

 myfelf on their premature death, as it faved them from the dreadful fate which befel 

 their uncle in the wood of Canelos beneath their mother's eye, who certainly could never 

 have furvived the fight. We anchored at Oyapok the 22d July 1770. I found in M. 

 Murtel an officer as much diftinguifhed by his acquirements as by his prepo(re(ring 



M M 2 exterior. 



