CHAP. Xlll. VOYAGE HOME. 251 



in June, 1827, he expressed himself as "completely 

 wearied and worn down with vexation." 



At length, when he was sufficiently recovered from 

 his attack and able to travel, he set out on his voyage 

 homeward in the beginning of August. At Mompox, 

 on his way down the river Magdalena, he met Mr. 

 Bodmer, his successor, with a fresh party of miners 

 from England, on their way up the country to the 

 quarters which he had just quitted. Next day, six hours 

 after leaving Mompox, a steamboat was met ascending 

 the river, with Bolivar the Liberator on board, on his 

 way to St. Bogota ; and it was a mortification to our 

 engineer that he had only a passing sight of that dis- 

 tinguished person. It was his intention, on leaving 

 Mariquita, to visit the Isthmus of Panama on his way 

 home, for the purpose of inquiring into the practicability 

 of cutting a canal to unite the Atlantic and Pacific a 

 project which then formed the subject of considerable 

 public discussion; but Mr. Bodmer having informed 

 him, at Mompox, that such a visit would be inconsistent 

 with the statements made to the London Board that his 

 presence was so anxiously desired at home, he deter- 

 mined to embrace the first opportunity of proceeding to 

 Xew York. 



Arrived at the port of Cartagena, he found himself 

 under the necessity of waiting some time for a ship. 

 The delay was very irksome to him, the more so as the 

 city was then desolated by the ravages of the yellow 

 fever. While sitting one day in the large, bare, com- 

 fortless public room of the miserable hotel at which he 

 put up, he observed two strangers, whom he at once per- 

 ceived to be English. One of the strangers was a 

 tall, gaunt man, shrunken and hollow-looking, shabbily 

 dressed, and apparently poverty-stricken. On making 1 

 inquiry, he found it was Trevithick, the builder of the I 

 first railroad locomotive ! He was returning home from I 

 the gold mines of Peru penniless. He had left England. I 



