In 1839, two years after Osifekunde had arrived in France, and needing assistance to return to Brazil, he was brought to the attention of Marie-Armand Pascal d'Avezac de Castera-Macaya (1800-1875), a French geographer, ethnologist, and the chief archivist of the Ministry of the Navy ("garde des archives de la marine et des colonies"), Vice President of the Ethnology Society of Paris and a senior member of the French Geographical Society. Between 1833 and 1866, d'Avezac de Castera-Macaya served variously as Secretary, Vice president and later President of the Geographical Society. During the first half of the nineteenth century the Society was in a state of renaissance as members developed more interest in the history of exploration and mapping, ultimately developing cartography into a specialized subfield of geography. D'Avezac was an academic researcher more than a humanitarian, and very interested in Africa. When he met Osifekunde, d'Avezac was writing a book on African geography and perhaps had begun a later book on Brazil, two of his numerous publications. ${ }^{36} \mathrm{He}$  
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