108 AK ENGLISH CEUIZEB. 



tions were without effect : we were carried on board the 

 privateer, and the captain, affecting not to recognize the 

 passports delivered by the governor of Trinidad for the 

 illicit trade, declared us to be a lawful prize. Being a little 

 in the habit of speaking English, I entered into conversation 

 with the captain, begging not to be taken to Nova Scotia, 

 but to be put on shore on the neighbouring coast. "While 

 I endeavoured, in the cabin, to defend my own rights, and 

 those of the owner of the lancha, I heard a noise on deck. 

 Something was whispered to the captain, who left us in con- 

 sternation. Happily for us, an English sloop of war, the 

 Hawk, was cruising in those parts, and had signalled the 

 captain to bring to ; but the signal not being promptly 

 answered, a gun was fired from the sloop, and a midshipman 

 sent on board our vessel. He was a polite young man, and 

 gave me hopes, that the lancha, which was laden with cacao, 

 would be given up, and that on the following day we might 

 pursue our voyage. In the meantime he invited me to 

 accompany him 011 board the sloop, assuring me that his 

 commander, Captain Gamier, would furnish me with better 

 accomodation for the night, than I should find in the vessel 

 from Halifax. 



I accepted these obliging offers, and was received with the 

 utmost kindness by Captain Gamier, who had made the 

 voyage to the north-west coast of America with Vancouver, 

 and who appeared to be highly interested in all I related to 

 him respecting the great cataracts of Atures and Maypures, 

 the bifurcation of the Orinoco, and its communication with 

 the Amazon. He introduced to me several of his officers, 

 who had been with Lord Macartney in China. I had not, 

 during the space of a year, enjoyed the society of so many 

 well-informed persons. They had learned from the English 

 newspapers the object of my enterprise. I was treated with 

 great confidence, and the commander gave me up his own 

 state-room. They gave me at parting the astronomical 

 Ephemerides for those years which I had not been able to 

 procure in France or Spain. I am indebted to Captain 

 Gamier for the observations I was enabled to make on the 

 eatellites beyond the equator, and I feel it a duty to record 

 here the gratitude I feel for his kindness. Coming from the 

 forests of Cassiquiare, and having been confined during whole 



