The Academy of Sciences was now charged with the splendid undertaking of measuring a degree of the me ridian and of the equator in Peru ; and Condamine, who had the honour of proposing the expedition, was one of the academicians who were selected for carrying it into effect. We have already had occasion to give some ac count of this great enterprize ; and in another part of our work our readers may expect very satisfactory and copious details ; but we can only at present relate the events which are particularly connected with the person al history of Condamine, and which could not be intro duced with propriety under another head.
The academicians set out from Rochelle on the 16th of May 1735, and they reached Martinique. on the 22d of June. On the day fixed for their departure Conda mine was seized with a violent fever ; but such was the zeal of all the party to prosecute the object of their mis sion, that Condamine was embarked iu the course of 24 hours after he was attacked. From Martinique the aca demicians went to Portobello; and, crossing the istumus of Panama, they embarked at this city, and afterwards reached Guaquil, from which it was necessary to pro ceed to Quito by land. In order to examine as wide an extent of country as possible, Condamine separated from his companions, and chose a dangerous and difficult route. He traversed immense forests on foot ; and after be ing abandoned by his guides, he wandered eight days in the deserts, without any other guide but his compass, and without any other food but the wild herbs that grew around him. After undergoing incredible dangers, and suffering the greatest privations, he at last joined his companions at Quito.
The pecuniary resources of the academicians were now unfortunately exhausted. Condamine had, however, brought with hint particular letters of credit ; but as there was no direct intercourse between Quito and Eu rope, he found it necessary to undertake a journey of 400 leagues to Lima, for the purpose of obtaining money. After an absence of three months, he returned to Quito with 60,000 livres, for which he was personally respon sible, and with 20,000, which were sent to him by the council and the viceroy ; and although he was obliged to carry his own bed, yet he found time to compose a ineni6ir on the tree which yields Quinquina, and to col lect a number of curious observations.
The geometrical mensuration of the arc of the meri dian was completed in August 1739, after two years of unremitting labour ; and the academicians were pro ceeding to take the astronomical measure of this arc, when their attention was called to a most distressing event. M. Seniergues, who accompanied the expedi
tion as surgeon, had a personal quarrel with the Alcade of Cuenca, who had interested the Grand Vicar of Cu enca in his quarrel. At a bull-tight, in August 1739, where a number of people were collected, the Spanish officers instigated the populace to the assassination of Seniergues ; and, notwithstanding the great exertions of Condamine to bring them to justice, and the partial success which he at last obtained, the culprits continued to evade the sentence of the law, by means which could succeed only under the most corrupt and infamous governments.
While M. Godin was making observations on the meridian to the north, M. Bouguer repeated in the south the observations which he had formerly made, and detect ed au error, to the amount of 30", which he had com mitted, with the cause by which it had been produced. This circumstance gave rise to a difference between Bouguer and Condamine, the former of whom maintain ed, that the method of detecting and providing against the error of 30" belonged to himself alone. Condamine maintained, that Bouguer had no title to appropriate this honour to himself ; and therefore carefully repeated all the second observations of his companion. In these labours they were engaged till 1743.
On the 4th of September 1742, Condamine sat out from Quito. A few days before his departure, he had been robbed of his papers, the result of eight years of incessant labour ; but though his money and jewels were also carried off, he had the prudence to publish a notice, declaring that he demanded only his manuscripts. This notice had the desired effect. The papers were restored, with the exception of two packets, which contained an account of his travels to the mountains where gold mines were supposed to exist.
AI. Condamine left Peru on the llth of May 1743, and he came to the hazardous resolution of returning home by the river Amazons, attended by a single domestic. After a series of dangers, for an account of which we must refer to his own work,* he arrived at Cayenne, and waited more than five months for a vessel to carry him to France. This delay preyed so much upon his mind, that it began to produce a serious impression upon his health, just when the governor of Surinam announced to him an opportunity of returning to Europe. He landed at Amsterdam,and soon found himself among his friends at Paris.