THE LIFE

TRAV ELSAND BOOKS

ALEXANDER V ON HUMBOLDT.

WITH AN INTRODU CTION

B Y B A Y A R D T A Y L O R .

Iam become a nameFor always roaming with a hungry heartMuch have Iseen and known ; cities of menAnd manners

,climates

,councils

,governments

,

Myself no t least,but honored of them all.”

N EW Y O R K

R U DD C A R LET O N ,1 3 0 G R A N D S T R E ET ,

(BROOKS Bpmnmc ; c dR. g oi ’fiRblmwm’

a)g 0

3 MDCCCLIX :J J )

Ente red according to Act of Cong ress, in th e Year 1859, byBUDD CARLETON.

In the Clerk ’

s Office of the Distric t Court of the Unit ed States for the SouthernDistric t ofW York.

Z 6 6

B . CRAIGHEAD,

ma ter, Stereo typer, and Elec tro typet ,

( Ea ton B laming , 1‘ c

2 2 85 6 3 1“

and85 énr e

Q

SrfeLc

PR E FA C E .

There are several biog rap hies of Humboldt, French ,

and E ng lish, bu t none of any imp ortance, excep t

Professor Kkncke’s. Kk ncke had an excellent opp ortu

nity to make a g ood book , formuch of his ma terial was

obtained from Humboldt himself, bu t he failed to do so .

He seemed to ha ve no idea of writing , beyond its being a

means of conveying fact s. B is fac ts are reliable, bu t

bung ling ly arrang ed, withou t order or me thod. He says

the same thing over and over ag ain, and en tirely lacks the

chief requisite of a biog rap her— the art of making his

subject a t trac tive . Still, he is reliable, and the au thor has

made considerable use of his work , esp ecially in B ook I.

Thefirstfive chap ters of B ook II. are takenfromHum

bo ldt ’s “ Voyage aux Régions Equinoxiales.

” As these

chap ters cover an imp ortan t ep och inHumbo ldt ’s life, it was

thou g h t advisable to le t him tell his own story, and this

has according ly been done, wherever i t wasp rac ticable , the

rela tion being chang ed from thefirst p erson to the third

from au tobiog rap hy to narra tive. Of course only the

3 4 664 5

iv PREFACE .

substance of the “ Voyage ” is g iven,for the work extends

to three oc tavo vo lumes, of four orfive hundred p ag es

each . It would have been easy to have rewrit ten this ma t

ter, bu t the au thor cou ld no t see the advantag e of so doing

his book would have g ained some thing in orig inality, bu t

it would have lost much more in in terest . No writer of

travels, ancien t or modern, can comp are with Humbo ldt in

descrip tive p ower, esp ecially in the “ Voyage,

” where his

words are p ictures. These p ictures have been faithfully

transferred to the chap ters men tioned, and are commended

t o the reader’s a t ten tion .

Th e chap ters on Colombia and Peru , and Mexico , are

made up from the “ Vues des Cordilléres,

” the “ Ansich t en

der Nat ur,” and the “ Essai po lit ique sur le R oyaume de

Nouvelle Espagne .

” They are no t so comp lete as the

au thor could have wished, bu t tha t is ra therHumboldt ’s

fau lt than his own, for the“ Voyage ” which would have

furnished material for them ,had it ever been comp leted,

ends abrup tly a t Carthag ena . B eyond tha t p o in t the

narra tive of the journey ceases. Gleams of it o ccur,

however, in Humbo ldt ’s o ther works,chiefly in those just

men tioned, and it is by these that his p rog ress has been

traced until his return to E urop e. If this p ortion of the

B iog rap hy lacks the p icturesque and adven turous elemen t

of the chap ters that p recede it , it has a t least the merit ofvariety, and of being the fu llest accoun t of the last two or

three years of Humboldt ’s eventfu l journey in the IVéw

lVorld. The works sp ecified above having been translated

into E ng lish , the transla t ions have been g enerally used,

PREFACE .

no t because the au thor p referred them to their orig inals,

bu t because he doub ted his ability to bet ter them . It is one

thing tofind fault with a transla tor for his shortcoming s,

bu t qu ite ano ther thing to avo id them in one’s own trans

la tion . The transla tors to whom the au thor of this B iog ra

p hy is indeb ted are : Thomasina R oss, for the“ Voyage 37 )

Mrs . Sab inefor the“Ansicht en der Nat ur Helen Jljam

‘

a

Williams, for the “ Vue s des Cordilléres f

’and John

B lack for the“ E ssai po lit ique .

” Th e last two works are

ou t of p rin t , thoug h cop ies are occasiona lly to be found a t

the o ld book stalls the “ Ansich t en der Nat ur,

”and the

“ Voyage ,” or as it is christened in the transla tio n, the

Personal Narrat ive,

”are in p rin t , thoug h scarcely within

the reach of tim g eneral reader, never having been rep rin ted

in this coun try. The E ng lish edition of the “ Personal

Narrat ive ”costs three t imes as much as the p resen t

volume.

The chap ter on Cen tral Asia , in B ook III,which is the

substanc e of R ose’s

“ R e ise nach dem Ural,

”is rewrit ten

and enlarg ed from Mr. Taylor’s

“ Cyclopeedia of Modern

Travel .” These, as far as the au thor remembers, are the

princip a l sources to which he is indebted. He shou ld men~

t ion, p erhap s, the various French and E ng lish E t cyc lo

p oedias from which he has filled up his sketches of some

ofHumbo ldt ’s con temp oraries, bu t E ncyclop cedias have n o

au thors, as everybody knows ; besides, they are made for

the v ery p urp ose to which he has p u t them . The same

may be said of the journals of the day.

The reader now understands the extent of the au thor’s

vi PREFACE .

oblig a tions in this B iog rap hy . Of the B iog rap hy itselfit does no t become the au thor to sp eak,further than to say

tha t he has taken g rea t p ains to make it accura te . If it

shall be considered as readable as it is accurate, he will

have accomp lished his purp ose, which was to write a p op a

lar life ofHumboldt .

INTRODUCTION.

A B IOGRAPHY ofAlexander V on Humboldt,which shall

cont ain a full and conscient ious account of his life and

labors,writ t en in a style sufficient ly clear and un t echnical

t o mee t th e popular t ast es, has long been a n e ce ssity in our

lit erat ure . Those biographie s which are alre ady in exist

ence do no t possess this charact er th ey are rather chroni

cles of his achievement s in t he various department s ofnatural science

,than st ories of a life almost unexampled

for it s wealth of experience , it s labors, and successe s. The

“ Live s of t he Bro thers Humboldt,

” by Klenck e , whichhas been t ranslat ed int o English

,is very fragmentary in

this respect it passes over unno t iced, many episodes in the

life ofAlexanderV on Humboldt , which are ofgreat int erestt o the general reader. In fact

,it has only be en in the

clo sing years of his life , that the excellences of his charac

t er, as a man ,

apart from his dist inct ion as a savan t , haverece ived full and general acknowledgment .

No t ask could have been pleasant er t o m e than that of

at t empt ing t o bring home t o the familiar acquaint ance of

viii INTRODUCTION .

the great reading public of the Unit ed Stat es,t he hist ory

of the great man,with who se friendship Iwas honored ;

and,as the lit erary labors Ihad already on hand prevent ed

me from undert ak ing such a work,it is all th e more grat i

fying t o me

-

t o know that it has be en faithfully and c on

scient iously done by one every way capable of th e perfo rmance . Having examined the biography which fo llows,Icant e st ify t o it s exactness and comple t ene ss, and therefore

though the subj ect of the bo ok is it s own sufficient re c '

om

mendat ion — cordially accede t o th e reque st of t he author,

that I should add a few words of int roduct ion, embo dyingmy own i mpressions ofHumbo ldt ’s charact er.

Wh en I first saw him,he was in his e igh ty-e igh th year

,

b ut,except in the bowed h ead and slow st ep ,show ed scarcely

any signs ofbodily decay. A port rait , pain t ed nearly forty

years before,at which t ime his hair w as already g ray,

sh owed that t im e had o ccasioned b ut lit t le change in hisappearance , while it s only effect upon his mind was

, per

haps,a lack of that power of concent rat ion wh ich enabled

him t o mast er so many various department s of nat ural

science . He was st ill every inch a k ing,with no faculty

appre c iably dulled,no sympathy blunt ed

,no hope for t he

increase of human knowledge or generous aspirat ion for

t he go od of his k ind le ss earnest than in his prime of life .

A year lat er, I found him brok en ,indeed

,in bodily health ,

ye t st ill capable of sixt e en hours of cont inuous ment al labor,and his last le t t er t o m e

,writ t en b ut a short t ime before

his death,be t rayed no sign‘

of failing facul t ie s, though thehand which t raced it was evident ly weak and t rembling.

INTRODUCTION . ix

In the cast le at Tegel, where he was born, and in the

park of which he now sle eps beside his bro ther,hangs a

port rait of him , paint ed at the ag e of t hirty-fiv e . He is

th ere repre sent ed as man of rat her less t han the medium

st ature,b ut firmly and symme t rically ouilt , with a full ,

k e en, ardent face , firm lips,clear blue eye s

,and t hick lo cks

of chestnut hair, clust ering about his square , massive brow .

He wears a gre en coat , kne e -bre ech es, and a heavy cloaklined with red. He is represent ed as le aning again st a

rock on a slope of the Andes,t he snowy dome of Chimbo

razo fil ling

up t he background of t he pict ure . In com

paring this pict ure with his living presence , I found that

th e shoulders had st o oped,leaving the h ead bent forward,

as if we ighed down by the burden of it s universal knowledge ; the hair had grown snow-whit e , and somewhatt h inner ; t h e mouth had lo st it s clear, sharp out line , and

th e eager,energe t ic expression of the face was gone : b ut

th e blue eyes were as serene and youthful as ever, and thesk in as fair

,smo o th

,and ruddy

,almost

,as t hat of a young

man.

Th e first impression produced by Humbo ldt ’s face was

that of it s thorough humanity . Th e blo od which fed hisrest le ss brain never weak ened the pulsat ions of his human

heart . B eneath that devo t ion t o science which h e illust rat ed by th e labours of seventy-fiv e years, burned st eadily

and unwaveringly the flame of sympathy forhis k ind. Pro

bably no man who ever lived has given aid and encouragement t o so great a number of aspiring and deserv ing m en.

I know inst ances of persons in humble life having sought

I INTRODUCTION .

his assist ance for th emselves or the ir friends, and in no case

was it refused. The applicant s re t urned from the int erviewch eered

,inspired

,and full ofaffect ionat e venerat ion for the

manwho,in the midst ofhis immense labours

,could ye t give

an hour t o t hemselves and th e ir plans . No rat ional appeal

t o him was ever slight ed, and the vast influence which h epossessed, in his lat er years, w as always exert ed in th e

b ehalf of science,and her earnest vo t aries.

Jealousy of his fell ow-labourers formed no part of his

nat ure . His enthusiasm was t o o pure and ardent t o b e

alloyed by any personal considerat ion . No t his own fame— no t his supremacy as an observer o r a th eoriz er— b

’

ut t he

advancement of human knowledge , t he discovery of grandgeneral laws— the fo o t st eps of God in t he Creat ion— was

his aim and his ambit ion. What he has done is no t t o b e

measured by his own individual achievement s the generousimpulse which he has given t o o thers canno t b e est imat ed.

The vast result s which have fo llowed scient ific research,

since th e commencement of this century, were init iat ed byhis example he po int ed out t o o thers t he t racks which hecould no t himself fo llow,

and,even wh en acknowledged as a

leader, never h esit at ed t o labor with the humb le st . In this

respect,his Charact er pre sent s an almost ideal exc ellence .

The le sson of Humboldt ’s life is no t without it s special

significance at the present day, when the th irst for wealth ,and place

,and power

,seems ho t t er and

'

fierc er t han ever.

With t he advant age s of his birth and inherit ed posit ion,many paths of advancement were open t o him

,b ut he dis

dained them all,sacrificing everything t o his love of know

IN'

I‘

R OD UCTION . X1

ledge,unt il finally, in his o ld ag e , honors such as no stat e s

man ever w on,were laid as volunt ary offerings at his fee t .

The indifference which he regarded them showed h ow lit t lesuch rewards had ent ered int o his plan of life . Ye t ,th oug h

t he acknowledged equal ofk ings, h e was never seduced by

t h e splendors of court s t o forge t his charact er as a man,

wh ose sympathies we re wit h t he people rath er than th e ir

rulers . So well were his polit ical predilect ions underst oodamong the monarchs who called him friend, that at the Congre ss ofVerona

,ofwhich h e w as amember

,when he propo sed

some t emporary measure which had an arbit rary charac

t er, t he Emperor Al exander I. of Russia,t urning t o him,

fidélg‘

w ch And is it you, arch-re

publican as mOpOT GI

this despo t ic measur e ? ”

This incidentM edi c me by Humboldt h imself,dur

ing my last int eryiem with him . One can t herefore under

st and the depth of that est e em felt for him by th e pre sent

dement ed king ofPrus sia, when the lat t er int roducedHumboldt t o the Emperor Franz Joseph ofAust ria

,at Prague ,

some four or fiv e ye ars ag o . His j esuit ical maj esty ask ed

Who is the Baron V on Humbo ldt , t hat you present him

t o me with so much emp ressement I have never heard ofhim ! ” No t h eard ofhim ! ” exclaimed th e k ing, in honestamazement ; wliy h e is t he great est man since th e De

lugeHumboldt ’s large fort un e was wholly expended in the

pro secut ion ofhis t ravels and the publicat ion of his works,and during t he lat er years ofhis life

,he w as ent ire ly depen

dent oh his diplomat ic pension, and the copyright of his

Xii INTRODU CTION .

Ko smos.” To my friend He ine,t h e art ist

,he sent his

own copy (the original edit ion) of his Vues des Cordil

léres,” cont aining some ofhis marginal no t e s. On learning

that the same gent leman had be en obliged t o g o t o Am e

rica through his connexion with the event s of 1 8 4 8,he pre

vailed upon the k ing of Prussia t o grant him t he Order of

the R ed Eagle— through which recognit ion t he official b an

was removed. This is b ut one inst ance of t he many act s

of k indness on his part,with which I have become ac

quaint ed.

His mind was so admirably balanced— his developmentwas so various, and ye t so comple t e in every department ofscience

,that his t rue greatness is no t so apparent as in t h e

case of th o se who have risen t o eminence by devo t ing themselve s t o some special st udy. Perfect symme t ry neverproduces the effect of vastness. It is only by st udying thede t ails that w e compreh end t h e charact er of t h e who le .

Humboldt,however, may b e t ermed the father of Physical

G e ography, and the suggest er,ifno t the discoverer, of that

syst em of t he dist ribut ion ofplant s and animals wh ich opens

t o our view another field of that D ivine Order, manifest edin the visible world. He strove t o grasp tho se secre t s,which

,perhaps

,no single mind will ever b e able t o compre

b end— the aggregat e of th e laws which underlie t he myst e

rie s of Cre at ion , Growth,and D ecay ; and though he fell

short of the sublime aim,h e was at least able t o say, like

Kepler,when h e discovered the math emat ical harmonies of

th e solar syst em Oh,Almighty God, I think Thy

thought s aft er The e !”

INTRODUCTION . Xl l i

The record of such a life,even in it s ext ernal aspe c t s, is

pregnant with suggest ions. It is a magnificent illust rat ionof t rue success. A comb inat ion of t h e purest and noble st

human Charac t er with splendid qualit ies of the mind is nufortunat ely rare . Without th e former,Humbo ldt might haveach ieved the same success in his own personal labors, b ut

h e could no t have given t he same impe t us t o scient ific re

search in all part s of the world. The sat isfact ion we fe el

in cont emplat ing his life arise s from it s comple t eness. In

him the heart was t he fo cus of warmth,wh ence radiat ed

t he light of his int e llect .

The Port rait wh ich accompanie s this vo lume,is Copied

from a pho t ograph which I obt ained from B erlin ,and which

is a perfe ct represent at ion ofHumbo ldt,in his e ighty-sixth

V ear.

