I 



370 



whom I have mentioned in a former chapter^ 

 how a man of sense could expose himself to the 

 fatigues of a long* journey, " to measure lands 

 that did not belong to him." Orders had been 

 issued, to seize my person, my instruments, and 

 above all those registers of astronomical obser- 

 vations, so dangerous to the safety of states. 

 We were to be conducted by way of the Ama- 

 zon to Grand Para, and thence sent back to 

 Lisbon. If I mention these projects, the success 

 of which would have had so untoward an influ- 

 ence on the duration of a journey calculated to 

 last five years, it is only to prove how much the 

 spirit, that animates the government of colonies^ 

 differs in general from that which directs the 

 affairs of the mother country. The ministry of 

 Lisbon, informed of the zeal of it's subaltern 

 agents, instantly gave orders, that I should not 

 be disturbed in my operations ; but that on the 

 contrary they should be encouraged, if I tra- 

 versed any part of the Portugueze possessions. 

 From this enlightened ministry I received the 

 first news of the solicitude of which I had been 

 the object, and to which at that remote distance 

 I could not have appealed. 



We found among the Portugueze at San Car- 

 los several military men, who had gone from 

 Barcellos to Grand Para. I shall here collect 

 together all I could learn respecting the course 

 of the Rio Negro. It being very rare for any 



