1808-] 
ance of your kind remembrance. How 
delightful is it to know that we live inthe 
memory of thofe whofe labours daily ad- 
vance the progrefs of the human aund !— 
In the deferts of the plains of Apure, in 
the thick forefls of Cafiguian and of the 
Orenoque, every where your names have 
been prefent to me; and running over in 
thought the different epochs. of my wan- 
dering life, I have dwelt with tranfport 
on thofe of the 6th and 7th year, when I 
lived in the midit of you, and where 
Laplace, Fourcroy, Vauquelin, Guyton, 
Chaptal, Jufficu, Destontaines, Hallé, 
Lalande, Prony, and efpecially you, my 
generous and affe€tionate friend, loaded 
me with kindnels in the plains of Lieur- 
faint. Accept allof you together the ho- 
mage of my tender attachment and my 
eon{tant gratitude. 
Long before I received your letter in 
your capacity of Secretary to the Inftitu- 
tion, [I addrefied fucceflively to the PhyG- 
cal and Mathematical Clafs, three letters ; 
two from Santa-Fé de Bogota, accompa- 
nied with a treatifeon the genus Chincona, 
{that is to fay, fpecimens ot bark of feven 
ipecies ; coloured drawings reprefenting 
thele vegetables with the anatomy of the 
- flowers {fo different as to the length of the 
ftamina, and fkeletons dried with care.) 
Dostor Mutis, who behaved moft kindly 
to me, and for whofe fake I went up. the 
river La Madelaine forty days journey, has 
made me a prefent of more than one hun- 
dred magnificent draughts, large folio, 
giving figures of new genera, and new 
{pecies of his manufcript Flora of Bogo- 
ta. I thought that this collection, as in- 
terefting for botany as remarkable for the 
beauty of the colouring, could not be in 
better hands than in thofe of Juffieu, La- 
marck, and Desfontaines ; and I have 
offered it to the National Inftitute as a 
feeble mark of my attachment. This 
coliegtion and the Chinconas were fent for 
Carthagena in South America about the 
month of June this year: M. Mutis him- 
felf took in hand to forward them to Pa- 
ris. A third letter for the National In- 
ftitute was fent from Quito, with a geo- 
logical colleétion of the productions of 
Pichincha, Cotopaxi, and Chimborazo,—- 
How afflicting is it to remain in a fad un- 
certainty concerning the arrival of thefe 
articles, and of the colle&tions of rare 
grains which three years ago we direéted 
tothe Jardin des Plantes at Paris ! 
My time is too fhort to-day to give you 
anaccount of my travels and occupations 
fince my return from Rio-Negro. You 
know that it was at the Havannah we re 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
147 
ceived a falfe report of the departure of 
Captain Baudin for Buenos-Ayres.— 
Faithful to. my promife of joining him 
wherever I could, and perfuaded I thould 
be more ufeful to fcience by uniting my 
labour to that of the-naturalifts who fol- 
low Captain Baudin, I did not heficate a 
moment to facrifice the little glory of 
finihing my own expedition; and I 
freighted immediately a fmall veflel at Ba- 
tabano, in order to proceed to Carthage- 
na. Storms retarded this fhort paflage 
upwards of a month, as the gales had 
ceafed inthe Southern Ocean, where I ex-. 
pe‘ted to fall in with Captain Baudin. I 
entered on the difficult route of Honda, of 
Ibague, of the paflage of the mountain of 
Quindiu, of Popayan, from Paita to Qui- 
to. My health continued to refift won- 
derfully well the change of temperature 
to which one is continually expofed in this 
route, defcending every day from fnows 
of 2460 toiles, to feorcling valleys, 
where Reaumur’s thermometer is never 
below twenty-four or twenty-fix degrees. 
My companion, whofe knowledge, cou-. 
rage, and immenfe activity have been of 
the greateft ufe to me in refearches on bo- 
tany and comparative anatomy, Citizen 
Bompland, has been ill of the tertian- 
ague for the {pace of two months, The 
rainy-feafon overtook us in the meft criti- 
cal paflage, on the flats of the Paftas, 
and after ajourney of eight months we ar- 
rived at Quito, where we learned that Ci- 
tizen Baudin had taken his route from 
Weft to Eaft by the Cape of Good Hope, 
Accuttomed to difappointments, we com- 
forted ourfelves with the thoughts of hav- 
ing made fo great {acrifices with a good 
defign. On looking at our herbarium, 
our meafurements, barometrical and geo- 
defical, ourdrawiags, our experiments on 
the air of the Cordiilieras, we did not re- 
gret having vifited countries, the greater 
part unknown to naturaliltts. We felt 
that man ean depend on nothing but what 
is produced by his own energy. 
The province of Quito, the moft ele- 
vated flat in the world, rent by the gieat | 
cataitrophe of theatn February 1797, has 
opened to us a vail ficld for natural obfer- 
vations. Suchenormous volcanses, whofe 
flames rife often to the height of one thou- 
fand metres, have never produced any la- 
va.. They emit water, hydrogen, fulphu- 
rated gaz, mud, and carvonated argile. 
Since the year #797 the whole of this part 
of tne globe is agitated. We feel every 
moment dreadful fhocks ; and in the plains 
of Riobomba the fubterraneous noife re- 
fembles. that of a mountain falling to 
U2 pieces 