BAYARD TAYLOR.

NEWYORK, Aug ust, 1 859.

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,

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,

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,

Ideen einer Physiog nomonik der Gewaeschse. 4 to . Tub ing en,

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au dixt eme degre’ de kztitudeaustrale

, p arHumboldt et B onp land. 4 to . Paris,

Ansichten der Natur. 2 vols ,1 2 mo. Stut g ard Tub ing en,

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Plat es, FOL Cassel aParis,

Consp ectus long itudinum et la titudinum g eog rap hicarum p er decur

sum annorum 1 7 99 ad 1 8 04,astronomia observatarum.

Plat es,FOL Cassel

,

Plantes Equinoxiales recueillies auMexique, dans l’Ile de Cuba, dans

les Provinces de Caraccas,de Cumana cl de Barcelone, aux Andes

de la Nouvelle Granade,de Quito, et de Perou,

et sur les B ords da

Rio Negro,dc l

’Orénoque, cl de la Riviere des Amazones

, p ar

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,1 8 08—1 809

xvi B IBLIOGRAPHY .

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’Ar te

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et de Mesures barométriques. Redig ées et calculées d‘

apres lesTables les plus exactes p ar J. Oltmans. 2 v o ls

,4 to . Paris

, 1 8 10

Ideen zu einer Geographie der Pflanzen. 4 130. V ienna, 1 8 1 1

Essai politique sur la Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne,avec un Atlas

p hysique cl géographique, fondé sur les Observations astrono

migues,des Mesa/res trt g onométriques et des Nivellemens barome

triques. At las FOL, Tex t e 2 vols ,4 to . Paris

,1 8 1 1

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Observations de Z oologie et d’Anatomie comparée, faits dans

l’Ocean Atlantique

,dans l

’fntérieur du Nouveau Continent et

dans la Mer da Sud. ParHumboldt e t Bonp land.

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,1 8 1 1 - 1 8 3 3

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’

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,1 8 15- 1 8 2 5

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,dans

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, (kc ,mise en ordre p ar A. Bonpland.

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https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

C ont ents.

BOOK 1 . 1 769— 1 7 99.

CHAPTER I.

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH,

CHAPTER II.

BOOK II. 1 7 99— 1 804 .

CHAPTER 1 .

CHAPTER II.

ABOUT CUMANA,

CHAPTER III.

TOWARDSTHE ORINOCO,

CHAPTER IV .

UP THE OBINOCO;

CHAPTER V .

To CUBA AND BACK,

CHAPTER VI.

COLOMBIA AND PERU ,’

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER I.

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

THREE leagues from the good city of Berlin,near an

arm of the Havel,called Tegel

,stands

,or sto od ninety

years ag o , the Old cast le ofTegel . Behind it lay a groveOf dark pines which separated it from the capital ; onthe southern shore Of t he lake were the t own and for

tress of Spandau,and to the no rth-west grassy and

wooded declivit ies,studded with promenades and g ar

dens. Doubt less this castle,gray and antiquat ed

,had a

st irring history Of its own in the days Of Old,b ut of this

Tradit ion is silent . Al l that we know is, that short lybefore the Opening of th is life -hist ory

,it was the resi

dence of a Prussian commissioner ofwoods and forests,

who had greatly b eaut ified it by the laying out of

nurserie s and plantat ions . This commissioner,whose

name wasV on Burgsdorf,was succe eded in 1 768 , or there

abouts,by Major Alexander George V on Humbo ldt .

Major V on Humbo ldt was born in 1 7 2 0. His father,

Hans Paul V o n Humbo ldt,served as a captain in the

army Of Frederick William the First ; his mo th er was

the daugh t er Of the Prussian major and general adjutant ,V on Schweder ; it was natural therefore that he shouldfo llow the profession of arms . He served for a long

4 ANCESTORS.

time in a dragoon regiment,and was then made major

and finally adjutant to Duke Frederic Of Brunswick,

who Often sent him on embassies to Frederic the Great .This was in the famous seven years’ war. When the

war was over, in 1 765 , the g reat Frederic made him one

Of his chamberlains ; he was also at tendant Chamberlainon Elizabe th

,the newly-married princess of Prussia.

His official dut ies compe lled him t o reside in Po tsdam,

where he probably me t the lady who became his wife .

A descendant of the family ofCo lomb,which emigrat ed

from Burgundy,where it was celebrat ed for its glass

works,she was the widow of a Baron V on Ho lwede

Major V on Humbo ldt persuaded her t o change herweeds for the orange wreath

,so theymarried and se t t led

in Po t sdam . The ir first child,William

,was born there

on the 2 2 d of June,1 767 . They lived in Po t sdam but

a short time,two or three years at most

,for the marriage

Of the princess be ing at length dissolved,she had no fur

ther need Of an at t endant Chamberlain,consequent ly

MajorV on Humbo ldt was at liberty t o Change his residence

,if so inclined. He exchanged Po tsdam for Berlin

,

and lived partly there,and part ly in his cast le at Tegel .

How he became po ssessed of the cast le is no t stated. It

was originally a hunt ing seat of the great Elector,and a

hunt ing establishment was kept up there under Fredericthe Great . The Major’s second son

,Frederic Henry

Alexander,was born at Berlin on the 14 th ofSeptember

,

1 769. It was principally at Tegel,however

,that his

childhood passed .

Of the first y ears Of his life no thing remarkable hasbeen related . There is a sameness in the lives Of children

,no mat ter what their rank or talent s. If they

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6 HIS FIRST TEACHER CAMPE .

tures with which the nurse pacified him when he wassick

,he go es t o it

,and Opening the do or softly

,lights

by a sort of impish inst inct,on the co st liest vo lume on

the she lves. It is some famous work on natural history,

a ponderous quarto filled with coloured prints of strangeplant s and animals

,and st ill stranger men. He pores

over them with great eyes. Fearing at last that he is inmischief

,for she has heard no thing of him for a long

t ime,his mo ther st eals int o the room

,and finds him fast

asleep,with the book in his lap . As he grows o lder h e

take s h imself out of doors On all po ssible occasions .Now he is in the garden

,plucking and studying

flowers and grasses ; now in the pine grove filling hispocket s with last year’s cones and needles

,and now by

the edge of the lake,skimming pebbles over its surface

,

or watching its fleet ofmirrored clouds .In such wise

,says Fancy

,who is some t imes truer than

Fact,lived the b oy Alexander, unt il 1 7 75, when his

educat ion commenced. The science Of educat ion,a

science which is st ill in its infancy,the Opinion of its

profe ssors t o the contrary no twithstanding,was at that

t ime agitat ing the European world . The new me thodof Rousseau

,which aimed at the physical as well as the

mental development of its pupils,and which considered

the study ofnatural science full as important as that of

me taphysics,and the classics

,had made many adherent s

in Germany,and among o thers Joach im He inrich Campe .

Born in Campe studied theo logy at He lmstadt andat Halle

,and was appo int ed

,in 1 7 7 3 , chaplain t o the

Prince of Prussia’s re g iment in Po tsdam . He fulfilledfo r two years the dut ies of his sacred calling in that

doubtful sph ere Of act ion,and feeling h imself much more

ROBINSON CRUSOE . 7

fitted to t each children than men,and tho se men so ldie rs

,

he was transplant ed by Maj or V on Humbo ldt t o teachhis sons

,at the o ld cast le Of Tege l . A ripe and varied

scho lar even then,he enjoyed in after life the reputat ion

ofbeing,next to Klopst o ck

,the greatest ph ilo logist and

crit ic ofGerman style . He is the author of a Germandict ionary

,and o th er works calculated t o improve the

language . But the b ooks by which he is best knownare those of travel and adventure . The ch iefest of theseare his “ Discovery ofAmerica

,

”and Robinson Cruso e .

”

Looking back from the vantage ground of Time,and

bearing in mind what Al exander V on Humbo ldt hasdone

,what might have seemed a trivial thing then

,a

mere lucky chance , now seems the special ordering of

Nature . He was fit ted,we have since learned

,to per

form a great work for her ; bu t before he could performthat work it was nece ssary that she should reveal it tohim. If the child is t o become the father of the man

,

the man must somehow b e brought before the mentaleye of the Child. His infancy must b e nurt ured bynoble books

,and wise teachers

,or

By solemn v ision,and b rig ht silver dream.

What bett er teacher could the boy have had, consideringthe work he was t o do

,

”

than one who translat ed thatmarvello us fict ion of the home ly Old truth-t eller

,De Fo e

,

— the fresh,unfading

,world-renowned Robinson Cruso e ?

It was the book of all o thers to fire his youthful imaginat ion with the de sire of travel

,and t o fill his mind with

the unconquerable spirit of adventure . It was a happyday when Joachim Heinrich Campe , ph ilo lo g ist , crit ic,

8 CHRISTIAN KUNTH .

translator,and finally bookseller

,became the tutcr of

Humbo ldt .He remained in the family a year, t eaching the e ldest

b oy the languages, and the youngest,who was then in

his seventh year,whatever he was pleased to learn.

Alexander was no t so robust as his bro ther,for his

health was considered delicat e for many years,nor was

he regarded as his equal in mental endowment s.The ir next tutor was a young man of twenty

,poor in

th is world’s goods,b ut rich in what the proverb declares

t o b e bet ter than houses and lands— Learning. Hisname was Christ ian Kunth . He is said t o have possessed an extraordinary knowledge of German

,Lat in

,

and French lit erature,and t o have been deeply read in

ph ilo sophy and history. He taught William the lan

guages,and Al exander the nat ural sciences . One

studied Man in classic ant iquity and art,the o ther the

World in its manifold forms and appearances. It se ems

strange,no t to say impo ssible , for children of e ight and

ten to pursue such profound studies,but we mus t

remember that these were no t common ch ildren.

Norwas their teacherKunth a common man . Had hebeen he would have stopped here . But having sense as

well as learning,he to ok care of the ir bodie s as we ll as

the ir m inds. Inst ead of merely cramming them withbooks unt il they became unwho lesome monst ro sit ies

,

mental p atés dc foie g ras, he gave the ir thought s and

limbs fre e play,in the wind

,and dew ,

and sunshine .

They had ho lidays whenever they needed them ; longwalks with Kunth in the woods and fields ; sails on theblue bosom Of the Tege l lake ; excursions to the fortressof Spandau

,and now and then a flying v isit to Berlin.

GOE’

I’HE AT TEGEL . 9

Or they threw aside their books, and ran Off by themselves

,like the children they were

,and romped and

played t o their h eart s’ cont ent . This kept the ro se s Ofhealth in the ir cheeks (Alexander

’s as yet were de licatebuds), and enabled them to

b ear the ir weig h tOf learning lig h tly, lik e a flower.

But for this it migh t have been a nightshade of deadlypower. Beside s

,the ir life was diversified by the coming

and go ing of visitors : for their father was hospit able,

and the cast le was always Open to his friends. Re tir ingfrom the world with honor

,the world sought him

,in

the Shape of its princes,statesmen

,and scho lars

,t o say

no thing Of generals, co lonels, and the like , his Old com

panions in arms . Among o ther celebrit ies who enjoyedthe ho spitalit ies ofTege l was Goe the

,who accompanying

Duke Karl August t o Berlin inMay 1 7 7 8 , t o see a grand

review,stro lled over Schonhausen one morning and

dined at the cast le,with the Maj or and his family .

Lit t le did the man of thirty know that he saw in the

b oy of nine,one who was dest ined t o accomplish as

much in Science,as he h imse lf in Lit erature . But the

t ime came when he knew him,and admired him

,non e

more warmly.

Among the most frequent of the visitors at the cast le

was Dr. Ernst Ludwig He im,of Spandau, who , having

at tended the now officially-defunct head-ranger, V on

Burgsdorf,cont inued his visits

,medical and friendly, t o

nis succ essor,Maj or V on Humbo ldt . And the major

stood in need of his services,for his health, which had

1 96

10 DR . HE IM.

been broken for some t ime,now began to fail rapidly .

Day after day Dr. He im might have been seen on horseback

,with his saddle -bags full ofmedicine

,rounding the

stre tch of land be twe en Spandau and Tege l . But he

could do lit t le for the shat tered const itut ion and the

sixty years of his pat ient . He died in January 1 7 79,and was buried at Tege l .Aft er the maj or’s death Dr. Heim cont inued to come

as usual,no t now bringing medicine

,let us hope

,b ut

with a book under his arm for Kunth,or possibly for

William and Alexander. Or perhaps it was a rare

flower from his conservat o ry. For as long ag o as thedays Of V on Burgsdorf he was no t ed for his knowledgeof fore ign t re es and plants

,and he helped the head

ranger t o lay out the nurseries and plant at ions,which

the Humbo ldt s were now enj oying. He would drop innear the ir dinner hour

,and be ing pressed would remain

t o dinner,and Oft en for hours aft er

,instruct ing the boys

in bo tany,and explaining t o them the twenty-four classes

of the syst em Of Linnaeus . They could now know thenames

,classe s

,and charact erist ics Of the flowers

,wh ich

they had before admired ignorant ly. William was con

sidered the cleverest,because he could easily compre

hend the doctor’s lessons,and re tain the bo tan ical name s

Alexander was no t,or did no t seem

,SO apt . The

bro thers went with the doct or in his excursions aboutthe ne ighbourhood

,and in May 1 7 8 3 , were present with

him in Spandau,where

_they saw Frederick the Great

reviewing his grenadiers— one of his annual amuse

merit s.But grand reviews

,country excursions

,after-dinner

chat s on bo tany,and the co sy comforts of home

, must

AT SCHOOL IN BERLIN . 11

soon come to an end. For though the widowed mo therlives only in her Ch ildren

,she knows that they must

one day b e men,and g o out into the world. So the best

th ing they can do is to g o to Berlin,and pursue the ir

studies,and enlarge the ir experiences . To Berlin they

g o .

They are instructed in Greek and the modern lan

guages,William having great philo logical talent

,while

Alexander,who se love of the natural science s grows with

his growth,cont inues the study of botany under the

ce lebrat ed bo tanist Wildenow. Kunth,who accompanies

them,engages Engel

,Kle in

,Dohn

,and o thers to give

them comple te courses of lectures on ph ilosophy,law

and po lit ical economy. Nor do they neglect the litera~

ture of their own land and t ime . They read Go ethe andSch iller toge ther. William prefers Wert er

,

”and “ Don

Carlo s,

”and their art -writings ; Alexander, while he ad

mires these,prefers Go ethe ’s more abstruse researches in

natural history. SO passes t he t ime,now in the bust le

of the capital,and now in the quie t of the o ld cast le at

home . Dear Old Tege l ! it is doubly dear to them now.

For there the ir mo ther lives,and there lies their dead

father’s dust .In 1 78 6 they commenced the ir academical life in the

University of Frankfort on the Oder,where they re

mained nearly two years,Will iam devo t ing h imself t o

the study of law,and Alexander t o po lit ical economy.

In 1 7 8 8 they removed to the University ofGo t t ingen.

The name of this Universitywill remind the reader ofEnglish comic poe try

,of Canning’s famous song in the

burlesque drama,

“ The Rovers.”

1 2 BLUMENBACII.

Whene ’er w ith hag g ard eyes Iv iewThis dung eon that I

’

m ro t t ing in,Ithink of those companions true ,Who studied with me at the U

-niv ersity ofGo t ting en,-niv ersity ofGo t ting en.

The stanzas are quizzical enough,but the Unrversrty

itself was a staid,grave place

,full of earnest students

,and

learned professors. Among the lat ter we may mention‘

three who were celebrated in their different branches ofliterature and science

,and who helped to mould the

minds ofWilliam and Alexander. These were Blumenbach

,Heyne

,and Eichhorn . Eichhorn ,

the profe ssorofArabic

,was a profound scho lar

,especially in biblical

literature,ofwh ich he may b e considered the historian.

