rother-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, a