A TRIP TO TRINIDAD. 



355 



half a century to foreign travellers. The vicissitudes 

 of a voyage round the world, touching only at a few 

 islands, or the arid coasts of a continent, did not 

 seem to them preferable to studying the geological 

 constitution of New Spain, which alone contributed 

 five-eighths of the mass of silver taken yearly from 

 all the mines of the known world. To these argu- 

 ments, I opposed the wish to determine on a large 

 scale,<*the inflexion of the curves of equal inclination 

 of the decrease of the magnetic force from the pole 

 toward the equator, and the temperature of the 

 ocean as it varies with the latitude, the direction of 

 the currents, and the proximity of banks and shoals. 



In proportion as obstacles rose to my plans, I 

 hastened the more to put them in execution, and not 

 being able to find a passage in a neutral vessel, I 

 chartered a Catalan schooner lying in the roadstead 

 of Batabano, to take me to Porto Bello or Cartha- 

 gena, as the winds might permit. The extended 

 relations of the prosperous commerce of Havana 



afforded me the means for making my pecuniary 



• 



arrangements for several years. General Gonzalo 

 de O'Farril, distinguished alike for his talents and 

 his high character, then resided in my own country, 

 as minister from the court of Spain. I was enabled 

 to exchange my income in Prussia for a part of his 

 in the island of Cuba, and the family of Don 