He filled the chair ofTheo logy. In the chair ofArchaeo logy sat Christian Go tt lob Heyne

,a venerable man of

sixty,who had risen from the lowest circumstance s by

the force of his will,and his talent s. His sp ecialitewas

c lassic bibliography. He edit ed Homer,Pindar

,Diodo

rus Siculus,Epicte tus

,Virgil

,Tibullus

,and o ther Greek

and Roman authors,great and small

,enriching their text

with learned commentarie s. When the Humbo ldts b ecame his scho lars he was busy making out a catalogue ofthe Immense library Of the University .

Last was Johann Frederic Blumenbach,profe ssor of

physio logy and comparat ive anatomy. Passionate ly att ached t o science all his life

,which by the way was

nearly as long as that ofhis famous pupil,Humbo ldt

,his

love of anatomy commenced at the early ag e of t en,from

accidentally see ing a skele ton in the house of one of his

father’s friends,a physician of course . He soon had a

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1 4 TRIBUTE TO HIS MEMORY.

accompanied Captain Cook as a naturalist in that great

navigator’s second voyage round the world . Afterwards pro fessor of natural history in Hesse Cassell

,and

at Wilna,he was now Spending the summer With his

wife at the house of his father-in-law,Heyne . He had

writ t en several works on natural history,geography

,

philosophy,and polit ics

,besides a history of his voyage

round the world. Writ ing of Forster in 1 844,more

than fifty years after his death,Humbo ldt paid the

fo llowing tribut e t o his memory :Through him began a new era of scient ific voyages

,

the aim of which was to arrive at a knowledge of the

comparat ive h istory and geography ofdifferent count ries.Gifted with delicat e esthe t ic feelings

,and re taining a

vivid impression of the pictures with which Tahiti andthe o ther then happy islands of the Pacific had filled hisimaginat ion

,as in recent t imes that of Charles Darwin

,

George Forster was the first t o depict in pleasing co lorsthe changing stages ofvege tat ion, the relat ions of climateand of art icles of fo od in their influence on the civilizat ion of mankind, according to differences of original descent and habitat ion. All that can give truth

,individu

ality,and

’

dist inct ivene ss to the delineat ion of exo t icnature is united in his works. We trace

,no t only in his

admirable descript ion of Cook’s second voyage of discov ery, b ut st ill more in his smaller writ ings, the germof that richer fruit which has since matured .

Such was George Forster,who

,afterC ampe , was the

ch ief instrument in determining the future life of Alexander V on Humboldt . They were fast friends duringthe short period of the ir int ercourse in Go t t ingen

,and

all the t ime they could spare from the ir customary

DRE AMS OF TRAVEL. 1 5

dut ies,was Spent in each o ther

’s soc iety. What conversations they must have had of that ev entful j ourneyround the world

,and what schemes they planned for

the future ! The act ive imaginat ion of the young student,

fresh from the reading of wonderful adventures in ‘

the

NewWorld,the chronicle s of Vasco Nunes de Balboa

,

Pizarro,and the rest of those grand o ld Spaniards

,was

fired with the thought of making new voyages and dis

cov eries,wh ich sho uld cast the old ones for ever in the

shade . Voyag e s in the long swe ll of t ropic seas,under

const ellat ions that never shine t o European eyes : sailingalong the dim outlines of the west ern cont inent

,dark

with the long be lt of the pathless forests,or ragged with

the peaks of inland mountains,capped with e ternal

snow : or up great rivers a thousand leagues in length ,on

,on

,int o the heart of th e New World

,the primeval

so litudes ofNature ! The best hours of a man’s life are

tho se that he wastes in dreams,and happy is he who

can make them true,as Humbo ldt did.

But this was recreat ion rather than study,and as he

went t o the University t o study,a graver mood soon

succeeded. The University was rich in scientific co lleet ions

,none ofwhich were neglected by the earnest young

student . When no t at t ending the lectures of Blum en

bach and Heyne,which were generally given in’

the ir

own houses,he pursued his researche s and experiment s

in the University Museum . To -day in th e laboratoryamong its vials and crucibles

,t e st ing acids and gases,

or in the bo tanic gardens,theorizing over tropic plants

and t rees : t o -morrow in the anat omical room,sur

rounded by cast s and models ; and many a long nightin the observatory unwinding the dances of the stars .

1 6 Too LATE To WR ITE OF HIS YOUTH.

William meanwh ile was deep in the philosophy ofKant,

and the esthe tic speculat ions of Goe the and SchillerOccasionally the bro thers stro lled through the city

,arm

in arm. Led on by the ir vagrant fancies they wouldcross into the marke t -place to watch the fountain splash~

ing its broad basin ; lounge on the bridge and lo ok at

the boat s below ; or quickening the ir steps they wouldhast en t o the rampart s

,and saunt er up and down the

shaded avenue of lime trees . If the day was beaut iful,they wandered out of the city gat e s into the fert ilevalleys beyond

,and perhaps clomb the Hainberg before

they re turned .

So passed the ir university life . It ended in the autumnof 1 7 8 9 .

It is to b e regret ted that we have no fuller account ofthe you th of Humbo ldt

,for if there is anything interest

ing in the life of a great man like him,it is a minute

re lat ion of his youth. We want a living record of hissayings and do ings in the duct ile period of his genius :even his sport s, if we can recover no thing be t t er

,will

give us some insight int o his character. We have presented

,as the reader will perce ive

,the merest ske let on

of the first twenty years of Humbo ldt ’s life . He mavclo the it with flesh

,if he pleases

,we can do no more .

Nor can o thers at this late day. It is easy to writ e thebiographie s of those who die young

,they leave so many

beh ind who reco llect all that we desire to know ; butwhen a man of genius lives t o the ag e of ninety

,as

Humbo ldt did,and leaves no auto -biography

,the swee test

t ime ofhis life is lost,

“ In the dark backward and abysm ofTime .

CHAPTER II.

STUDIES AND DREAMS.

IN the summer of 1 789,Campe

,who had been for

some years canon and council lor in Brunswick,deter

mined t o make a trip to Paris,to b e present at the

funeral ofFrench despo t ism,and it was deemed advisable

forWilliam t o accompany him. They arrived in Parison the 3d ofAugust . No t be ing fort unate enough whilethere to fo llow Tyranny to its grave

,Campe revenged

his disappo intment by do ing what mo st authors woul dhave done in his place— he wro t e patrio t ic le t ters in

favor of the revo lut ion,and at tracted much at t ention.

Alexander remained behind,probably at Go t t ingen

, pur

suing his favori te studies, and constant ly correspondingwith Forster

,who was then at Mayence

,where he was

councillor and librarian of the University. The plan of

the great transat lantic journey,formed a year or two b e

fore,was laid aside for a t ime

,in o rder that he might

study what was then a new science— Geo logy. He wasdeep in the writ ings of the then celebrat ed geo logist

,

Abraham Go t t lob Werner.

In his peculiar department of science Werner was um

doubtedly the mo st remarkable man of his t ime . The

son of a poor iron-worker,he commenced his career as a

1 8 WERNER,TnE GEOLOGIS

'

I.

mineralogist in the Mineralogical Academy of Freyberg,before he was out ofhis t eens . From thence he went t oLeipsic

,where he busied himself in defining the ext ernal

character of minerals,experiment ing

,and eventually

,in

1 7 74,publish ing a work on the subj ect . Up to that

t ime the descript ive language of mineralogist s had beent oo indefinit e t o convey accurate informat ion

,or to eu

able those of different countries t o understand each o ther.

After publishing this work,which vvas long a manual

,

Werner re turned to the Mineralogical Academy at Freyberg

,and to ok charge of its noble cabine t of natural

history . He lectured on mineralogy,and the art ofmin

ing , rendering the lat ter int elligible t o all,by his simpli

fication of the machinery,and his drawings and figures.

His cabine t ofminerals was unrivalled for its comple t eness and arrangement

,numbering one hundred th ousand

specimens . He wro t e largely in the scient ific reviews ofthat day, the reading of which probably drew the at t en

t ion of Humbo ldt towards him . He contribut ed moret o ext end the pract ical knowledge of mineralogy thanany one who preceded him

,although his method of

classifying minerals according to the ir external charact eristics

,inst ead of the ir int ernal essences

,if w e may use

the phrase , was rather empirical than scient ific. Hisgeo logy

,too

,was shallow . His observat ions were made

on the limited port ion of the earth’s surface in his own

vicinity,and the ' succession of ro ck-format ions which he

found there,extended

,he reasoned

,over the who le sur

face of the globe . A wider range of observat ion wouldhave shown him

,that at a lit tle distance from Freyberg

,

many ofhis supposed universal ro ck-format ions were no tto b e found

,and that o ther ro cks supply the ir pl

HUMBOLDT’S FIR ST BOOK. 1 9

But as he was obst inat e in his theory he remained ig norant of this fact . He contended for the aqueous format ion of almo st every kind of ro ck

,the Neptunic theory

as it was called,maintaining that even pumice st one was

the product ion of wat er. He would no t visit,however

,

the vo lcanic district s of Italy,and the ancient vo lcano e s

ofFrance,fearing perhaps that he might b e led t o aban

don,his first theory— a common fault of scientific men .

St ill,considering the t ime in which he lived

,and the

lit t le that was then known of the t rue format ion of the

earth,Werner was ent it led to much credit

,and is st ill

honorably ment ioned as a pioneer in science . He raisedthe art ofm ining into th e science of geo logy.

Such was Abraham Go t tlob Werner,over who se mul

t ifarious writ ings Alexander was now poring. Thatthey made a deep impression on him may b e gatheredfrom the fact that we find him

,in company with his

friend Forster, in the Spring of 1 7 90, making a mineralo g ical j ourney. The ir rout e was t o the Rh ine

,through

Ho lland,and to England . While in England Forst er

introduced him to Sir Jo seph Banks,the famous Presi

dent of the Royal Socie ty . Humbo ldt studied the rockformat ions of the countrie s through wh ich he passed

,

especially the basalt ic ro cks of the Rhine,and embodied

the result in a small work which was published in that

year. It was ent it led,

“ Mineralogical Observat ions onsome Basalt ic Format ions of the Rhine

,and was in

t ended to support the Neptunic theory of Werner.

Fo rst er co llect ed mat erials for his mag num op us,“ The

Views of the Lower Rhine .

” In the meant ime William ,

who had re turned from Paris,vibrat ed betwe en Erfurt ,

where he and the beaut iful daugh ter of the president .

2 0 DAYBOOK AND LEDGER .

V on Dacheroden,to whom he was betro thed

,were per

fec ting themse lves in the art of Love,andWeimar

,the

residence of Schiller,with whom he was int imate .

Alexander sympathized with his bro ther in the cha

rac ter which he was then playing in the delightful drama

of lif e,but showed no inclinat ion t o appear in the same

role himse lf. It was no t that he loved woman and so

cie ty less, but that he loved solitude and wisdom more .

Besides,had he no t his great transatlantic journey to

‘

make ? To do this properly it was necessary that heShould have a more thorough worldly training. So

while William,who was appo inted councillor of lega

t ion,and assessor t o the court of Berlin

,went thither to

familiarize himself with his dut ies,after wh ich he in

t ended t o marry,Alexander

,choo sing the department

of finance,set off for Hamburg

,and ent ering the Com

mercial Academy of Busch and Ebeling,studied the

pract ical part of book-keeping. Ere long he was initiat ed into its mysterie s ; but beyond the sense of sat isfact ion which the performance of a duty always gives

,

we suspect that he found no delight in them. Evident lyhe preferred the leaves of flowers

,luminous with the

hand-writ ing of Nature , to the leaves of his day-books

and ledgers,with the ir long rows of black figures

,and

the ir mono tonous horizons of red lines. And instead ofworshipping go ld and silver, as a true bo ok-keeperwouldhave done

,he had a scient ific weakness for the le ss pre

cions me tals . He st ill pursued his mineralogical andbo tanical studies; Indeed

,he was so fond of the lat ter

,

that he would oft en take a t ramp in mid wint er t o

gather the mosses

’

which only grow at that time .

His stay in Hamburg was short . For in addit ion to

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2 2 DIRE CTOR OF MINES.

His duties were many and arduous,for in addit ion to

his scient ific labours,he superint ended the erect ion of

public inst itut ions in these districts. Bayreuth is dividedinto two parts

,Oberland and Unterland. The former

,

which came more immediately under his supervision, isa hilly region

,intersect ed by branches of the great

Fichte lberg,and rich in mines of iron and o therminerals.

Humboldt Spent a considerable part of his time in j ourneying over the country

,visit ing the various mines

,and

direct ing the operat ions of the miners. He descendedinto the mines for the purpose of making observat ionson the fungi that grew in the shafts

,or

,pursuing his

j ourneys,he bo tanized by the way. If the region was

mountainous he studied the rock-format ions,and speen

lated on the Neptunic theory of his t eacher,Werner.

Busy as he must h ave been at this t ime he wro te large lyfor the scient ific journals and periodicals, contribut ing t othem the result Of his experiment s on the physical andchemical laws of me tallurgy

,and on the suscept ibility

of plant s,the ir modes of nourishment

,co lour

,e tc . He

also published a work of local bo tany,— a

“ Flora of

Cryptogamic Plant s in the Ne ighbourhood ofFreyberg,

and dedicat ed it t o his former t eacher,Wildenow.

In 1 7 94: he accompanied the provincial minister, V onHardenberg

,on a po lit ical mission to the Rhine . He

also made several t ours’

through the Alp district s andSilesia

,and an official trip int o the province of Prussia

and Po land. No t being able ye t t o begin his great j ourney he cont ented himself with the se small ones— Sligh tstudies as it were for the great pict ure that was t o b e .

In 1 7 95 he resigned his situat ion as director of mines,and went to Vienna

,where he renewed his passion for

DEATH OF HIS MOTHER . 2 3

bo tany,studying t o great advantage an excellent collee

t ion of exo t ic plant s which he found there , and enjoying

the so ciety of the geo logist Freiesleb en . He also studiedgalvan ism

,and made a varie ty of int eresting experi

ment s. He planned an excursion into Swit zerland withFreiesleb en

,but po stponed it to mak e an Italian j ourney.

The war,which was then raging

,confined him to Upper

It aly,SO that he was obliged to return without v isit ing

the vo lcanic regions of Naples and Sicily.

Short ly before leaving Bayreuth he had rec eived alet ter from his bro therWilliam,

who,having fin ished his

réle as a lover,had now assumed that of a husband

,

t elling him that the health of the ir mo ther was failing.

She is il l at Tege l,the le t ter ran— (it was dat ed in June,

1 795)— b ut we,William and Caro line

,will remain with

h er unt il the spring. On his re turn from Italy ano ther

le t t er reached him— one of tho se mournful le t ters wh ichevery man so oner or lat er rece ives. It bore the escutcheon of death— a black seal . There was a new graveat Tegel . His mo ther was dead.

In the beginning of the year 1 797 he went to Jena,where his bro therW

'

illiam was then residing. Here hefound Freiesleb en and Goethe . Go ethe was so muchin terest ed in his studie s in anatomy that he devo t ed therest of his stay in Jena t o that science . On his re turn to

We imar he wro te to Schiller : “ I have spent the t imewith Humbo ldt agreeably and usefully : my natural hist ory studies have be en roused from the ir wint er Sleep byhis presence . And Sch iller wro te back sho rt ly after :Although the who le family of Humbo ldt

,down to the

servant,lie ill with ague

,they st ill speak only of g reat

journeys.”

2 4 LE OPOLD VON BUCH.

But sick or well,Humbo ldt ’s studies went on. He con

tinued his experiment s on galvanism,turn ing his at ten

t ion ch iefly t o the laws of muscular irritat ion,and the

dispo sit ion of the nerves of living animals when underthe galvanic influence . He wro te a work on the subject

,

“ Experiments on Nervous and Muscular Irritat ion,

”and

sent it to his old teacher,Blumenbach

,who published it

for him,with no tes and comments ofhis own.

The bro thers went to Berlin in May to se t t le the familyinheritance

,previous to making a journey t ogether in to

Italy. William’s share was the Old cast le at Tegel,Alex

ander’s the estate of Ringenwalde,in Neumark. He

so ld it to the po e t Franz V on Kle ist , to raise the necessary funds for his great journey.

