M. GODIN DES ODONAIS TO M. DE LA CONDAMINE.
St Amand, Berry, 28th July 1773.
Sir,
You require of me a narrative of the travels of my spouse along the Amazons River, the same route I followed after you. The rumours which have reached your ears of the dangers to which she was exposed, and which she alone of eight persons surmounted, augment your curiosity. I had resolved never to speak of them again, so painful to me was the recollection of them; but, as an old companion in your travels, a distinction which I prize, I cannot refuse, in return for the interest you take in our welfare, and the marks of friendship you have shown me, to give you the satisfaction you require.
We landed at Rochelle on the 26th of June last, after a passage from Cayenne, effected in sixty-five days, having left this last place on the 21st of April. On our arrival, I made inquiries after you, and learnt, with much grief, that four or five months had elapsed since you were no more. While yet in tears, my wife and myself were delighted, on wiping them away, to find that at Rochelle the literary journals, and what regards the Academy, are far less read than the news which relates to commerce. Accept, Sir, for yourself and Mad. de la Condamine, our heartiest congratulations.
You will recollect, that the last time I had the honour of seeing you in 1742, previous to your leaving Quito, I told you that I reckoned on taking the same road that you were about to do, along the River of Amazons, as much owing to the wish I had of knowing this way, as to insure for my wife the most commodious mode of travelling, by saving her a long journey over-land, through a mountainous country, in which the only conveyance is on mules. You took the pains, in the course of your voyage, to give information at the Spanish and Portuguese missions established on its banks, that one of your companions would follow you; and, though several years elapsed from the period of your leaving them, this had not been forgotten. My wife was exceedingly solicitous of seeing France; but her repeated pregnancies, for several years after your departure, prevented my consent to her being exposed to the fatigues incident on so long a voyage. Towards the close of 1748, I received intelligence of the death of my father; and my presence thence becoming indispensable for the arrangement of my family affairs, I resolved on repairing to Cayenne by myself down the river; and planning every thing on the way to enable my wife to follow the same road with comfort, I departed in March 1749 from the Quito, leaving Mad. Godin at that time pregnant. I arrived at Cayenne in April following, and immediately wrote to M. Rouillé, then minister of the navy, entreating him to procure me passports and recommendations to the court of Portugal, to enable me to ascend the Amazons, for the purpose of proceeding to my family, and bringing it back with me by the same channel. Any one but you, Sir, might be surprised at my undertaking thus lightly a voyage of fifteen hundred leagues, for the mere purpose of preparing accommodations for a second; but you will know that travels in that part of the world are undertaken with much less concern than in Europe; and those I had made during twelve years for reconnoitring the ground for the meridian of Quito, for fixing signals on the loftiest mountains, in going to and returning from Carthagena, had made me perfectly a veteran. I availed myself of the opportunity afforded by the conveyance which took my letters, to forward several objects relating to natural history for the King's garden; among others, seed of the Sarsaparilla, and of the five species of the Butua; with these also a grammar, printed at Lima, of the language of the Incas, which I designed as a present for M. de Buffon, from whom I received no answer. By that with which I was honoured from M. Rouillé, I learnt that his Majesty had been pleased to direct that the governor and intendant of Cayenne should both furnish me with recommendations to the government of Para. Upon this, I wrote to you, Sir, and you were so obliging as to solicit passports for me. You moreover favoured me with a letter of recommendation from Commander La Cerda, minister of Portugal to France, addressed to the governor of Para, with a letter from M. l'Abbé de la Ville, which informed you that my passports had been expedited and forwarded to Para. I inquired respecting them of the governor of that place, who expressed his entire ignorance of the fact. I repeated my letters to M. Rouillé, who then was no longer in the ministry. Since that time I renewed my letters every year, four, five, and even six times, for the purpose of obtaining my passports, and constantly without effect. Many of my letters were lost, or intercepted, during the war, of which I the less doubt, from your having ceased to receive any, notwithstanding I regularly continued my correspondence. At length, hearing casually that M. le Comte d'Herouvillo was in the confidence of M. de Choiseul, I ventured, in 1765, to write to the former of these noblemen, although I had not the honour of being known to him, explaining, in a few words, who I was, and entreating him to intercede with the Duc de Choiseul for the transmission of my passports. To the kindness of this nobleman alone can I attribute the success that followed this step; for, the tenth month from the date of my letter to M. le Comte de Herouville, I saw a decked galliot arrive at Cayenne, equipped at Para by order of the King of Portugal, manned with thirty oars, and commanded by a captain of the garrison of Para, instructed to bring me to Para, thence transport me up the river as high as the first Spanish settlement, to await there till I returned with my family, and ultimately reconduct me to Cayenne, all at the special charge of his