 He did, however, have a stroke of luck with meeting Aimé Bonpland, the botanist and physician for the voyage.Discouraged, the two left Paris for Marseilles, where they hoped to join Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt, but North Africans were in revolt against the French invasion in Egypt and French authorities refused permission to travel.Humboldt and Bonpland eventually found their way to Madrid, where their luck changed spectacularly.