The unse t t led state of affairs in Italy prevent ing thecontemplated journey

,William and his family determined

to _ proceed to Paris. Al exander went with them as faras Saltzb urg , where he was induced to stay awhile byhis friend Leopo ld V on Buch . Buch

,who had j ust pub

lished a scientific work,Out lines ofa Mineralogical De

script ion of Landeck,

” had been,as the reader remem

bers,one of his fellow-students in the Mineralogical

Academy at Freyberg,and was like him a believer in

the Nep tunic theory ofWerner. Humboldt afterwardscalled him “

the great est geologist ofthe ag e .

” A scient ifictrip was proposed

,and the pair started off on foot

,armed

with the ir geo logical hammers,and a change of linen.

They travelled through several cantons ofSaltzb urg , andStyria

,and reached the Tyrolese Alps. While on this

Bohemian trip Humboldt made the acquaintance ofLordBristol

,an English nobleman

,who had visited the coasts

of Greece and Illyria,and had planned an expedit ion

PROJECTED VISIT TO E GYPT. 2 5

to Upper Egypt . The party were t o b e provided withastronomical instruments and able draughtsmen

,and

were to ascend the Nile as far as Assouan,after examin

ing mrnut ely th e po sit ions of the Said be tween Tentyrisand the cataract s. The expedit ion was t o o ccupy eightmonths. Humbo ldt consent ed t o jo in it

,on condit ion

that he should b e allowed to cont inue the j ourney overPalest ine and Syria

,and went t o Paris t o make the

necessary preparat ions.He arrived at Paris in the spring Of 1 798

,and was

warmly welcomed by his bro therWilliam,whose house

was a rallying point for all his educat ed countrymen .

The family led a pleasant life during t he ir stay in thecapital : gave dinner parties

,e sthe t ic teas

,e tc .

,and eu

joyed themse lve s at the Parisian theatres. “ The comedy,

”

wro t e Frau V on Humbo ldt,

“ is excellent .

“ My litt leone s wo uld please you . Caro line grows very amiable ;She is delicate , and has a rare de g ree of sent imentality

,

perfect ly natural,however

,as you may imagine . Her

bro therWilliam is handsome,much more rough

,very

naughty,self-willed

,and ye t exceedingly good-natured .

Theodore is the mo st amiable child I ever saw : he is

sto ut,and almo st fat

,and ye t looks slender ; his lit t le

face has an expre ssion of merriment,and ye t his glance

seems to indicate some th ing more profound . His eyesare as if you gaze into the heavens . The whit e in themis quite blue

,and the eyeball brown . His hair is light

,

and his mouth the pre t t iest I ever saw in a child . If

you could see the b oy he would make a foo l of you, as

he do e s ofme .

”

The Humbo ldts were surrounded by ce lebrit ies of all

sorts,artist s

,poets

,stat esmen

,and savans. Among

2

2 6 BAUDIN’S EXPEDITION .

o thers who patronised them was the celebrated Madamede S tael , who calledWilliam,

who had praised her workshighly

,it is scarcely necessary t o say, la. p lus g mnde

cap acz’

té(Ze Z’

Europ e. Had the flat tering Corinne christ ened Alexander so

,she would no t have been far from the

t ru th .

The po lit ical aspect of Europe destroyed the plan of

the Egyp tian journey,as it

’

had already done the Italianone

,and Lord Bristo l having been arrested at Milan

,it

was given up . Ano ther scheme,however

,was so on set

afoo t,for Humbo ldt now learned that the Nat ional Mu

seum of France was preparing an expedit ion under thecommand ofCaptain Baudin . The purpo se of this expedit ion was t o v isit the Spanish po ssessions ofSouth America

,

from the mouth of the river Plata,t o the kingdom of

Quito and the isthmus of Panama. It was to visit thearchipelago of the Pacific

,explore the coast s of New

Ho lland,from V an Dieman

’s Land t o that of Nuyts,

after wh ich the ve ssels were t o stop at Madagascar,and

re turn by the Cape of Go od Hope . Humbo ldt had b utlit t le confidence in Baudin

,who had given cause of dis

cont ent t o the court Of Vienna when he was commissioned t o conduct t o Brazil the bo tanist

,V an der Scho t t ;

b ut as he could no t hope with his own resources to makea voyage Of such ext ent

,he de t ermined t o t ake the

chances of the expedit ion. He Obtained permission to

embark,with his instrument s

,in one of the vessels

dest ined for the South Sea,re serving to h imself the

right t o leave Captain Baudin whenever he thought proper. Michaux and Bonpland were to accompany the

expedit ion as naturalists .

The war breaking out afresh in Italy and Germany,

AIME BONPLAND . 2 7

and the French go vernment needing the funds for something more so lid than science

,it was postponed to an

indefinite pe riod. Truly th is was the pursuit of travelunder difficult ies .It is an ill wind however that blows nobody good.

The failure of the expedit ion was no interrupt ion to the

friendship wh ich Humbo ldt had formed with Bonpland.

Aimé Bonpland,the naturalis t

,then ! in his twenty-fifth

yEéTTW’

iS’

f-

ifitiv e of Rochelle,France . His father was

a physician,and he studied the same pro fession

,b ut the

revo lut ionary authorit ies g o t ho ld ofhim before he couldfinish his studie s

,and made him a surgeon on a man

of-war. When peace was resto red he went t o Paris,and

became a pupil of the ce lebrated Corvisart,who had

established a clinical schoo l at the ho spital OfLa Charité .It was at this t ime that Humbo ldt and he me t . Theywere friends at once . Understanding anatomy and

bo tany bet t er than Humbo ldt did,he gave him further

instruct ions in those studies,rece iving from him in

exchange a knowledge ofnatural h istory andmineralogy.

Humbo ldt ’s friendsh ip with Bonpland, the so cie ty that

he me t at the ho use ofhis bro therWill iam,and his own

scientific attainments soon int roduced him . to the no tice

of the naturalists and math emat icians of Paris. Hemingled with the most eminent French savans as their

equal . He pursued his experim ents before and after the

failure of the expedit ion Of Baudin,working in concert

with Gay Lussac, ofwhom more hereafter, with whom heundertook eudiome tri c investigations of the chemicalanalysis of the atmosphere . The resul t Of the ir labors

was embodied in a joint product ion,

“ Re searche s on theCompo sit ion of the Atmosphere .

” He also wro te a

2 8 STARTS FOR AFR ICA.

work on subterranean gas es,the fruit of his experience

in the mines ofBayreuth and Anspach .

In the autumn there was a pro spect of ano ther expe

dit ion . The Swedish consul,Skioldebrand

,was at Paris

on his way to embark at Marse illes,on a special mission

from his government with present s to the Dey of

Algiers . He had resided a long t ime on the coast ofAfrica

,and being highly respected by the government

of Algiers,he could

,he thought

,easily procure permis

sion for Humboldt to visit the chain Of the At las mountains. A port ion of these mountains had been visitedby M. Desfontaines ; b ut no mineralogist had ye t ex

amined them. Be sides this inducement the consuldespatched every year a vessel for Tunis

,where the

pilgrims embarked for Mecca,and he promised Hum

bo ldt t o convey him by this means to Egypt . The

Opport unity was too good t o b e lo st . Humbo ldt com

plet ed his co llect ion of instrument s,and purchased works

relat ing t o the countries he intended t o visit , and biddingadieu t o his bro ther

,and Frau Caro line

,no t forge t t ing

the del icat e Caro line,j unior

,the handsome but naughty

William,and the amiable Theodore with his blue eyes

and light hair,he repaired to Marse illes with his friend

Bonpland. They impat ient ly awaited the Swedishfrigat e

,which was expect ed at the end of October ;

several t imes a day they climbed the mountain of No treDame de la Garde

,which commands an extensive ou t

look on the Mediterranean,eagerly watching every sail

on the horizon . Two months passed,and no frigate

came . The papers at length informed them that she had

suffered severely in a storm on the coast of Portugal,

and had been obliged t o enter the port of Cadiz to refit .

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80 CORUNNA.

last . “ Never,says Humbo ldt

,

“ had so extensive a

permission been granted t o any traveller, and never"

had

any fore igner been hono red by more confidence on the

part of the Spanish government .”

The savans of Madrid offered the trave llers greatinducements to stay awhile among them . Don CasimirOrtega

,the abbé Pourre t

,and the learned authors Of the

Flora of Peru Opened to them their rich co llect ions.They examined part of the recent ly discovered plants of

Mexico,from drawings wh ich had been sent to the

Museum of Natural History of Madrid,and obtained

from the chemist Proust,and the mineralogist Herg en,

some curious de tails of the mineral substances of

America. They could have Spent a long t ime usefullyas well as pleasant ly in the Spanish capital

,but bearing

in mind the ir previous disappo intments they departedabout the middle of May, en route for Corunna

,from

whence they intended t o embark for Cuba. They

cro ssed a part of Old Cast ile and the kingdoms Of Leonand Galicia. The snow st ill covered the lofty granit ic

tops of the Guadarama,b ut in the deep valleys ofGalicia

the rocks were clo thed with cistuses and arborescent

heaths. Pursuing his geo logical researches on the wayHumbo ldt examined the mountains be tween Astorga

and Corunna,and found that many of them were com

posed of graywacke . Near Corunna he came upongranit ic ridge s wh ich contained tin ore .

Arriving at Corunna they sought Don Raphae lClavijo

,the superint endent of the dockyards

,to whom

they had recommendat ions from the Span ish minister,

and the chief secretary of stat e . He advised them to

embark on board the frigate Pizarro,which was soon to

FAREWELL LETTERS. 3 1

sail for Cuba,in company with the Al cudia

,the packet

boat Of the month of May, wh ich had be en de tained byan English fle e t

,th en blockading the port in order t o cut

off the communicat ion be tween Spain and her co lon ies.They concluded to fo llow his advice

,and arrangements

were made to rece ive the ir instruments on board the

Pizarro . Don Raphae l o rdered the captain t o st op at

Tenerifi'

e,as long as Humbo ldt should de em necessary

,

that the trave llers might visit the port of Oro tava,and

ascend the peak.

It was t en days before the ir instruments were em

barked and the ve sse l was ready to sail . They spentthat t ime in preparing the plant s that they had co llect edin the beaut iful valleys of Galicia

,which they were the

firs t naturalist s to explore,and in examining the fuci and

mo llusca,which the northwest winds had cast on the

rocks. Cro ssing from Corunna to Ferre l,a lit tle town

on the o ther po int of the b ay, they made several experiment s on the temperature of the o cean

,by means of a

valved thermome trical sounding lead,and found that

the neighborhood Of a sand bank is revealed before thelead can b e made use of

,by the quick decrease in the

t emperature of the wat er,and that the seaman can there

fore perce ive the approach of danger much sooner bythe thermometer than by the lead.

The t ime of depart ure drawing near Humbo ldt wro tefarewell let t ers to his fii ends in Germany and Paris.As before leaving Paris he had agree d with Captain

Baudin,that if the expedit ion for discoverie s in the

Pacific,wh ich seemed t o b e adj ourned for several years,

Should take place at an earlier peri od,he would endeavor

to return from Alg iers and j o in it,at some port in

3 2 OFF AT LAST !

France or Spain ; he now wro te him that if the government persisted in sending him by Cape Horn, he wouldmee t him at Montevideo

,Ch ili

,or Lima

,or wherever

else he Should touch in the Spanish co lonies. This .

done he was ready t o bid the Old World adieu .

The English squadron was st ill off the harbor,but a

storm coming up on the 5th Of June,it was obliged to

quit the coast,and make for the Open sea. They se ized

the Opportunity and se t sail,cheered by a pleasing

prophecy,from those who saw the Pizarro we igh anchor

,

that they would certainly b e captured in thre e days .They sail ed at two o

’clo ck in the afterno on. The windwas contrary

,and they made several tacks before they

could g et out of the harbor. A t half-past six theypassed the lighthouse of Corunna

,the famous Tower of

Hercules. At sunse t the wind increased,and the sea

ran high . The shores of Europe lessened in the dis

tance . The last thing they saw that night was the lightof a fish ing hut at Sisarg a. It faded. The land disappeared. The sea was before them

,the wide waste Sea l

CHAPTER I.

THE SEA.

AT sun set on the th ird day they saw from the masthead an English convoy

,sailing along the coast

,and

steering t owards the southeast . To avo id it they alteredthe ir course . From that moment no light was allowedin the great cabin

,for fear of their be ing seen at a dis

tan ce . Humbo ldt and Bonpland were obliged to makeuse of dark lanterns to examine the temperature Of thewater.

From the t ime of the ir sailing unt il they reached the3 6th degree of lat itude they saw no organic be ings

,ex

cept sea swallows and do lphins ; they even lo oked invain for sea-weeds and mollusca. On the Sixth dayhowever they ent ered a zone where the waves were co

vered with a prodigious quant ity of medusae . The sea

was nearly becalmed,but the medusae were bound

towards the south -east,with a rapidity four times greater

than that of the current .Between the island ofMade ira and the coast ofAfrica,

they had slight breezes and dead calms,which were

favorable for the magne t ic observat ions that o ccupiedHumboldt during the passage . The trave llers were

never wearv of admiring the beauty of the nights ;

3 6 NIGIIT SCENE .

no th ing could b e compared to the transparency and

serenity of the African Sky. They were struck with theinnumerable quant ity of falling stars

,which appeared at

every instant . The farther progress they made towardsthe south

,the more frequent was th is phenomenon

,espe

cially near the Canaries. Forty leagues east of the

island ofMade ira a swallow perched on the topsail yard.

It was so fat igued that it suffered i tse lf to b e caught bythe hand.

The Pizarro had orders t o touch at the isle of Lancero ta

,one of the seven great Canary Islands ; and at fiv e

in the afternoon of the 16th ofJune,that island appeared

so dist inctly in view that Humbo ldt was able to t ake the

angle of alt itude of a conic mountain,which towered

majest ically over the o ther summit s .The current drew them t oward the coast more rapidly

than they wished. As they advanced,they discovered

at first the island of Fort ev entura,famous for its nume

rous camels ; and a short t ime after saw the island ofLobo s in the channel wh ich separat ed Fortev enturafrom Lancero ta. They spent part of the night on deck .

The moon illumined the volcanic summit s of Lancero ta,the flanks Of wh ich

,covered with ashes

,reflected a Silver

light . Antare s threw out its resplendent rays near thelunar disk

,which was b ut a few degrees above the

horizon. The nigh t was beaut ifully serene and coo l .The phosphorescence of the ocean seemed to augmentthe mass of light diffused through the air. After midnight

,great black clouds rising behind the vo lcano

Shrouded at intervals the moon,and the beaut iful c on

ste llat ion of the Scorpion. They behe ld light s carriedto and fro on shore

,which were probably those of fish

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3 8 MOUNTAINS OF GRACIOSA.

himself opposite to a small fort,Situat ed north ofTeg uisa,

the capital of the island ofLancero ta. Mistaking a rockof basal t for a cast le

,he salut ed it by ho ist ing aSpanish

flag , and sent a boat with an officer to inquire of the

commandant whe ther any English vessels were cruisingin the roads . He was no t a lit t le surprised t o learn thatthe land wh ich he had considered as a pro longat ion of

the coas t of Lancero ta,was the small island of Gracio sa

,

and that for several leagues there was no t an inhabitedplace . Humboldt and Bonpland t ook advantage of the

boat to survey the land,which inclo sed a large b ay.

The small port ion of the island wh ich they traversedresembled a promontory of lava. The rocks were nakedwith no marks of vegetat ion

,and scarcely any of v eg e

table so il .They re-embarked at sunset

,and hoist ed sail

,b ut the

breeze was to o feeble to permit the Pizarro t o cont inueher course to Tenerifi

'

e . The sea was calm ; a reddishvapor covered the horizon

,and seemed to magnify

every object . In th is so litude,amidst so many uninha

bited isle ts,the travellers enjoyed fora long t ime the view

of rugged and wild scenery. The black mountains ofGracio sa

'

appeared like perpendicular walls five or six

hundred feet h igh . Their shadows,thrown over the

surface of the ocean,gave a gloomy aspect to the scenery.

