At length, when he was sufficiently recovered from his attack and able to travel, he set out on his voyage homeward in the beginning of August. At Mompox, on his way down the River Magdalena, he met Mr. Bodmer, his successor, with a fresh party of miners from England, on their way up the country to the quarters which he had just quitted. Next day, six hours after leaving Mompox, a steam-boat was met ascending the river, with Bolivar the Liberator on board, on his way to St. Bogotá; and it was a mortification to our engineer that he had only a passing sight of that distinguished person. It was his intention, on leaving Mariquita, to visit the Isthmus of Panamá on his way home, for the purpose of inquiring into the practicability of cutting a canal to unite the Atlantic and Pacific--a project which then formed the subject of considerable public discussion; but Mr. Bodmer having informed him at Mompox that such a visit would be inconsistent with the statements made to the London Board that his presence was so anxiously desired at home, he determined to embrace the first opportunity of proceeding to New York. Arrived at the port of Cartagena, he found himself under the necessity of waiting some time for a ship. The delay was very irksome to him, the more so as the place was then desolated by the ravages of the yellow fever. While sitting one day in the large, bare, comfortless public room of the miserable hotel at which he put up, he observed two strangers, whom he at once perceived to be English. One of the strangers was a tall, gaunt man, shrunken and hollow-looking, shabbily dressed, and apparently poverty-stricken. On making inquiry, he found it was Trevithick, the builder of the first railroad locomotive! He was returning home from the gold mines of Peru penniless. Robert Stephenson lent him £50 to enable him to reach England; and though he was afterward heard of as an inventor there, he had no farther part in the ultimate triumph of the locomotive. But Trevithick's misadventures on this occasion had not yet ended, for before he reached New York he was wrecked, and Robert Stephenson with him. The following is the account of the voyage, "big with adventures," as given by the latter in a letter to his friend Illingworth: