420 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



American papers circulated in the Antilles announced 

 that the two French corvettes, Le Geographe and Le Natu- 

 raliste, were to sail round Cape Horn, and to touch at 

 Callao de Lima. This information, which I received when 

 in the Havannah, after having completed my Orinoco journey, 

 caused me to relinquish my original plan of proceeding 

 through Mexico to the Philippines. I lost no time in engag- 

 ing a ship to convey me from Cuba to Cartagena de Indias. 

 But Captain Baudin's expedition took quite a different course 

 from that which had been expected and announced. Instead 

 of proceeding by the way of Cape Horn, as had been intended 

 at the time when it was agreed that Bonpland and I should 

 join it, the expedition sailed round the Cape of Good Hope. 

 One of the objects of my visit to Peru, and of my last journey 

 across the chain of the Andes, was thus thwarted ; but I had 

 the singular good fortune, at a very unfavourable season of 

 the year, in the misty regions of Lower Peru, to enjoy a clear 

 bright day. In Callao I observed the passage of Mercury 

 over the sun's disc, an observation of some importance in 

 aiding the accurate determination of the longitude of Lima 

 (20), and of the south-western part of the new continent. 

 Thus, amidst the serious troubles and disappointments of lifc s 

 there may often be found a grain of consolation. 