Rocks of basalt,emerging from the bo som of the wat ers

,

wore the resemblance of the ruins of some vast edifice,

and carried the ir thoughts back to the remo te periodwhen submarine vo lcano es gave birth to new islands

,or

rent cont inents asunder. Everything which surroundedthem seemed to indicate destruct ion and sterility ; b utthe back-ground of the picture

,the co asts of Lancerota

,

DANGEROUS CURRENTS . 3 9

present ed a more smiling aspect . In a narrow passbetween two hills

,crowned with scat tered tufts of trees.

marks Of cult ivat ion were visible The las t rays of thesun gilded the corn ready for the sickle .

The captain of the Pizarro endeavored to g e t out of

this bay by the pass which separated Alegranza fromMontana Clara

,and through which he had easily entered

t o land at the northern po int Of Gracio sa. The windhaving fallen

,the current s drove the vesse l very near a.

rock, on which the sea broke with vio lence,and wh ich

was no te d in the old chart s under the name of Hell,or

Infierno . Examined at the distance of two cable s’ length,

this rock was fo und t o b e a mas s of lava,full of cavit ies

,

and covered w ith scoriae resembling coke .

As the vesse l was prevented by the fall of the wind,

and by the current s,from repassing the channel ofAl e

g ranza, the captain reso lved on tacking during the nightbe tween the island of Clara and the West Rock. Thisreso lution had nearly proved fatal . A calm was verydangerous near this rock

,towards wh ich the current

drove with considerable force . They began to fe el theeffects of this current at midnight . The proximity ofthe stony masses

,which ro se perpendicularly above the

water,deprived the vesse l of the lit t le wind which blew ;

She no longer obeyed the helm and they dreaded strikingevery instant .Th e wind having freshened a lit tle towards the morning

of the 1 8 th,they succeeded in passing the channel.

From the t ime Of the ir depart ure from Gracio sa thehorizon cont inued so hazy that they did no t discover

the island of Canary,notwithstanding the he igh t of its

mountains,till the evening of the 1 8 th . On the morning

4 0 A NARROW ESCAPE .

of the 19th,they discovered the po int ofNaga ; but the

land,obscured by a thick mist

,present ed forms that were

vague and confused . AS they approached the road ofSanta Cruz

,they Observed that the mist

,driven by the

winds,drew nearer to them . The sea was strongly ag i

tated,as it most commonly is in tho se lat itudes. The

vesse l anchored after several soundings,for the mist was

so thick that they coul d scarce ly dist inguish Obj ects at

a few cables’ distance ; but at the moment they began tosalute the place

,the fog was instant ly dispelled. The

peak ofTeyde appeared in a break above the clouds,and

the first rays of the sun,wh ich had no t ye t risen, illu

mined the summit of the vo lcano .

Humbo ldt and Bonpland hast ened to the prow of the

vesse l t o beho ld the mag nificent spectacle , and at the

same instant saw four English ve ssels lying to,and very

near the st ern. They had passed without being perce ived,and the same mist wh ich had concealed the peak fromtheir view

,had saved them from the risk ofbe ing carried

back t o Europe . The Pizarro stood in as clo se as possib le to the fort

,to b e under its protect ion. It was on this

Shore,that

,in the landing at tempted by the English

two years before,in July

,1 797

,the great Nelson had his

arm carried off by a cannon ball.Santa Cruz stands on a narrow and sandy beach . Its

house s,which are of dazzling wh it eness

,with flat roofs

,

and windows without glass, are buil t clo se against a wallof black perpendicular rock

,devo id of vegetation. A

fine mo le built of freestone,and the public walk planted

with poplars,are the only Objects which break the same

ness of the landscape .

The recommendation of the court of Madrid pro

SANTA CRUZ. 4 1

cured for them the most sat isfactory recept ion . The

captain-general gave them immediate permission to ex

amine the island,and Co l . Armiag a, who commanded a

regiment of infantry,rece ived them into his house with

great hospitality. They could no t enough admire the

banana,the papaw tree

,and o ther plant s

,which they

had hitherto seen only in ho t -houses,cul tivated in his

garden in the open air. In the e vening they went toherborize along the rocks

,but were lit t le satisfied with

their harvest,for the drought and dust had almo st de

stroyed vegetat ion. The few plant s that they saw,chiefly

succulent ones,wh ich draw the ir nourishment from the

air rather than the so il on which they grow,reminded

them by the ir appearance,that this group of islands b e

longed to Africa,and even t o the most arid part of that

arid continent .Though the captain of the Pizarro had orders to stoplong enough at Teneriffe to give the naturalist s time to

scale the summit of the peak,if the snows did no t prevent

their ascent,they received no t ice

,on account of the block

ade of the English ships,no t to expect longer delay

than four or fiv e days. They consequent ly has tenedtheir departure for the port Of Oro tava

,which was situ

ated on the western declivity of the vo lcano,where they

were sure of procuring guides ; for they could find no

one at Santa Cruz who had mounted the peak.

On the 2 oth of June,before sunrise

,they began the ir

excursion by ascending to the Villa de Laguna. The

road by which they ascended was on the right of a tor

rent,which in the rainy season formed fine cascades .

Near the town they me t some white camels. The townitself; at which they so on arrived

,was Situated in a

4 2 VILLA DE LAGUNA.

small plain,surrounded by gardens

,and pro tected by a

hil l which was crowned by a wo od of laurels,myrtle

,

and arbutus . It was encircled by a great number of

chapels . Shaded by tree s of perpe tual verdure,and

erect ed on small eminences,these chapels added t o the

picturesque effect of the landscape . The interior Of thet own was no t equal t o its external appearance . The

houses were so lidly built,but very ant ique

,and the

stree ts seemed deserted. Our bo tanist s,however

,did

no t complain of the ant iquity of the edifices,for the

roo fs and walls were covered with Canary house leek,

and e legant trichomanes.Before they reached Oro tava they visited

,at a lit t le

distance from the port,a bo tanic garden

,which had been

laid out at a great expense some years before by theMarquis de Nava. There they found M. Le Gros

,the

French vice -consul,who had often sealed the summit of

the peak,and who served them as a guide .

They began the ir ascent on the morning of the 2 l st .

M. Le Gro s,M. Lalande

,secretary to the French Consul

at e at Santa Cruz,and an English gardener at Durasno

,

jo ined them on this excursion. The day was no t fine,

for the summit of the peak,which was generally visible

at Oro tava from sunrise till ten o’clock

,was covered

with thick clouds.They passed along a lofty aqueduct

,lined with a great

number of fine ferns,and visited several gardens

,in

which the fruit tree s of the north of E urope werem ingled with orange trees

,pomegranate

,and date trees.

Here they saw the famous dragon t ree of M. Franqui.

Although they had been made acquainted with it, fromthe narrat ives of many trave llers

,they were no t the less

LLANO DEL RETAMA. 4 3

struck with its enormous mag nitude . They were t o ldthat the trunk of this tree

,wh ich is ment ioned in several

very ancient documents,was as gigant ic in the fifte enth

century as when they saw it . Its heigh t appeared to'

them to b e about fifty or sixty fee t ; its circumferencenear the roo ts was forty

ofiv e fe et . Th e trunk was dividedinto a g reat number of branches, wh ich ro se in the formof a candelabrum

,and were terminate d by tufts of leaves .

On leaving Oro tava,a narrow and stony pathway led

them throug h a beaut iful forest of chestnut trees to a sitecovered with brambles

,some Specie s of laurels

,and ar

b orescent heaths . The trunks of the lat ter grew t o an

extraordinary size,and were loaded with flowers . They

now stopped t o tak e in the ir provision ofwater under aso litary fir-tree .

They cont inued to ascend,t ill they cam e to the rock

ofLa Gayta and to Port illo : traversing th is narrow passbe tween two basaltic hills

,they entered the g reat plain

ofSpart ium . They spent two hours and a half in crossing the Llano del Re tama

,which appeared like an im

mense sea of sand .

AS far as the rock of Gayta, or the entrance of the

extensive Llano del Re tama,the peak of Teneriffe was

covered with be aut iful vegetation. There were no tracesof recent devastat ion. They might have imaginedthemse lves scaling the side of some volcano

,the fire of

which had been ext ing uished for centuries ; b ut scarce lyhad they reached the plain covered with pumice -st one

,

when the lands cape changed its aspect,and at every st ep

they me t w ith large blocks of Obsidian thrown out by the

vo lcano . Everything here Spoke perfect so litude . Afew goats and rabbits bounded acro ss the plain. The

4 4 NIGHT IN THE CAVERN.

barren region of the peak was nine square l eagues ; and

as the lower regions viewed from this po int re trograded

in the distance,the island appeared an immense heap of

torrefied mat ter, hemmed round by a scanty border of

vege tat ion.

From the Llano del Re tama they passed through nar

row defiles,and small ravines ho llowed at a very remo te

t ime by the torrents,first arriving at a more e levated

plain,then at the place where they intended t o pass the

night . This stat ion bore the name of the English Halt .Two inclined rocks formed a kind of cavern

,which

afforded a shelt er from the winds . Though in the midst

of summer,and under an African sky

,they suffered

from co ld during the night . The thermome ter descendedthere as low as t o The ir guides made up a large firewith the dry branches ofretama. Having ne ither t ent snor cloaks

,Humbo ldt and Bonpland lay down on some

masses of rock,and were incommoded by the flame and

smoke,which the wind drove towards them . They had

at tempt ed to form a kind of screen with clo ths t ied together

,b ut the ir inclo sure took fire

,which they did no t

perce ive t ill the greater part had been consumed by theflames. As the temperature diminished

,the peak became

covered with thick clouds. The approach ofnight int errup ted the play of the ascending current

,which

,during

the day, rose from the plains towards the high regionsof the atmo sphere ; and the air

,in coo l ing

,lost its capa

city of suspending water. A strong northerly windchased the clouds ; the mo on at intervals

,shoo t ing

through the vapours,exposed its disk on a firmament of

the darkest blue ; and the View of the vo lcano threw amajest ic character over the nocturnal scenery. Some

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4 6 A GRAND ILLUMINATION.

were like rocks amidst this vast sea of vapours,and the ir

black t ints were in fine contrast with the whiteness ofthe clouds.While they we re climbing over the broken lavas Of

the Malpays, they perce ived a very curious opt ical phenomenon

,which lasted some minutes . They thought

they saw on the east side small ro ckets thrown into theair. Luminous po int s

,about seven or e ight degrees

above the horizon,appeared first t o move in a vert ical

direction ; bu t their mo t ion was gradually changed intoa horizontal o scillat ion . Their fe llow-travellers

,the ir

guides even,were astonished at this phenomenon

,with

out either Humbo ldt o r Bonpland having made anyremark on it t o them . The travellers thought

,at first

Sight,that these luminous po ints

,wh ich floated in the

air,indicated some new erupt ion of the great vo lcano of

Lancero ta ; for they reco llec t ed that Bouguer and LaCondamrne

,in scaling the vo lcano of Pichincha

,were

witnesses of the erupt ion of Co topaxi . But the illusionsoon ceased

,and they found that the luminous po ints

were the images of several stars magnified by the vapours.These image s remained mo t ionless at int ervals

,they then

seemed to rise perpendicularly,descended Sideways

,and

re turned to the po int whence they had depart ed. Thismo t ion last ed one or two seconds . Though they had no

exact means of measuring the ext ent of the lateral sh ifting , they did no t the less dist inct ly observe the path of

the luminous po int . It did no t appear double from an

effect of mirage,and left no trace of light behind.

Bringing,with the t elescope of a small sextant

,the stars

into contact with the lofty summit Of a mountain in

Lancero ta,Humbo ldt observed that the o scillation was

ACROSS THE MALPAYS. 7

constant ly directed t owards the same po int,wh ich was

towards that part of the horizon wh ere the disk of

the sun was to appear ; and that making allowance forthe mo t ion of the star in its declinat ion

,the image re

t urned always to the same place . These appearance s

of lateral refract ion ceased long before daylight renderedthe stars quit e invisible .

The road,wh ich they were obliged t o clear for them

selves acro ss the Malpays, was extremely fat iguing. The

ascent was ste ep,and the blocks of lava ro lled from

beneath the ir fee t . At the peak the lava,broken into

sharp piece s,left holl ows

,in which th ey risked falling

up to the ir waists . Unfort unat ely the list lessness ofthe ir guides contribut ed t o increase the difficulty Of this

ascent . Models of the phlegmat ic,they had wished to

persuade Humboldt and Bonpland on the pre ceding

evening no t to g o beyond the station of the rocks . Everyt en minute s they sat down to re st themselves

,and when

unobserved they threw away the specimens of obsidianand pumice -sto ne

,wh ich the geo logists had carefully

co llected. They discovered at length that none of the

guides had ever visited the summit of the vo lcano .

After three hours ’ walking,they reached

,at the ex !

tremity of the Malpays, a small plain,called La Ram

ble ta,from the centre of which the Sugar-loaf to ok its

rise . They had yet to scale the steepest part of the

mountain,the Sugar-loaf

,wh ich formed the summit .

The Slope of this small cone,covered with vo lcanic

ashes,and fragments of pumice -stone

,was so ste ep

,that

it would have been almost impo ssible to reach the t ep,

had they not ascended by an old current of lava, the

deb ris ofwhich had resisted the ravage s of t ime . These

4 8 SUMMIT OF THE SUGAR-LOAF.

deb ris formed a wall of sco rious ro ck,which stretched

into the midst of the loo se ashes . They asc ended the

Sugar-loaf by grasping the half-decompo sed scoriae,

wh ich Often broke in the ir hands. They employednearly half an hour to scale a h ill

,the perpendicular

he ight ofwhich was scarcely fiv e hundred and forty feet .When they gained the summit of the Sugar-loaf theywere surprised to find scarcely room enough to seat

themselves convenient ly. They were stopped by a

small circular wall of porphyri t ic lava,with a base of

pitchstone, which concealed from them the view of the

crater. The west wind blew with such vio lence that

they could scarce ly stand. It was e ight in the morning,

and they suffered severely from the co ld,though the

thermomet er kept a lit t le above freezing po int .The wall which surrounded the crat er like a parape t

,

was so high,that it would have been impossible to reach

the crat er itself,if,on the east ern side

,there had no t

been a breach,wh ich se emed to have been the effect ofa

flowing of very o ld lava. They descended through thisbreach t oward the bo t tom of the funnel

,the figure of

which was e llipt ic. The greate st breadth of the mouthappeared to them to b e three hundred fee t

,the smallest

two hundred fee t .The ext ernal edge s of the crater were almo st perpen

dicular. They descended t o the bo t tom of the crat er ona t rain Of broken lava

,from the eas tern breach of the

inclo sure . The heat was percept ible only in a few

crevices,which gave vent t o aqueous vapours with a

peculiar buzzing no ise . Some of these funnels or cre

vices were on the out side of the inclo sure,on the external

brink of the parapet that surrounded the crater. Hum

EDGE OF THE CRATER . 4 9

boldt plunged the thermome t er into them,and saw it

rise rapidly t o 154°

and He also ske tched on the

Spo t a v iew of the Int erior edge of the crater as it pre

sent ed itself in the descent by the east ern track .

The t op of the circular wall exhibit ed tho se curiousramificat ions which are fo und in coke . The northern

edge was most elevat ed . Towards the south-west theenclo sure was considerably sunk

,and an enormous mass

of scorious lava seemed g lued t o the extremity of the

brink. The ro ck was perforated on the west,and a.

large Opening gave a view of the horizon of the sea.

