0 
VISIT TO MADRID, 
Syria, and wo agreed with the captain for our passage. 
The vessel was to sail the following day ; but a circum- 
stance trivial in itself happily prevented our departure. The 
live-stock intended to servo us for food during our passage, 
was kept in the great cabin. We desired that some 
changes should be made, which were indispensable for the 
safety of our instruments; and during this interval we 
learnt at Marseilles, that the government of Tunis perse- 
cuted the French residing in Barbary, and that every person 
coming from a French port was thrown into a dungeon. 
Having escaped this imminent danger, we were compelled 
to suspend the execution of our projects. Wo resolved to 
pass the winter in Spain, in hopes’ of embarking the next 
spring, either at Carthagena, or at Cadiz, if the political 
situation of the East permitted. 
We crossed Catalonia and the kingdom of Valencia, on 
our way lo Madrid. AVe visited the ruins of Tarragona 
and those of ancient Saguntum; and from Barcelona we 
made an excursion to Montserrat, the lofty peaks of which 
are inhabited by hermits, and where the contrast between 
luxuriant vegetation and masses of naked and arid rocks, 
forms a landscape of a peculiar character. T employed myself 
in ascertaining by astronomical observations the position 
of several points important for the geography of Spain, and 
determined by means of the barometer the" height of the 
central plain. I likewise made several observations oil the 
inclination of the needle, and on the intensity of the magnetic 
forces. 
On my arrival at Madrid 1 had reason to congratulate my- 
self on the resolution I had formed of visiting the Peninsula. 
Baron de Forell, minister from the court of Saxony, treated 
me with a degree of kindness, of which I soon felt the value. 
He was well versed in mineralogy, and was full of zeal lor 
every undertaking that promoted the progress of know- 
ledge. lie observed to me, that under the administration 
of an enlightened minister, Don Mariano Luis do TJrquijo, 
I might hope to obtain permission to visit, at my own 
expense, the interior of Spanish America. After the dis- 
appointments I had suffered, T did not hesitate a moment to 
adopt this idea. 
X was presented at the court of Aranjuez in March 1799 
