A TEIP TO TRINIDAD. 353 



and classes, and no precaution was omitted to secure 

 the remission of the cases to Sir Joseph Banks, or to 

 the directors of the Museum of Natural History at 

 Paris,. in case they should fall into the hands of 

 English or French cruisers. 



Fortunately, the manuscripts which I had at first 

 intended to send with the portion sent to Cadiz, 

 were not placed in charge of our friend and fellow- 

 traveller, friar Juan Gonzalez. This estimable 

 young man, of whom I have often had occasion 

 to speak, had accompanied us to Havana, on his 

 way to Spain, and sailed from Cuba shortly after 

 our departure ; but the vessel in which he embarked 

 was lost with all her passengers and freight, in a 

 tempest on the coast of Africa. By this shipwreck 

 we lost one of the duplicates of our collection of 

 plants ; and also, which was a greater misfortune for 

 the cause of science, all the insects that Bonpland 

 had gathered, under a thousand difficulties, during 

 our voyage to the Orinoco and Rio Negro. 



By an extraordinary fatality we remained two 

 years in the Spanish colonies without receiving a 

 single letter from Europe, and those which reached 

 us in the three subsequent years, gave no informa- 

 tion in regard to the collections we had sent. One 

 will readily conceive how anxious I was to learn the 

 fate of a diary which contained all our astronomical 