Seated on the brink of the crat er,Humbo ldt dug a

ho le‘some inches deep

,into which he placed the thermo

me t er,which rapidly ro se t o Some sulphurous crys

tals which he gathered here,consumed the paper in which

he wrapt them,and a part of his mineralo g ical journal

besides.From the out er edge of the crater the admiring tra

v ellers turned their eyes t owards the north-east,where the

coasts were studded with villages and hamle t s . A t the irfee t were masses of vapour constant ly drift ed by the

winds . A uniform stratum of clouds had been piercedin several place s by the effect of the small current s ofair

,which f the earth

,heate d by the sun

,began t o send

towards them . The port of Oro tava,its vesse ls at

anchor,the gardens and the vineyards encircling the

t own,showed themselves through an Opening which

seemed to enlarge every instant . From the summit o fthe se so litary regions the ir e y es wandered over an

inhabit ed world. They enjoyed the striking contrastbe tween the bare sides of the peak

,its st e ep declivities

covered with scoriae,its elevated plains destitute ofv eg e

3

50 MAGNIFICENT PROSPE CT.

tat ion,and the smiling aspect of the cultured country be

neath . They beheld the plants divided by zones,as the

t emperature of the atmosphere diminished with the e levat ion of the sit e . Below the Sugar-loaf

,lichens began to

cover the scorious and lustrous lava and vio le t s ro se on

the slope of the vo lcano at e ight thousand fiv e hundredfee t of he igh t . Tuft s of re tama

,loaded with flowers

,

adorned the valleys hollowed out by the t orrents, and encumbered with the effects of the lat eral erupt ions. Be lowthe re tama

,lay the region of ferns

,bordered by the tract

of the arborescent heaths . Forests of laurel,rhamnus

,

and arbutus,divided the ericas from the rising grounds

plant ed with vines and fruit trees . A rich carpe t ofverdure ext ended from the plain of Spart ium and the

zone of the alpine plant s even t o the groups of the dat etree and the musa

,at the fee t of wh ich the ocean ap

peared t o ro ll .’

The seeming proximity,in which

,from

the summit of the peak,they beheld the hamlets

,the

vineyards,and the gardens on the coast

,was increase d

by the prodigious transparency of the atmo sphere . In

spit e of the great distance,they could plainly dist inguish

no t only the house s,the sails of the vessels

,and the

trunks of the t rees,b ut th ey could discern t he vivid

co louring of the vege tat ion of the plains .No twithstanding the heat wh ich they fe lt in the ir fee t

on the edge of the crater,t he cone Of ashes reinains

covered with snow during several months in wint er. It

was probable that under the cap of snow considerableho llows were found

,like those exist ing under the g la

ciers of Switzerland,the t emperature of wh ich was con

stantly less elevat ed than that of the so il on which theyreo csed. The cold and violent wind

,which blew from

DE SCENDING THE SUGAR -LOAF. 5 1

the time Of sunrise,induced them to seek shelter at the

foo t of the Sugar-loaf. The ir hands and faces werenearly frozen

,while the ir boo t s were burnt by the so il

on wh ich they walked. They descended in the Space of

a few minut es the Sugar-loaf wh ich they had sealed withso much t o il ; and th is rapidity was in part invo luntary,for they Oft en ro lled down on the ashes . It was withregre t that they quit t ed th is so litude

,this domain where

Nature re igned in all her maj e sty.

They traversed the Malpays but slowly ; for the ir fe e tfound no sure foundat ion on the loo se blo cks of lava.

Nearer the stat ion of the rocks,the descent became ex

tremely difficult ; the compact short -swarded turf was soslippery that they were obliged t o incline the ir bodiescont inually backward

,in order t o avoid falling. In

the sandy plain of re tama,the thermome t er rose to

an’

d th is heat seemed to them suffocat ing in comparisonwith the co ld

,which they had suffered from the air on

the summit of the vo lcano . Thev were abso lute ly without wat er ; for the ir guides

,no t sat isfied with drinking

clandest ine ly their li tt le supply of Malmsey wine,had

broken the ir water jars .They at length enjoyed the refresh ing breeze in the

beaut iful region of the arborescen t erica and fern,andwere

enve loped in a thick b ed ofclouds stat ionary at three thousand six hundred feet above the plain . The clouds havingdispersed

,they remarked a phenomenon which afterwards

became familiar t o them on the declivit ies ofthe Cordilleras .Small current s of air chased trains of cloud with unequalvelocity

,and in Opposite direct ions : they ‘b ore the ap

pearance of streamle ts of wat er in rapid mo t ion and

flowing in all direct ions,amidst a great mas s of stagnant

2 EVE OF ST. JOHN.

wat er. As the travellers approached the town of Oro

tava,they me t great flocks of canari es . These birds

,

we ll known in Europe and America,were in general

uniformly gre en. Some,however

,had a ye llow t inge

on the ir backs ; the ir no t e was the same as that of the

tame canary. Towards the close of the day they reachedthe port ofOro tava, where they rece ived the unexpectedint elligence that the Pizarro would no t set sail t ill the2 4 th or 2 5 th . If they could have calculated on this delay, they might e ither have lengthened their stay on the

peak,or have made an excursion to the vo lcano of Cha

horra. As it was they passed the fo llowing day in visiting the environs ofOro tava,and enjoying its agreeablesocie ty. They were present on the ev e of St . John at a

pastoral fet e . In the beginning of the evening the slopeof the vo lcano exhibit ed on a sudden a most ex traordinary spectacle . The shepherds

,ih conformity to a cus

tom,no doubt introduced by the Spaniards

,had lighted

the fires of St . John . The scat t ered masses of fire,and

the co lumns Of smoke driven by the wind,formed a fine

cont rast with the deep verdure of the forest s whichcovered the side s Of

‘

the peak . Shout s of joy resounding from afar were the only sounds that broke the silenceof nature in these so litary regions.They left the road of Santa Cruz on the 2 5th ofJune

,

and direct ed the ir course t owards South America. Theysoon lo st sigh t of the Canary Islands

,the lofty moun

tains ofwhich were covered with a reddish vapour. The

peak alone appeared from time to t ime,as at int ervals the

wrnd dispersed the clouds that enveloped the Sugar-loaf.

A few land birds,which had been driven t o sea by the

pe tuosity of the wind,fo llowed them fo r several days.

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54 THE SOUTHERN CROSS .

th eir extreme blackness,give a peculiar physiognomy to

the so uthern sky. This sigh t fills with admirat ion eventho se who

,uninstructed in the several branche s ofphysical

science,feel the same emo t ion of deligh t in the contempla

t ion of the heavenly vault,as in the view of a beaut iful

landscape,or a maj est ic site . A traveller needs no t t o b e

a bo tan ist,t o recognise the t orrid zone by the mere aspect

of its vege tat ion . Without having acquired any no t ionsof astronomy

,without any acquaintance with the celes

‘

t ial charts of Flamst ead and De la Caille,he feels he is

no t in Europe,when he sees the immense const e llat ion

of the Sh ip,or the pho sphore scent Clo uds of Mage llan

,

arise on the horizon . The heavens and the earth,

everything in the equinoct ial regions,pre sent s an exo t ic

charact er.

The lower regions of the air were loaded with vapoursfor some days . They saw dist inctly for the first t imethe Southern Cro ss only on the night of the 4 th ofJuly

,

in the sixt e enth degree of lat itude . It was strongly inclined

,and appeared from t ime to t ime be tween the

clouds,the centre of which

,furrowed by uncondensed

ligh tnings,reflect ed a silvery light .

The pleasure the t ravellers fe lt on discovering theSouthern Cro ss was warmly shared by tho se of the crewwho had v isit ed the co lonies. In the so litude Of theseas we hail a star as a friend

,from whom w e have long

been separated . The Portugue se and the Spaniards are

peculiarly suscept ible of this feeling ; a religious sent iment at tache s them t o this const e llat ion

,the form Of

which recalls the Sign of the faith planted by the ir an

cestors in the desert s of the New World.

The two great stars wh ich mark the summit and the

PAUL AND VIRGINIA. 55

foot of the Cross having nearly the same right ascension,

it fo llows that the const e llat ion is almost perpendicularat the moment when it passe s the meridian. This circumstanc e is known t o the people of every nat ion Situated beyond th e tropics

,or in the southern hemisphere .

It has been observed at what hour of the night,in differ

ent seasons,the Cro ss is erect or inclined. It Is a t ime

piece which advances very regularly nearly four minutesa day, and no o ther group of stars affords to the nakedeye an observation of time so eas ily made . Often afterward did Humbo ldt and Bonpland hear the ir g uides exclaim in the savannahs Of Venezuela

,or in the desert

extending from Lima to Truxillo,Midnight is past

,the

Cro ss begins t o bend !” It reminded them of that affecting scene , where Paul and Virginia

,seat ed near the

source of the river of Lataniers,conversed t oge ther for

the last time,and where the old man

,at the sight of the

Southern Cross,warned them that it was time to sepa

rate .

The last days of the ir passage were not so felicitous asthe mildne ss of the climat e and the calmness of the o ceanhad led them to hOpe . The dangers of the sea did not

disturb them,b ut the germs ofa malignant fever became

manifest on board the Pizarro,as they drew near the An

til le s. Between decks the ship was excessive ly ho t,and

very much crowded. From the t ime they passed thetrepic , the thermomet er sto od at 93 ° or 97° Two sailors

,several passengers

,two negro es from the coas t of

Guinea,and a mulat t o child

,were at tacked with a dis

order which appeared t o b e epidemic .On the morning of the 1 3 th high land was seen from

the mas thead,though no t clearly

,as it was surrounded

56 FEVE R ON BOARD .

with a thick fo g . The wind blew hard,and the sea was

very rough . Large drops of rain fell at int ervals,and

every indicat ion menaced t empestuous weather. When

the sun rose,and the fo g cleared away, they saw the

island of Tobago . It was a heap of rocks carefully cult ivat ed. The dazzling whit eness of the stone formed an

agre eable contrast t o the verdure of some scat tered tuft sof t rees. Cylindric and very lofty cactuses crowned thetOp of the mountains

,and gave a peculiar physiognomy

t o this tropical landscape . The wind slackened aftersunset

,and the clouds disappeared as the moon reached

the zenith . The number of falling stars was considerable on th is and the fo llowing night s.The malady which had broken out on board the

Pizarro had made rapid progre ss, from the t ime whenthey approached the coast s of Terra Firma ; but havingnearly reached the end of their voyage

,they flat t ered

themselves that all who were sick would b e restored tohealth

,as soon as they could land them at the island of

St . Margare ta,or the port ofCumana.

This hope was no t dest ined t o b e realized. The youngest of the passengers at tacked wi th the malignant feverfell a vict im t o the disease . He was an Asturian

,nine

t een years of ag e , the only son of a poor w idow. Several circumstances rendered the death of this young man

affect ing. He had embarked against his own inclinat ionand his mo ther

,whom he had hoped t o assist by the

produce Of his effort s,had made a sacrifice of her affec

t ion in the hope of securing the fortune of her son,by

sending him t o the co lon ies t o a rich relat ion,who re

sided at the island of Cuba. The unfortunate youngman expired on the third day ofhis illness

,having fallen

FUNERAL AT SEA. 5 7

from the beginning into a le thargic state Interrupt edonly by fits of delirium . Ano therAsturian

,st ill younger

,

did'

no t leave for one moment th e b ed ofhis dying friend ;st ill he did no t cont ract the disorder.

Humbo ldt and Bonpland assembled on the deck,ab

sorbed in melancho ly reflect ions. It was no longerdoubtful

,that the fever wh ich raged on board had as

sumed within the las t few days a fatal aspect , The ireyes were fixed on a hilly and desert coast on which the

moon,from t ime t o t ime

,Shed her light athwart the

clouds. The sea,gent ly agitat ed

,emit t ed a feeble pho s~

phoric lig ht . No thing was heard but the mono tonouscry of a few large sea-birds

,flying t owards the shore .

A profound calm reigned over these so litary regions,but

th is calm of nature was in discordance with the painfulfe elings by which they were Oppressed . About eighto’clo ck the dead man ’s knell slowly t o lled. The sailorssuspended the ir labours

,and threw themse lve s on the ir

knees t o offer a momentary prayer. All were unitedin one common sorrow for a misfortune which was felt

to b e common t o all . The corpse was brought upondeck during the night

,b ut the priest entreated that it

migh t no t b e comm it ted t o the waves t ill after sunrise,

that the last rit es migh t b e performed,according t o the

usage of the Romish church . There was no t an indiv idual on board

,who did no t deplore the death of this

young man,whom they had beh e ld

,but a few days b e

fore,full of cheerfulness and health .

Most of the passengers considered the vessel infected,

and reso lved t o leave her at the first place at wh ich she

migh t to uch ; among these were Humbo ldt and Bon

pland. It was not that they feared the fever,but

3-96

5 8 IN SIGHT OF LAND .

no t wishing to visit Mexico unt il they had made somesoj ourn o n the coast s of Venezuela and Paria

,they

thought it best to land at Cumana. Humbo ldt wasanxious to behold in their nat ive site the beaut ifultropic plants which he had seen in the conservatory at

Vienna.

On the morning of the 15th they perce ived a very lowisle t

,covered with a few sandy downs

,on which they

could discover with the ir glasses no t race of habitat ionor culture . Cylindrical cactuses ro se here and there in

the form of candelabra. The so il,almo st dest itut e of

vege tat ion,seemed to have a waving mo t ion

,in couse

quence of the extrao rdinary refract ion wh ich the raysof the sun underwent in t raversing the strata of air in

contact with plains strongly heat ed. Under every zone ,deserts and sandy shores appear like an agitat ed sea

,

from the effect Of mirage .

The coasts,seen at a distance

,were like clouds

,in

which each observer me t the form of the obj ects thatoccupied his imaginat ion . The bearings of the vessel

,

and the chronome t er be ing at variance w ith the chartswhich they had t o consult

,the crew and the passengers

were lo st in vain conj ecture s. Some t ook mounds ofsand for Indian huts

,and po int ed out the place where

they alleged the fort of Pampatar was situat ed ; o thers

saw herds of goat s,wh i ch were common in the dry

valley of St . John ; or descried the lofty mountains ofMacanao

,wh ich seemed t o them part ly hidden by the

clouds. The captain reso lved to send a pilo t on shore,

and the men were preparing t o g e t out the long-boatwhen two cano es were perce ived sailing along the coast .The vessel fired a g un as a signal for them,

and ho isted

THE INDIAN PILOT. 59

Spanish co lours,b ut they drew nearwith distrust . These

cano es,like all tho se in use among the nat ives

,were

construct ed of the single trunk of a tree . In each canoethere were e ighteen Guayqueria Indians, naked to the

waist,and ofvery tall stat ure . They had the appearance

of great muscul ar strength,and the co lour of the ir skin

was some thing betwe en brown and copper-co lour. Seen

at a distance,standing mo t ionless

,and proj ected on the

horizon,they might have been taken for statues ofbronze .

When they were near enough for tho se on board the

Pizarro t o hail them,which they did in Spanish

,they

threw off the ir mistrust and came on board . They hadleft the port of Cumana, they said, during the night , andwere go ing in search Of t imber t o the cedar forests

,which

extended from Cape San Jose to beyond the mouth ofRio

Carupano . They gave Humbo ldt some fresh cocoa-nuts,

and some beautiful ly co loured fish . What riches to hiseyes were contained in the canoes of these poor Indians !Broad spreading leaves, covered bunches of plantains .The scaly cuirass of an armadillo

,the fruit of the cala

bash tree,used as a cup by the nat ive s

,product ions

common in the cabinet s of ‘Europe,had a peculiar charm

for him,because they reminded him that

,having reached

the torrid zone,he had at tained the end t o which his

wishes had been so long directed.

The maste r of one of the cano es came on board aspilo t

,and the Pizarro we ighed anchor t owards evening.

They soon came in sigh t of the lit t le island of Cub ag ua,formerly ce lebrat ed fo r its pearl fisheries

,but now en

t irely desert ed. There be ing b ut lit t le wind,however

,

the captain st ood off and on t ill daybreak. Humboldtand Bonpland passed a part of the nigh t on deck

,con

60 THEY REACH CUMANA .

versing with the Indian pilo t respect ing the animal s andplant s ofhis country.

