538 
this labour, Meffrs. Humboldt and Bon- 
pland afcended from the Spanifh fortrefs 
of St. Carlos along the Rio Negro and the 
Ca/quiare to the Orencko, and on the latter 
to the Miffion of Efmeraldo, near the vol- 
cano Duida, or as far as the fources of 
that river. 
The Guaica Indians, a very witite, 
fmall, and almoft pigmy race of men, but 
xceedingly warlike, who inhabit the 
country to the eaft of the Pafimeni; and 
the Gusjaribes, of a dark copper colour, 
extremely ferocious,and ftillanthropophagi, 
render fruitlefs every attempt to reach the 
fources of the Orenoko, which the maps of 
Caulin, though in other refpects meritori- 
ous, place ina longitude much too far eaft, 
From the miffion of Efmeraida, an af 
femblage of huts fituated in the mof re- 
mote and mof f{elitary corner of this In- 
dian world, our travellers defcended, with 
the affilance of the foods, 340 leagues ; 
that is to fay, the whoieof the Orenoko, 
as far as towards its mouths at St. Tho. 
mas de.Ja Nueva Guyana or Angoftura, 
pafling a fecond time the cataracts, to the 
fouth of which the two hiftoriographers 
of thefe countries, Father Gumilla and 
Caulin, never penetrated. 
In the courfe of this long and painful 
navigation, the want of food and fhelter ; 
the nocturnal rains; living in the woods ; 
the mofquitoes, and a multitude of other 
ftinging and venemous infects ; the im- 
poffibility of cooling themfelves by the 
bath, on account of the ferocity of the 
crocodile and of the {mall carib fith 5 to- 
gether with the miafinata of a hot and 
damp climate, expofed our travellers to 
conunual fuffering. They returned from 
the Orenoko to Barcelona and Cumana by 
the plains of Cari and the Miffions of the 
Carib Indians, a very extraordinary race 
of men, and, next tothe Patagonians, the 
talleft and moft robuft perhaps in the 
world. 
After a ftay of fome months on the 
coaft, they proceeded ta the Havannah by 
the fuuth of St. Domingo and Jamaica. 
This navigation, performed when the fea- 
fon was far advanced, was both long and 
dangerous, the veel having been in great 
danger of being }of on the bank of Vibora, 
the pofition of which M. Humboldt deter- 
mined by the time-keeper. He fiaid in 
the ifand of Cuba three months, dtring 
wllich time he employed himfelf on the 
longitude of the Havannah, and the con- 
iiruétion of a new kind of ftove in the fu. 
— Travels between the Tropics, See 
[july 1, 
gar-houfes, which was fpeedily and gene-, 
rally adopted. When on the point of 
fetting out for La Vera Cruz, intending 
to proceed by the way of Mexico and 
Acapulco to the Philippines, and thence, 
if poffible, by Bombay, Bufforah, and * 
Aleppo, to Conftantinople, falfe intelli- 
gence refpecting the voyage of Captain 
Baudin alarmed him, and induced him to 
alter his plan. .The American papers an- 
nounced that rhis navigator would fet out 
from France for Buenos-Ayres, and that, 
after doubling Cape Horn, he would pro- 
ceed along the coafts of Chili and Peru. 
M. Humboldt, at the time of his de- 
parture from Paris in the year 1798, had 
promifed to the Mufeum and to Captain 
Baudin, that, in whatever part of the 
world he might be, he would endeavour 
to join the French expedition as foon as 
he fhould hear of its having been fet on 
foot. He flattered himfelf that his re- 
fearches and thofe of Bonpland would be 
more ufefulto the progrefs of the fciences 
if they united their labours to thole of 
the men of fcience who were to accom- 
pany Captain Baudin. Thefe confidera-, 
tions induced M. Humboldt to fend his 
manufcripts of the years 1799 and 1800. 
directly to Europe, and to freight a fmalt 
galliot in the port of Batabano to proceed 
to Carthagena in the Indies, and thence, 
as foon as poflible, by the ifthmus of 
Panama, to the South Sea. He hoped 
to find Captain Baudin at Guyaquil or at 
Lima, and to vifit New Holland and the. 
ifiands of the Pacific Ocean, fo interefting 
in amoral point of view, and by the rich-. 
nefs of their vegetation. . 
It appeared to him imprudent to ex- 
pofe the manufcripts and collections al- 
ready formed to the dangers of this long 
navigation. ‘The manutcripts, refpecting | 
the fate of which M. Humboldt aed : 
in painful uncertainty for three years, tild, 
his arrival at Philadelphia, were faved; 
but a third of the collections were joft at 
fea by fhipwreck. Fortunately this lofs, 
and that of fome infeéts from the Orenoka 
and Rio Negro, extended only to dupli- 
cates; but this fhipwreck proved fatal to a 
friend to whom M. Humboldt had in4 
trufted his plants and inlects, Fray Juan 
Gonzales, a Francifcan, a young man of | 
great courage and. activity, who had pe- 
netrated in this unknown world from) Spa 
nifh Guyana much farther than any other | 
European. chine 
(To be contigaed.) 
THE 
