The more we study the distribution of organized life on the globe, the more we tend to abandon the hypothesis of migration. The Andes chain divides the whole of South America into two unequal longitudinal parts. At the foot of this chain, on both east and west, we found many plants that were specifically identical. The various passes on the Andes would not let any vegetation from warm regions cross from the Pacific coast to the Amazon banks. When a peak reaches a great height, whether in the middle of low mountains and plains, or in the center of an archipelago raised by volcanic fires, its summit is covered with alpine plants, many of which are also found at immense distances on other mountains under similar climates. Such are the general phenomena of plant distribution.

On the night of the 4th of July, at about the 16th degree of latitude, we saw the Southern Cross clearly for the first time it appeared strongly inclined and shone intermittently between clouds. When flashes of lightning passed across its center it shone with a silvery light. If a traveler may be permitted to speak of his personal emotions, I will add that on that night I saw one of the dreams of my earliest youth come true.

During that time a voyage to explore the Pacific was being planned inFrance, under the direction of Captain Baudin. The early plan was daringand grand, and would have been better entrusted to a more enlightened man. idea was to travel across the Spanish colonies in South America from the mouth of the River Plate tothe kingdom of Quito and the Panama isthmus. The two corvettes would then proceed to NewHolland through the Pacific archipelagos, stopping at Madagascar andreturning home round the Cape of Good Hope. I had arrived in Paris when thepreparations for the voyage had just begun. I had little faith in Captain Baudin's character as he had given mecause to be suspicious in the Viennese Court when charged to accompany oneof my friends to Brazil, but as I could never with my own resource's haveafforded such a far-reaching expedition, nor visited such a beautiful part of the earth, I decided to risktaking part in the expedition. I got permission to embark with myinstruments on one of the corvettes destined for the Pacific, and I didthis on the agreement that I could leave Captain Baudin whenever it suited me. Michaux, who had visited Persia andparts of North America, and Bonpland, who became and remained a closefriend, were also to accompany this expedition as naturalists.

The Caribs on the mainland admit that the smaller West Indian Islands were inhabited by Arowaks, a warlike tribe still found on the unhealthy banks of the Surinam and Berbice rivers. They say that all the Arowaks were exterminated by Caribs coming from the Orinoco mouth, except for the women. They quote as evidence the similarities between Arowak and Carib women's languages.

April 13th. Early in the morning we passed the Tabaje rapids and landed again. Father Zea, who accompanied us, wanted to say mass in the new San Borja mission established two years before. We found six huts inhabited by uncatechized Indians. They were no different from wild Indians. Only their large black eyes showed more liveliness than those living in older missions. They refused our brandy without even trying it. The young girls had their faces marked with round black spots. The rest of their bodies were not painted. Some of the men had beards, and they seemed proud. Holding our chins they showed through signs that they were made like us. I was again struck by how similar all the Orinoco Indians are. Their look is somber and sad, not hard or ferocious. Without any notions about the practices of the Christian religion they behaved quite decently in the church. Indians like representations; they submit themselves momentarily to any nuisance provided they are sure of being stared at. Just before the moment of communion they make signs to show that the priest was about to bring the chalice to his lips. Apart from this gesture they stay immobile, in their imperturbable apathy.

The ground of the island rises to form an amphitheatre and, as in Peru and Mexico, contains in miniature all the possible climates, from African heat to alpine cold. (14) The mean temperatures of Santa Cruz, the port of Orotava, Orotava itself and La Laguna form a descending series. In southern Europe the change of seasons is too strongly felt to offer the same advantages. Tenerife on the other hand, on the threshold of the Tropics and a few days' journey from Spain, benefits from a good part of what nature has lavished in the Tropics. Its flora include the beautiful and imposing bananas and palms. He who is able to feel nature's beauty finds in this precious island a far more effective remedy than the climate. Nowhere else in the world seems more appropriate to dissipate melancholy and restore peace to troubled minds than Tenerife and Madeira. These effects are due not only to the magnificent situation and to the purity of air, but above all to the absence of slavery, which so deeply revolts us in all those places where Europeans have brought what they call their 'enlightenment and their 'commerce' to their colonies

Among the Indians gathered at Pararuma we found some whites who had come from Angostura to buy turtle butter. After wearying us with their complaints about the 'poor harvest' and about the harm done by the jaguars as the turtles laid their eggs, they led us under an ajupa raised in the middle of the Indian camp. There we found the missionary monks from Carichana and the cataracts sitting on the ground playing cards and smoking tobacco in long pipes. These poor priests received us in a very friendly manner. They had been suffering from tertiary fever for months. Pale and emaciated, they had no trouble convincing us that the countries we were about to visit were dangerous for our health.