Most Faithful Majesty; a liberality truly loyal, and such as is little common among sovereigns. We left Cayenne at the close of November 1765, in order to take in property belonging to me at the fort of Oyapoc, where I resided. Here I fell sick, and even dangerously so. M. de Rebello, the captain, a knight of the order of Christ, was so complaisant as to wait for me six weeks. Finding at length that I still continued too ill to venture on the voyage, and fearful of abusing the patience of this officer, I besought him to continue his route, and that he would permit me to put some one on board, to whom I might intrust my letters, and who might fill my place in taking care of my family on its return. I cast my eyes on Tristan D'Oreasaval, a person whom I had long known, and in whom I had confidence. The packet I intrusted to him contained the orders of the Father-general of the Jesuits to the Provincial of Quito, and the Superior of the missions of Maynas, for furnishing the canoes and equipage necessary for the voyage of my spouse. The instructions I gave to Tristan were simply to deliver those letters to the Superior, resident at La Laguna, the capital of the Spanish missions of Maynas, whom I entreated to forward my letters to Riobamba, in order that my wife might receive information of the vessel despatched by his Majesty of Portugal, at the recommendation of the King of France, to bring her to Cayenne. Tristan was further directed to wait an answer from Riobamba at Laguna. He sailed from Oyapoc on the 24th January 1766, and arrived at Loreto, the first establishment belonging to Spain on ascending the river, in the month of July or August of the same year. Loreto is a mission established below that of Pevas, since the period of your coming down the river in 1743; nay, both this and the Portuguese mission of Savatinga, above that of St Pablo, which was before their last settlement up the river, have been founded since my passage descending in 1749. The better to comprehend what I now describe, it may be well you should cast your eyes over the chart made by you of the course of the Amazons, or that of the province of Quito, inserted in your Historical Journal of the Voyage to the Equator. The Portuguese officer, M. de Rebello, after landing Tristan at Loreto, returned to Savatinga, in conformity to the orders he had received of waiting there until Madame Godin should arrive; and Tristan, in lieu of repairing to Laguna, the capital of the Spanish missions, and there delivering his letters to the Superior, meeting with a missionary Jesuit, called Father Yesquen, who was on his return to Quito, by an unpardonable oversight, which had every appearance of a bad intent, delivered to his care the packet of letters. This was addressed to Laguna, some days' journey from the spot where Tristan was; but instead of attending to this circumstance, he sent it five hundred leagues beyond, to the other side of the Cordilleras, and himself remained in the Portuguese missions, carrying on trade.
You will please to notice, that, besides different articles which I had intrusted to him to dispose of for me, I had furnished him, in addition, with more than sufficient to defray all expense in travelling through the Spanish missions.
In spite, however, of his bad conduct, a vague rumour obtained circulation through the province of Quito, and reached the ears of Madame Godin, not only of letters addressed to her being on their way in the custody of a Jesuit, but also, that, in the uppermost missions of Portugal, a vessel equipped by his Most Faithful Majesty had arrived to transport her to Cayenne. Her brother, a monk of the order of Augustins, in conjunction with Father Terol, a provincial Dominican, exerted themselves much to induce the Provincial of the Jesuits to obtain these letters. The Jesuit who received them at length made his appearance, and stated he had delivered them to another; this other being interrogated, replied, he had committed them to a third; but, notwithstanding the most diligent inquiry, the letters never were found. With respect to the arrival of the vessel, opinions differed, some giving credit to, while others disputed the fact. To venture on a voyage of such length without any certainty, and preparatory thereto to arrange all family affairs, and part with her furniture, was what Madame Godin could not, without much risk and imprudence, resolve upon. She determined on the commendable medium of despatching a faithful negro, who departed with some Americans, but who, in consequence of obstacles, was obliged to return. His mistress sent him forward a second time with new instructions, and means of surmounting the difficulties which had prevented his progress before. More fortunate on this second trip, the negro reached Loreto, saw and communicated with Tristan, and, returning, acquainted Madame Godin of the reality of the report, and that Tristan was at Loreto. Upon this she determined on her journey, sold part of her furniture, but left the rest, as well as her house at Riobamba, a garden and estate at Guaslen, and another property of ours between Galté and Maguazo, to her brother-in-law. Some idea of the length of time which elapsed since the month of September 1766, at which epoch the letters were delivered to the Jesuit, may be formed by computing how long the journey of the reverend father to Quito must have occupied, how much time would be lost in seeking the letters, in inquiry into the fact of the rumour, in hesitating about what was best to be done, and in the two journeys of the negro to Loreto and back to Riobamba, the sale also of our effects, and the requisite preparations for a voyage of such length; in fact, these prevented her setting out from Riobamba, forty leagues south of Quito, before the 1st of October 1769.
