the equator, left his companions Bouguer and Godin des Odonais,
embarked on the Chinchipe, descended it to its junction with the
Marañon, reached the mouth at Napo on the 31st of July, just in time
to observe an emersion of the first satellite of Jupiter--which
allowed this "Humboldt of the eighteenth century" to accurately
determine the latitude and longitude of the spot--visited the
villages on both banks, and on the 6th of September arrived in front
of the fort of Para. This immense journey had important results--not
only was the course of the Amazon made out in scientific fashion, but
it seemed almost certain that it communicated with the Orinoco.

Fifty-five years later Humboldt and Bonpland completed the valuable
work of La Condamine, and drew up the map of the Manañon as far as
Napo.

Since this period the Amazon itself and all its principal tributaries
have been frequently visited.

In 1827 Lister-Maw, in 1834 and 1835 Smyth, in 1844 the French
lieutenant in command of the "Boulonnaise," the Brazilian Valdez in
1840, the French "Paul Marcoy" from 1848 to 1860, the whimsical
painter Biard in 1859, Professor Agassiz in 1865 and 1866, in 1967
the Brazilian engineer Franz Keller-Linzenger, and lastly, in 1879
Doctor Crevaux, have explored the course of the river, ascended many
of its tributaries, and ascertained the navigability of its principal
affluents.

But what has won the greatest honor for the Brazilian government is
that on the 31st of July, 1857, after numerous frontier disputes
between France and Brazil, about the Guiana boundary, the course of