A t daybreak on the 16th of July,1 799

,forty-one

days after the ir departure from Corunna, they behe ld averdant coast of picturesque aspect . The mountains of

New Andalusia, half-ve iled by mist s, bounded the hori

zon t o the south . The city of Cumana and its cast le

appeared bet ween groups of cocoa-tree s. They anchored

in the port about n ine in the morning : the sick dragged

themse lves on deck t o enjoy the sight of a land which

was t o put an end to the ir sufferings . The eyes of thenaturalists were fixed on the groups ofcocoa-trees whichbordered the river : th e ir trunks

,more than sixty fee t

h igh,t owered over every obj ect in landscape . The

plain was covered with t uft s of Cassia,Caper

,and ar

b orescent mimosas, wh ich spread the ir branches in the

form of an umbrella. The pinnat ed leaves of the palmswere conspicuous on the azure Sky, the clearness of

wh ich was unsullied by any trace of vapour. The sun

was ascending rapidly t owards the zenith . A dazzlinglight was spread through the air, along the wh itish h ills,which were strewed with cactuses

,and over a sea ever

calm,the shores of which were peopled with brown

pelicans,egrets

,and flaming oes. The Splendour of the

day, the vivid co louring of the vegetable world,the

forms of the plant s,the varied plumage of the birds

,

everything was stamped with the grand charact er of

nature in the equinoct ial regions.

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62 EVE RYBODY SWIMMING .

of nature,one of the first quest ions asked on meet ing in

the morning was,whe ther the wat er was co oler than it

was on the preceding evening. One of the modes ofbathing was curious. Every evening Humbo ldt and

Bonpland visited a family in the suburb of the Guayquerias . In a fine moonligh t night

,chairs were placed

in the wat er ; the men and women were light ly clo thed,

and the family and strangers,assembled in the river

,

passed some hours in smoking cigars,and in talking

,

according t o the custom Of the country,of the extreme

dryne ss of the season,of the abundant rains in the ne igh

heuring district s, and part icularly of the extravagancesof which the ladies of Cumana accused those of Ca

racas and Havanna. The company were luckily underno apprehensions from the small crocodiles

,which were

then extremely scarce,and which approached men

Without at tacking them . These animals are three or

four fe e t long. Humbo ldt never me t with them in the

Manzanare s,b ut found a great number of do lph ins

,

which some t imes ascended the river in the night,and

frigh t ened the bathers by spout ing wat er.

The situat ion of the house wh ich Humbo ldt and Bon

pland o ccupied was highly favourable for the observat ion Of the stars and me t eoro logical phenomena. The

view from it by day, however, was by no means pleasant to them ; for a part of the great square on which itfaced was surrounded with arcades

,above which was one

of tho se long wooden g alleries, common in warm countries . This was the place Where slaves were so ld. The

slave s expo sed t o sale were young men from fift een to

twenty years of ag e . Every morning cocoa-nu t oil was

dis tribut ed among them ,with wh ich they rubbed their

THE R IVER MAN ZANAREZ. 63

bodies,t o give th e ir skins a black po lish . The persons

who came t o purchase examined the t e e th of these slave s,

t o j udge of the ir ag e and health,forcing Open the ir

mouths as if they had been horses in a marke t .The first excursion of the travellers was to the peninsula

ofAraya. They embarked on the Rio Manzanare s on the1 9th ofAugust

,about two in the morning. The principal

obj ects of this excursion were,t o se e the ruins of the cas

t le of Araya,t o examine the salt -works

,and t o make a

few geo logical Observat ions on the mountains formingthe narrow peninsul a ofManiquarez . The night was delightfully coo l ; swarms of pho sphorescent insect s glis

t ened in the air,and over the grove s of mimosa wh ich

bordered the river.

When,on de scending the river

,they drew near p lanta

t ions,they saw bonfires kindled by the negro es . A

ligh t and undulating smoke ro se t o the t ops of the palmtree s

,and impart ed a reddish hue t o th e disk of the

moon . It was on a Sunday night,and the slaves were

dancing t o the music of the guitar. The bark in whichthey passed the gulf of Cariaco was very spacious . LargeSkins of the jaguar

,or American t iger

,were Spread for

the ir repo se during the n ight . Though they had beenscarcely two months ye t in the t orrid zone

,they had

already become so sensible t o the smallest variat ion of

t emperature that the co ld prevent ed them from sle eping.

They landed at Araya,and examined the salt -works,

and having finished the ir operat ions,departed at sunset

to sleep at an Indian hut,some miles distant

,near the

ruins of the cast le of Araya. Nigh t o verto ok themwhile they were in a narrow path

,bordered on one Side

by the sea, and on the o ther by a range ofperpendicular

64 GENIUS IN OBSCUR ITY.

rocks . The t ide was rising rapidly,and narrowed the

road at every step . They at length arrived at the foo tof the o ld castle of Araya

,where they e nj oyed a pro s

pee t that had in it some thing melancho ly and romant ic.The ruins stood on a bare and arid mountain

,which was

crowned with agave,cactus

,and thorny mimosas

,and

bore less resemblance t o the works of man,than to

masses of rock wh ich were ruptured at the early rev olu

t ions of the globe .

Among the mulat to es,who se huts surrounded the salt

lake,th ey found a sho emaker of Cast ilian descent . He

received them with an air Of gravity and self-sufficiency.

He was employed in stre tch ing the string of his b ow,

and sharpening his arrows t o sho o t birds. His trade of

a shoemaker was no t very lucrat ive in a country wherethe great er part Of the inhabitant s went barefoo ted ;and he complained that

,. on account Of the dearness of

European g unpowder, a man of his quality was reducedt o employ the same weapons as the Indians . He wasthe sage of the plain ; h e underst ood the format ion of

the salt by the influence of the sun and full moon,the

symptoms of earthquakes, the marks by which mines ofgo ld and silver

‘were discovered, and the medicinalplant s

,which he classified into hot and co ld. Having

co llect ed the tradit ions Of the country,he gave them

some curious account s of the pearls of Cub ag ua, Obj ect sof luxury

,which he treat ed with the utmo st contempt .

To show the trave llers how familiar t o him were the

sacred writ ings h e t ook a pride in reminding them that

Job preferred wisdom t o all the pearls of the Indies.His philo sophy was circumscribed to the narrow circleof the want s of life . The po ssession of a very strong

MANIQUAREZ . 65

ass,able to carry a heavy load of plantains t o the land

ing-place

,was the consummat ion ofall his wishes.

After a long discourse on the empt iness of humangreatness

,he drew from a leathern pouch a few very

small Opaque pearls,which he forced Humboldt to ac

cept,enjo ining him at the same time t o no te on his

table ts that a po or sho emaker of Araya,b ut a wh ite

man,and of noble Cast ilian race

,had been enabled to

give him some thing wh ich,on the o ther side of the sea

,

was sought for as very precious.In the morn ing the son of the ir Indian host conducted

them to the vill age ofManiquarez. On their way they

examined the ruins of Sant iago,the structure of which

was remarkable for its extreme solidity. The walls offreestone

,fiv e fee t th ick, had been blown up by mines ;

b ut they st ill found masses of seven or e ight hundredfe et square

,wh ich had scarcely a crack in them . The ir

guide showed them a cist ern,thirty feet deep

,which

,

though much damaged,furnished water to the inhabit

ants of the peninsula ofAraya.

After having examined the environs of Maniquarez,they embarked at night in a fishing -boat for Cumana.The small crazy boats employed by the nat ives here

,

bore t est imony to the extreme calmness of the sea in

these re g ions . The boat of the travellers,though the

best they could procure,was so leaky

,that the pilo t ’s

son was constant ly employed in baling out the water

with a calabash shell .The ir first V is it t o the peninsula of Araya was soon

succeeded by an excursion to the mountains of the mis

Sions of the Chayma Indians .On the 4 th of September

,at five m the morning, they

66 FOOT OF THE MOUNTAINS.

began the ir j ourney. On account of the extreme difficul ties of the road

,they had been advised to reduce the ir

baggage t o a very small bulk . Two beasts of burdenwere sufficient t o carry the ir provision

,the ir instrument s

,

and the paper necessary t o dry the ir plant s. The morning was deliciously co o l . The road

,which led t o Cuma

nacoa,ran along the right bank of the Manzanares

,pass

ing by the hospital of the Capuchins. On leaving Cumana they enjoyed during the short durat ion of the twi

ligh t,from the tOp of the h ill of San Francisco

,an

ext ensive view over the sea,the plain covered with

go lden flowers,and the mountains of the Brigant ine .

Aft er walking two hours,they arrived at the foo t of

the high chain of the int erior mountains,which stre tched

from east t o west ; from the Brigant ine t o the Cerro deSan Lorenzo . There

,new ro cks appeared

,and with

them ano ther aspect of vege tat ion . Every object as

sumed a more maj est ic and picturesque character. The

so il,wat ered by springs

,was farrowed in every direct ion ;

tre es of gigan t ic he ight,covered with lianas

,ro se from

the ravines ; the ir bark, black and burnt by the doubleact ion of the light and the oxygen of the atmosphere

,

contrast ed with the fresh verdure of the po tho s and dracontium

,the t ough and sh ining leaves of which were

some t imes several feet long.

From the t op of a hill of sandstone,they had a mag

nificent View of the sea,of Cape Macanao

,and the pen

insula of Maniquarez . A t their fee t an immense forestext ended t o the edge of the o cean. The t ops of the tree s

,

int ertwined with lianas,and crowned with long wreaths

of flowers,formed a vast carpe t of verdure , the dark t int

ofwhich augment ed the splendour of the aerial light .

THE IMPOSIBLE . 67

In proportion as they pene trated int o the forest thebarome t er indicat ed the progressive e levat ion of the land .

The trunks of the tree s here present ed a curious phenomenon

,fora gramineous plant

,like a liana

,eight or t en fee t

high,formed festo ons

,which cro ssed the path

,and swung

about with the wind . They halt ed in the afternoon,on

a small flat,known by the name of Quet epe . A few

small houses had been erect ed near a spring,well known

by the nat ives for its coo lne ss and great salubrity. Theyfound the wat er delicious.AS they advanced t oward the south-west

,the so il b e

came dry and sandy . They climbed a group of mountains

,wh ich separat ed the coast from the vast plains

,or

savannahs,bordered by the Orino co . That part of the

group,over which passed the road t o Cumanacoa

,was

dest itute of vege tat ion,and had steep declivit ie s bo th

on the north and the sou th . It was known by the nameof the Impo sible

,because it was believed that

,in the

case of ho stile invasion,this ridge of mountains would

b e inaccessible to the enemy,and would offer an asylum

t o the inhabitant s of Cumana. The View from the Im

po sible was finer and more ext ensive than that from the

t able -land of Que t epe . Humboldt dist inguished clearlyby the nak ed eye the flat tened tOp of the Brigant ine the

landing -place , and the roadstead of Cumana. The rockycoast of the peninsula of Araya was discernible in itswho le lengt h . The t rave llers were part icularly struckwith the ext raordinary configurat ion of a port

,known

by the name of Laguna Grande . A vast basin, sur

rounded by high mountains,communicat ed with the

gulf of Cariaco by a narrow channe l which admit t edof the passage of only one sh ip at a t ime .

68 THE BURNING FOREST.

This port was capable of containing several squadronsat once . It was an uninhabit ed place

,b ut annually fre

quent ed by ve ssels, which carried mules t o t he WestIndia Islands. Humboldt traced the sinuosit ies of thisarm of the sea

,which

,like a river

,had dug a b ed b e

tween perpendicular rocks dest itute of vege tat ion . The

prospect here reminded him of the fanciful landscapewhich Leonardo da Vinci has made the

'

b ack -ground of

his famous portrait of Mona Lisa,the wife of Francisco

del Giacondo .

The Llaneros,or inhabitant s of the plains

,sent their

produce,e specially maize

,leather

,and cat t le

,t o the port

of Cumana by the road over the Impo sible . Humbo ldtand Bonpland cont inually saw mules arrive

,driven by

Indians,or mulat to es. Several part s of the vast forest

,

which surrounded the mountain,had taken fire ; and

the reddish flames,half enve loped in clouds of smoke

,

present ed a grand spec tacle . The inhabitants frequent lyset fire t o the forests

,t o improve the pasturag e , and

t o destroy the shrubs that choked the grass . Enormous conflag rations, t o o , were often caused by the carelessness of the Indians

,who neglect

,when they travel

,

t o ext inguish the fires by which they dre ss the ir food.

They left the Impo sible early in the morning of the

5th of Sept ember. The path was dangerous for the irbeasts

,be ing in most places b ut fift een inches broad

,and

bordered by precipices . When they quit ted it it was t oent er a thick forest

,traversed by many small rivers.

They walked for some hours in the Shade of this forest,

with scarce ly a glimpse of the sky .

In this place they were struck for the first t ime withthe Sight of nes ts in the shape of bo tt les

,or small bags

,

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70 TIIE FATHER-MOTHER .

t ined fo r lodging t ravellers ; and, as our travellers Oftenexperienced

,infinit ely valuable in a country where the

name ofan inn was unknown.

The missionary of San Fernando was a Capuchin,a

nat ive of Aragon,far advanced in years

,but strong and

healthy. His ext reme corpulency,his hilarity

,the in

t erest he to ok in bat tles and sieges,ill accorded with the

ideas we form of the melancholy reverie s and the con

t emplativ e life ofmissionarie s. Though extremely busyabout a cow which was t o b e killed next day, the old

monk rece ived Humbo ldt and Bonpland with kindness,

and permit ted them to hang up the ir hammocks in agallery of his house . Seat ed

,withou t do ing anything

,

the great er part of the day, in an arm-Chair of red wood,

he complained bit terly Ofwhat he called the indo lence andignorance of his count rymen. The sight of Humbo ldt’sinstrument s

,and books

,and the dried plants of Bon

pland drew from him a sarcast ic smile ; and he acknowledged

,with the naIve tépeculiar t o the inhabitant s of

tho se countries, that ofall the cujoyments of life,without

except ing sleep,none was comparable t o the pleasure

of e at ing good beef.In the village of Arenas

,at which they next arrived

,

lived a labourer,Francisco Lozano

,who present ed a curi

ous physio logical phenomenon. This man had suckleda child with his own milk . The mo ther having fallensick

,the father

,to quie t the infant t ook it into b ed

,and

pressed it to his bosom . Lozano,then thirty-two years

of ag e , had never before remarked that he had milkbut the irritat ion of the nipple

,sucked by the child

,

caused the accumulat ion of that liquid. The milk wasthick and very sweet . Astonished at the increased Size

IN SIGHT OF THE TURIMIQUIRI. 7 1

of his breast,the father suckled his child two or

three t imes a day during fiv e months. He drew on

himself the at tent ion of his neighbours,b ut he ne ver

thought,as he probably would have done in Europe

,

of deriving any advantage from the curio sity he excit ed.

Humboldt and Bonpland saw the cert ificat e,which had

been drawn up on the spo t,t o at te st this remarkable

fact,eye

-witne sses of which were then living. Theyassured th em that

,during this suckling

,the child had

no o ther nourishment than the milk of his father. Lo

zano,who was no t at Arenas during the ir journey in

the missions,came t o them aft erwards at Cumana. He

was accompanied by his son,then thirt een or fourte en

years of ag e . Bonpland examined with at tent ion the

father’s breasts,and found them wrinkled like tho se ofa

woman who has g iven suck. He observed that the leftbreast in part icular was much enlarged ; which Lozanoexplained from the circumstance

,that the two breasts

did no t furnish milk in the same abundance . Don

Vicente Emparan sent a circumstant ial account of this

phenomenon to Cadiz .As they approached the southern bank of the basin

ofCumanacoa,they enjoyed the view of the Turimiquiri.

An enormous wall Of ro cks,the remains of an ancient

cliff,ro se in the midst of the fore sts . Farther t o the

west,at Cerro del Cuchivano

,the chain Of mountains

seemed as if broken by . the effects of an earthquake .