The arrival of the Portuguese vessel was rumoured at Guayaquil, and even as far as the shore of the South Sea; for M. R., who reported himself to be a French physician, coming from Upper Peru, and on his way to Panama and Porto Bello, in the view of passing thence to Santo Domingo, Martinico, or, at any rate, to the Havannah, and from that place to Europe, touching at Point St Helena, learnt there that a lady of Riobamba was on the point of setting out for the Amazons river, and embarking thence in a vessel equipped by the order of his Portuguese Majesty, to take her to Cayenne. This engaged him to change his route, and ascending the Guayaquil river, he proceeded to Riobamba, to entreat Madame Godin to grant him a passage, undertaking, in return, to watch over her health, and show her every attention. At first she answered, that she had no authority to grant his request; but M. R. applying to her two brothers, they represented to her so urgently that she might have need of the assistance of a physician on so long a voyage, that she at length consented to his accompanying her. Her two brothers, who likewise were setting out for Europe, hesitated not an instant to avail themselves of the opportunity which now offered of hastening their arrival, the one at Rome, whither he was called by business relative to his order, the other in Spain, where his private affairs required his presence. The latter took with him a son about nine or ten years of age, whom he wished to educate in France. M. de Grandmaison, my father-in-law, went on before to obtain every possible accommodation for his daughter on the road, to the point of embarkation beyond the Great Cordillera. He at first met with obstacles from the president and captain-general of the province of Quito, for you, Sir, are aware that the passage by the Amazons is forbidden by the Spanish court; but these difficulties were soon overcome. On my return from Carthagena, whither I had been despatched on matters relative to our company in 1740, I brought back with me a passport from the viceroy of Santa Fé, Don Sebastian de Eslava, authorizing our taking whatever road we pleased; and in consequence of the production of this, the Spanish governor of the province of Maynas and Omaguas, informed of the approach of Madame Godin, politely sent to meet her a canoe stored with refreshments, such as fruit, milk, &c. which reached her at a little distance from the town of Omaguas; but to what misfortunes, what a horrible situation was she not exposed before that happy moment! She left her residence of Riobamba with her escort on the 1st of October 1769; and with these she reached Canelos, the spot at which they were to embark, situate on the little river Bobonasa, which empties itself into the Pastaca, as this last does into the Amazons. M. de Grandmaison, who preceded them a month on the way, found the village of Canelos well inhabited, and immediately embarked, continuing his journey, to prepare every thing necessary for the transport of his daughter at each stage of her way. As he knew that she was accompanied by her brothers, a physician, her negro, and three female mulattoes or Americans, he proceeded on to the Portuguese missions. In the interval, however, between his journey and the arrival of my wife, the small-pox, an European importation, more fatal to the Americans in this part than the plague, which is fortunately here unknown, is to the people of Levant, had caused the village of Canelos to be utterly abandoned by its population. They had seen those first attacked by this distemper irremediably carried off, and had in consequence dispersed among the woods, where each had his own hut, serving as a country retreat. On her departure, my wife was escorted by thirty-one American natives to carry herself and baggage. You know, Sir, that this road, the same pursued by M. de Maldonada, is impracticable even for mules; that those who are able effect the passage on foot, but that others are carried. The Americans who escorted Madame Godin, who were paid in advance, according to the bad custom in this country, a custom founded on mistrust, at times but too well founded, scarcely reached Canelos before they retraced their steps, either from dread of the air being infected, or from apprehension of being obliged to embark,—a matter obnoxious in the extreme to individuals who had perhaps never seen a canoe in their lives but at a distance. Nay, such excuses are possibly superfluous, for you well know how often we are abandoned by them on our mountains, on no pretence whatever. What, under such circumstances, was to be done? Had my wife been able to return, yet the desire of reaching the vessel waiting her, together with her anxiety to rejoin a husband from whom she had been parted twenty years, were incentives powerful enough to make her, in the peculiar circumstances in which she was placed, brave even greater obstacles.
