-268 CONDAMINE*S TRAVELS 



exterior. He has acquaintance with moft of the languages of Europe, is an excellent 

 latinift, and well calculated to fhine on a more extenfive fcene than Para. He is a 

 defcendant of the illuftrious French family of fimilar name. I had the pleafure of his 

 company for a fortnight at Oyapok, whither M. de Fiedmont, governor of Cayenne, 

 whom the commandant of Oppok, advifed of his arrival by exprefs, immediately dif- 

 patched in a boat with refrefhments. We caufed the Portuguefe veflel to undergo a 

 repair, which it much wanted, and refitted it with fails to enable it to ftem the currents 

 on its return. The commandant of Oyapok gave M. Martel, moreover, a coaft-pilot, 

 to accompany him to the frontiers. I offered to go fo far as his confort on board my 

 galliot, but he would fuffer me to proceed no farther than Cape D' Orange. I took my 

 leave of him with thofe feelings which the polite attention and noble behaviour of that 

 officer and his generous nation were fo well calculated to infpire in me, as well as my 

 wife, a condud on the part of either, which I was led to exped from what I had indi- 

 vidually experienced on my former voyage. 



I fliould previoully have told you that, when I defcended the Amazons in 1 749, with 

 no other recommendation to the notice of the Portuguefe than arofe from the remem- 

 brance of the intimation afforded by you in 1743, that one of the companions of your 

 travels would follow the fame way, I was received in all the Portuguefe fettlements, by 

 the miffionaries and commandants of the forts, with the utmoft courtefy. On paffing 

 San Pablo I purchafed a canoe, in which I defcended the river to Fort Curupa, whence 

 I wrote to the governor of Grand Para, M. Francis Mendoza Gorjao, to acquaint him 

 of my arrival, and beg permiffion of failing from Curupa to Cayenne, whither I in- 

 tended to repair diredt. He favoured me with fo polite an anfwer, that I made no 

 hefitation of quitting my intended cruife and taking a longer, in order to thank him 

 and pay him my refpefts. He received me with open arms, and infifted on my making 

 his houfe and table my own during a week that I flopped with him ; nor would he 

 fuffer me to depart before he fet off himfelf for St. Louis de Marinhan^ whither he was 

 about to go on his circuit. After his departure, I remounted the river to Curupa with my 

 canoe, efcorted by one of greater dimenfions, fent with me by the commandant of that 

 fort on my voyage to Para, a city which, as you have juftly remarked, ftands on a large 

 river, confidered, but improperly, the right arm of the Amazons, as the river of Para 

 merely communicates with the Amazons by a channel hollowed by the tides, and called 

 Tagipuru. At Curupa I found waiting for me, by order of the governor of Para, a 

 large pirogue of fourteen oars, commanded by a ferjeant of the garrifon, and deftined 

 to carry me to Cayenne, whither I repaired by Macapa, coafting along the left of the 

 Amazons to its mouth, without, like you, making the tour of the great iflandof Joanes, 

 or Marajo. After fimilar courtefies, unprovoked by exprefs recommendations, what 

 had I not to expefl:, feeing His moft Faithful Majefty had condefcended to iffue precife 

 orders to expedite a veffel to the very frontiers of his dominions, for the purpofe of 

 receiving my family on board, and tranfporting it to Cayenne ? 



To refume my narrative. — After taking leave of M. de Martel off Cape D*Orange 

 with thofe reciprocal falutes common with failors, I returned to Oyapok, and thence to 

 Cayenne. , 



Here I was engaged in a law-fuit. Triftan demanded of me the wages I had promifed 

 him of fixty livres per month. I offered to pay him for eighteen months, the utmoft 

 time the voyage could have required, had he ftriftly followed his inftrudions. The fen- 

 tence pronounced by the fuperior council of Cayenne condemned him to render me 

 an account of from feven to eight thoufand franks, the value of effects I had committed 

 to his care, dedu(^ing one thoufand and eighty for the eighteen months* falary I had 



offered 



