PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING CLliA. 2.'>\) 



capital on the banks of the Mayari, in the province of chap, \\ i 

 Santiago, at Himias, and in other places, is also of p ,~7~ 

 excellent quality. In 1827 the produce was ahout 

 113,212 cwts., of which 17,888 were exported. The 

 value of this commodity shipped in 1828 was £145,045, 

 and in 1829, £195,588. Cotton and indigo, althougli 

 cultivated, are not to any extent made articles of 

 commerce. 



Towards the end of February the travellers, having Proposed 

 finished the observations which they had proposed to 'i''P'""ture. 

 make, were on the point of sailing to Vera Cruz ; but 

 intelligence, communicated by means of the pu])lic 

 papers, respecting Captain Baudin's expedition, led them 

 to relinquish the project of crossing Mexico in order to 

 proceed to the Philippine Islands. It had been an- Captain 

 nounced that two French vessels, the Geographe and the exneui'tjon 

 Naturaliste, had sailed for Cape Horn, and that they 

 were to go along the coast of Chili and Peru, and from 

 thence to New Holland. Humboldt had promised to 

 join them wherever he could reach the sliips, and !M, 

 Bonpland resolved to divide their plants into three 

 portions, one of which was sent to Germany by way of 

 England, another to France by Cadiz, and the third left 

 in Cuba. Their friend Fray Juan Gonzales, an estim- 

 able young man, who had followed them to the Ha- 

 vannah, on his way to Spain, carried part of their 

 collections with him, including the insects found on 

 the Orinoco and Rio Negro ; but the vessel in which 

 he embarked foundered in a storm on the coast of 

 Africa. General Don Gonzalo O'Farrill being then in Pecuniaiy 

 Prussia as minister of the Spanish court, Humboldt was ^upi'i-es. 

 enabled, through the agency of Don Ygnacio, the gene- 

 ral's brother, to procure a supply of money ; and having 

 made all the necessary preparations for the new enter- 

 prise, freighted a Catalonian sloop for Porto Dello, or 

 Carthagena, according as the weather should perniil. 



On tlie 6th March the travellers, finding tliat tiie 

 vessel was ready to receive them, set out for Batabano, 

 where they arrived on the 8th. This is a poor village 

 Q 