In the village only two Indians remained free from the contagion. These had no boat, but they engaged to construct one, and pilot it to the mission of Andoas, about twelve days journey below, descending the river of Bobonaza, a distance of from one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty leagues; she paid them beforehand. The canoe being finished, they all departed from Canelos. After navigating the river two days, on the succeeding morning the pilots absconded; the unfortunate party embarked without any one to steer the boat, and passed the day without accident. The next day at noon, they discovered a canoe in a small port adjoining a leaf-built hut, in which was a native recovering from illness, who consented to pilot them. On the third day of his voyage, while stooping over to recover the hat of Mr K., which had fallen into the water, the poor man fell overboard, and, not having sufficient strength to reach the shore, was drowned. Behold the canoe again without a steersman, abandoned to individuals perfectly ignorant of managing it. In consequence, it was shortly overset, which obliged the party to land, and build themselves a hut. They were now but from five to six days journey from Andoas. Mr R. proposed to repair thither, and get off with another Frenchman of the party, and the faithful negro belonging to Madame Godin, taking especial care to carry his effects with him. I since blamed my wife for not having despatched one of her brothers to accompany Mr R., but found that neither of them, after the accident which had befallen the canoe, were inclined to trust themselves on the water again without a proper pilot. Mr R. moreover promised, that within a fortnight a canoe should be forwarded to them with a proper complement of natives. The fortnight expired, and even five-and-twenty days, when, giving over all hopes, they constructed a raft on which they ventured themselves, with their provisions and property. The raft, badly framed, struck against the branch of a sunken tree, and overset, all their effects perishing in the waves, and the whole party being plunged into the water. Thanks to the little breadth of the river at this place no one was drowned, Madame Godin being happily saved, after twice sinking, by her brothers. Placed now in a situation still more distressing than before, they collectively resolved on tracing the course of the river along its banks. How difficult an enterprise this was, you, Sir, are well aware, who know how thickly the banks of the rivers are beset with trees, underwood, herbage and lianas, and that it is often necessary to cut one's way. They returned to their hut, took what provisions they had left behind, and began their journey. By keeping along the river's side, they found its sinuosities greatly lengthened their way, to avoid which inconvenience they penetrated the wood, and in a few days they lost themselves. Wearied with so many days' march in the midst of woods, incommodious even for those accustomed to them, their feet torn by thorns and brambles, their provisions exhausted, and dying with thirst, they were fain to subsist on a few seeds, wild fruit, and the palm cabbage. At length, oppressed with hunger and thirst, with lassitude and loss of strength, they seated themselves on the ground without the power of rising, and, waiting thus the approach of death, in three or four days expired one after the other. Madame Godin, stretched on the ground by the side of the corpses of her brothers and other companions, stupified, delirious, and tormented with choking thirst, at length assumed resolution and strength enough to drag herself along in search of the deliverance which providentially awaited her. Such was her deplorable condition, she was without shoes, and her clothes all torn to rags. She cut the shoes off her brothers' feet, and fastened the soles on her own. It was about the period, between the 25th and 30th of December 1769, that this unfortunate party (at least seven of the number of them) perished in this miserable manner; the date I gather by what I learn from the only survivor, who related that it was nine days after she quitted the scene of the wretched catastrophe described before she reached the banks of the Bobonasa. Doubtless this interval must have appeared to her of great length; and how a female so delicately educated, and in such a state of want and exhaustion, could support her distress, though but half the time, appears most wonderful. She assured me that she was ten days alone in the wood, two awaiting death by the side of her brothers, the other eight wandering at random. The remembrance of the shocking spectacle she witnessed, the horror incident on her solitude and the darkness of night in a desert, the perpetual apprehension of death, which every instant served to augment, had such effect on her spirits as to cause her hair to turn grey. On the second day's march, the distance necessarily inconsiderable, she found water, and the succeeding day some wild fruit and fresh eggs, of what bird she knew not, but which, by her description, I conjecture to have been a species of partridge. These with the greatest difficulty was she enabled to swallow, the œsophagus, owing to the want of aliment, having become so much parched and straitened; but these and other food she accidentally met with, sufficed to support her skeleton frame. At length, and not before it was indispensable, arrived the succour designed for her by Providence.