370 



whom I have mentioned in a former chapter, 

 how a man of sense could expose himself to the 

 fatigues of a long journey, c f 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 



