ASCENT OF THE RIO MAGDALENA. 323. 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
' Brief Account of the Journey from Carthagena to Quito 
and Mexico. 
Ascent of the Rio Magdalena—Santa Fe de Bogota—Cataract of 
Tequendama—Natural Bridges of Icononzo—Passage of Quin- 
diu—Cargueros—Popayan—Quito—Cotopaxi and Chimborazo— 
Route from Quito to Lima—Guayaquil—Mexico—Guanaxuato— 
Volcano of Jorullo—Pyramid of Cholula. 
Ir has been already stated that Humboldt, previously 
to leaving Paris, had promised Baudin, that should 
his projected expedition to the southern hemisphere 
ever take place, he would endeavour to joinit; and | 
also that information received by him at Cuba had 
induced him to relinquish plans subsequently formed, 
and re-embark for the continent of South America, 
with the view of proceeding to Guayaquil or Lima, 
where he expected to meet the navigators. Accord- 
ingly he went to Carthagena, where he learned that 
the season was too far advanced for sailing from 
Panama to Guayaquil. Giving up, therefore, his 
Intention of crossing the isthmus of Panama, he 
passed some days in the forests of Turbaco, and 
afterwards made preparations for ascending the Rio 
Magdalena. 
This river, from its sources near the equator, flows 
almost directly north. ‘‘ Nature,” says a traveller 
who sailed up it in 1823, “ seems to have designedly 