The crevice,which was more than nine hundred fee t

wide,was surrounded by perpendicular ro cks, and filled

with trees,the int erwoven branches of which found no

room to Spread. It appeared like a mine opened by thefalling in of the earth . Two caverns opened into this

7 2 G OLDEN DREAMS.

crevice,whence at t imes there issued flames wh ich migh t

b e seen at a great distance in the night ; j udging by theelevat ion of the rocks

,above which the se fiery exhala

t ions ascended,Humbo ldt was led t o think that they

rose several hundred fee t .In an excursion which they made at Rinconado the

travellers at t empted t o pene trate int o the crevice,wish

ing to examine the rocks which seemed to contain in the irbosom the cause of these extraordinary conflag rations ;

b ut the strength of the vege tat ion,the int erweaving

of the lianas,and thorny plant s

,h indered the ir pro

gre ss. Happily the inhabitants of the valley themse lve sfe lt a warm interest in the ir researches

,less from the fear

of a vo lcanic explosion,than because the ir minds w ere

impressed with the idea that the crevice contained a go ldmine ; and although the trave llers expressed the irdoubtsof the exist ence of go ld in a secondary lime stone

,they

insist ed on knowing “ what the German miner thoughtof the richness of the ve in .

” Eve r since the t ime of

Charle s V. and the government of the Welsers,the

Alfing ers, and the Sailers, at Coro and Caracas,the peo

ple Of Terra Firma had ent ertained a great confidence inthe Germans with respect t o all that related to the working of mines . Wherever Humbo ldt went in SouthAmeri ca

,when the place ofhis birth was known

,he was

Shown sample s of ore . In these co lonies every Frenchman was suppo sed t o b e a physician

,

“

and every German

a miner.

The farmers,with the aid of the ir Slave s, Opened a

path acro ss the wo ods t o the first fall of the Rio Jnagua ;and on the 10th of Sept ember Humbo ldt and Bonplandmade their excursion to the crevice . On entering it they

GOING To THE CREVICE . 7 3

recognised the proximity of t igers by a porcupine re

c ent ly embowelled . For great er security the Indiansre turned to the farm

,and brought back some dogs of a

very small breed. The trave llers were assured that inthe event ofmee ting a jaguar in a narrow path he wouldspring on the do g rather than on a man . They did no t

pro ceed along the brink of the t orrent,b ut on the Slope

of the rocks which overhung t he water. They walkedon the side of a precipice from two t o thre e hundred fe etdeep

,on a kind of very narrow cornice ; when the co r

n ice was so narrow that they could find no place fortheir fe e t they descended into the t orrent

,cro ssed it by

fording,and then climbed the oppo sit e wall . These de

Scents were very fat iguing,and it was no t safe t o trust

to th e lianas,which hung like great co rds from the t ops

of the trees . The creeping and parasite plan ts clung b utfeeb lv to the branches which they embraced ; the unit edwe igh t of the ir stalks was considerable

,and the trave llers

ran the risk of pulling down a who le mass of verdure,

if,in walking on a Sloping ground

,they support ed their

we igh t by the lianas . The farther they advanced thethicker the vege tat ion became . In several places theroots of the tre e s had burst the rock

,by insert ing them

selves into the clefts that separat ed the beds . They hadsome trouble to carry the plant s which they gathered at

every step . The cannas,the he liconias with fine purple

flowers,the co stuses

,and o ther plant s of the amomurr

family,at tained here e igh t or ten fee t in he ight ; and

the ir fresh t ender verdure,the ir silky glo ss

,and the ex

traordinary development of th e parenchyma,formed a

striking contrast with the brown co lour of the arborescent ferns

,the fo liage of which was de licate ly shaped

7 4 No ADMI'ITANCE .

The Indians made incisions with the ir large knives inthe t runks of the trees

,and fixed Humbo ldt ’s at tent ion

on the beaut iful red and go ld-co loured wo ods .The suppo sed go ld mine of this crevice

,wh ich was

t he obj ect of the ir examinat ion,was no thing but an ex

cav at ion cut into a black strata of marl,wh ich contained

pyrit es in abundance . The marly strata cro ssed the

t orrent,and

,as the wat er washed out me tallic grains

,

the nat ives imagined,on account of the brilliancy of the

pyrit es,that the torrent bore down gold . Nor could

Humboldt convince them t o the contrary ; for they con

t inned t o pick up secre t ly, every b it of pyrit e s they saw

sparkling in the wat er. The melancho ly pro verb, “All

that glit t ers is no t go ld,se emed never t o have reached

them . Leaving this myth ical gold mine they fo llowedthe course of the crevice which stre tched along a narrow

canal,overshadowed by lofty tre es .

They had suffered great fat igue,and were quite

drenched by frequent ly crossrng the t orrent,when they

reached the caverns . A wall of rock rose there perpen

dicularly t o the he ight of five thousand feet . In the

middle of this sect ion,and in a po sit ion unfortunate ly

inaccessible t o man,t wo caverns Opened in the form of

crevices. The naturalist s were assured by the ir guidesthat they were inhabit ed by no cturnal birds. The partyrepo sed at the fo o t of the cavern where the flames wereseen to issue . The nat ives discussed the dange r to

wh ich the t own of Cumanacoa would b e exposed in case

the crevice should become an act ive vo lcano , while Humb oldt and Bonpland Speculat ed on the causes of the phenomenon . So ended the expedit ion .

On the 1 2 th of September they cont inued the ir jo ur;

ASCENT OF THE TURIMIQUIRI. 75

ney to the convent of Caripe , the principal set tlement ofthe Chayma missions. Their first stepping-place was a

so litary farm,situat ed on a small plain among the moun

tains Of Cocallar.

No thing could b e compared t o the maj estic tranquillitywhich the aspect of the firmament pre sent ed in this so litary region . Tracing with the eye , at nightfall, the

'

mea

dows which bounded the horizon,the plain covered

w ith verdure and gent ly undul ated,they thought they

behe ld from afar the surface of the ocean supporting the "

starry vault of Heaven . The tree under which theywere seated

,the luminous insects flying in the air

,the

const e llations which shone in the south ; every Obj ectseemed t o t ell them how far they were from their nat iveland. If amidst th is exo t ic nature they heard from the

depth of the valley the t inkling of a hell,or the lowing

ofherds,the remembrance ofthe ir country was awakened

suddenly. The sounds were like distant vo ice s resounding from beyond the ocean

,and with magical power trans

port ing them from one hemisphere to the o ther.

On the fo llowing morning they made the ascent of theTurimiquiri. The view on this mountain was vast and

picture sque . From the summit t o the ocean they perc eiv ed chains of mountains ext ended in paralle l line sfrom east to west

,and bounding longitudinal valleys.

These valleys were intersecte d at right angles by an infi

nite number of small ravines Scooped out by the t orrent s .Th e g round in general was a gentle slope as far as the

Impo sible ; farther on the precipices became bold, andcont inued so t o the shore of the gulf of Cariaco . Theyseemed to lo ok down into the bo t tom of a funnel

,in

which they could dis t inguish,amids t tufts of scat t ered

76 THE CONVENT OF CAR IPE .

t rees,the Indian village of Aricagua. Towards the

north,a narrow slip of land

,the peninsula ofAraya

formed a dark strIpe on the sea,which

,be ing illumined

by the rays Of the sun,reflect ed a strong light . Beyond

the peninsula the horizon was bounded by Cape Macanao,

the black rocks of wh ich ro se amid the waters like an

immense bast ion.

A t last the t ravellers reached the convent of Caripe .

It was backed with an enormous wall of perpendicularro ck

,covered with thick vege tat ion : the stone

,which

was of re splendent whit ene ss,appeared only here and

there be twe en the foliage . In a small square in fron t ofthe convent was a cro ss of Brazil wood

,surrounded with

benche s for the infirm monks . They were t elling theirbeads when Humbo ldt and Bonpland arrived .

They were rece ived with great hospitality by the

monks ofCaripe . The building had an inner court,sur

rounded by ah arcade,like the convents in Spain . This

inclo sed place was h ighly convenient for se t t ing up theirinstrument s and making observat ions . They found a

numerous so cie ty in the convent . Young monks,re

cent ly arrived from Spain,were just about t o se t t le in

the Missions,while o ld infirm missionaries sought for

health in the fresh and salubrious air Of the mountainsof Caripe . Humboldt was lodged in the cell of the su

perior,wh ich contained a pre t ty go od co llect ion ofbo oks.

He found there the Tea tro C'rz’

tz'

co of Ferjoo , the Lettres

Edzfiantes, and the Traz’

léd’

E lectm’

cz

’

té by abbé No lle t .It se emed as if the progress of knowledge had advancedeven in the forest s ofAmerica.

But that which conferred the mo st celebrity on the

valley of Caripe,was the great Cavern of the Guacharo .

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7 8 THE NOISE OF THE GUACHAROS .

of gigant ic he ight . Plant s ro se in its clefts,and creep

ing vines, waving in the wind,were interwoven in fes

t o ons before the mouth of the cavern. Nor did thisluxury ofvege tat ion embellish the external arch mere ly ;it appeared even in the vest ibule Of the gro t to . Theysaw with astonishment plan tain-leaved heliconias e ighteen feet high

,the praga palm-tree

,and arborescent arums

,

fo llowing the course of the river,even to tho se sub ter

ranean places . The vege tat ion cont inued in the cave of

Caripe,and did not disappear t ill

,pene trat ing into the

interior,they had advanced thirty or forty paces from the

entrance . They measured the way by means ofa cord, andwent on about four hundred and th irty fee t without be ingobliged t o light the ir t orches. Daylight pene trated farinto th is region

,because the gro t to formed b ut one single

channel,keeping the same direct ion . Where the light

began t o fail,they heard from afar the hoarse sounds of

the no cturnal birds.The no ise of these birds was horrible . The ir shrill andpiercing cries struck upon the vaults ofthe rocks

,andwere

repeat ed by the subterranean echo es . The Indians showedthe trave llers the nest s of the guacharo s by fixing a torchto the end of a long po le . These nests were fifty or sixtyfee t h igh above the ir heads

,in ho les in the shape of fun

nels,With which the roof of the gro t to was pierced like a

sieve . The no ise increased as they advanced,and the birds

were scared by the ligh t of the t orches. When thisno ise ceased for a few minutes around them

,they heard

at a distance the plaint ive cries of the birds ro o s ting ino ther ramificat ions of the cavern . It seemed as if different groups answered each o ther al ternate ly.

The Indians were in the habi t of entering this cavern

THE SUBTERRANEAN STREAM. 7 9

once a year, near midsummer. They went armed withpoles

,with which th ey destroyed the g reater part of the

nests . A t that season several thousand birds were killed ;and the Old ones

,as if to defend the ir bro od

,hovered

over the heads of the Indians,ut tering t errible cries.

The young,which fell t o the g round, were opened on the

spo t for their fat .At the period commonly called, at Caripe , the oil harvest

,the Indians built huts with palm-leaves

,near the

entrance,and even in the porch of the cavern . There

,

with a fire of brushwood,they me lted in po ts of clay the

fat Of the young birds j ust kil led. This fat was knownby the name of the butt er of the guacharo .

As the travellers cont inued t o advance into the cavern,

they fo llowed the banks of the river which issued fromit,and was from twenty-e ight t o th irty fee t wide . They

walked on the banks,as far as the hill s formed of cal

careous incrustat ions permit t ed them . Where the t or

rent wound among high masse s of stalact ite s,they

were Often obliged to descend into its b ed,which was

only two fee t deep . They learned that this subterraneanrivul e t was the origin of the river Caripe , which, at thedistance of a few leagues

,where it j o ined the small river

of Santa Maria,was navigable for cano es . They found

on the banks of the subterranean rivule t a g re at ,quan

t ity of palm -tree wo od,the remains of t runks

,on which

the Indians Climbed to reach the nests hanging from the

roofs Of the cavern . The rings formed by the vestigesof the old fo o tstalks of the leave s

,furnished as it were

the steps of a ladder perpendicul arly placed.

They had great difliculty in pe rsuading the Indians topass beyond the anterior port ion of the gro t to

,the only

8 0 THE CAVE OF SOULS.

part which they annually visited to collect the fat . The

who le authority of the monks was necessary to inducethem to advance as far as the spot where the t orrent

formed a small subt erranean cascade . The nat ive s con

nec ted myst ic ideas with th is cave,inhabited by nocturnal

birds ; they believed that the souls of the ir ancestors so

journed in the deep recesses of the cavern .

“ Man,

”

said they,

“ should avo id places which are enlightenedne ither by the sun nor by the moon .

”To g o and j oin

the guacharos,

”was with them a phrase signifying to

rej o in the ir fathers,to die . The magicians and the poi

soners performed the ir nocturnal tricks at the entranceof the cavern

,t o conj ure the ch ief Of the evil spirits .

At the po int where the river formed the subterraneancascade

,a h ill covered with vege tat ion

,wh ich was Oppo

sit e to the opening of the gro t to,present ed a very pic

turesque aspect . It was seen at the extremity ofa straigh tpassage

,one thousand four hundred and fifty fe e t in

length . The stalact it e s descending from the roof,and

resembling co lumns suspended in the air,were re lieved

on a background Of verdure . The Opening of the cavernappeared singularly contracted

,when the travellers saw

it about the middl e of the day, illumined by the vividlight reflected at once from the sky

,the plants

,and the

rocks . The distant ligh t of day formed a stfang e con

trast with the darkness which surrounded them in the

vast cavern . They discharged the ir guns at a venture,

wherever the crie s of the nocturnal birds and the flapping of the ir wings led them t o suspect that a great

number of nests were crowded t ogether. After severalfruitless at t empt s Bonpland succeeded in killing a coupleof guacharos

,which

,dazzled by the ligh t of the t orches,

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8 2 TILE CONVENT OF CARIPE .

On turning back to g o out of the cavern,they fo llt wed

the course of the t orrent . Before the ir eyes becamedazzled with the light ofday they saw on the o ut side of

the gro t to the wat er of the river sparkling amid the

fo liage of the trees which shaded it . It was like a picture placed in the distance

,the mouth of the cavern serv

ing as a frame . Having at length reached the entrance,

they seat ed themselves on the bank Of the rivule t,to rest

after the ir fat igues . They were glad t o b e b evond the

hoarse cries of the birds,and to leave a place where

darkness did no t Offer even the charm of Silence and

t ranquillity.

Swiftly glided the ir days in the convent of Caripe .

From sunrise to nightfall they t raversed the forests and

neighbouring mountains,t o co llect plants . When the

winter rains prevented them from undertaking distantexcursions

,they visited the huts of the Indians

,the

garden of the community,or assemblies in which the

alcaldes every evening arranged the labours of the succ eeding day. They re turned t o the monastery onlywhen the sound of the bell called them t o the refectoryto share the repasts of the missionaries. Some t imes

,

very early in the morning,they fo llowed them to the

church,t o attend the religious instruct ion of the Indians.

After passing almo st the who le day in the Open air,they

employed the ir evenings,at the convent

,in making

no tes,drying the ir plant s

,and Ske tching those that ap

peared t o form new genera. Unfortunately the mistyatmosphere of a valley

,where the surrounding forests

filled the air with an enormous quant ity of vapour,was

unfavourable to astronomical observat ions . Humbo ldtspent a part of the nights wait ing to take advantage of

THE DE SCENT OF PURGATORY. 8 3

the moment when some star should b e v isrb le be tweenthe clouds

,near its passage over the meridian . He often

sh ivered with co ld,though the thermome t er only sank

to The instruments remained se t up in the courtof the convent for several hours

, ye t he was almo stalways disappo inted in his expectat ions .From the valley of Caripe t he travellers proceeded

acro ss a ridge of hills,and o ver a vast savannah

,t o the

table -land of Guardia de San August in . Beyond th iswas a Slope

,extremely slippery and st eep

,to which the

m issionaries had given the name of the Descent of Pur

g atory. When they looked down from the top to the

bo t tom of the hill the road seemed inclined more thanThe mules in go ing down drew the ir hind legs

near t o the ir fore legs,and lowering the ir cruppers

,le t

themse lves slide at a venture . They soon ent ered a

thick forest,known by the name of the Montana de

Santa Maria. Here they descended without intermissionfor seven hours. It was diflicult t o conce ive a moretremendous descent ; it was abso lutely a road of steps

,a

kind of ravine,in which

,during the rainy season

,im

petuous torrent s dashed from rock t o ro ck. The stepswere from two to three fee t high

,and the beast s of b ur

den,after measuring with the ir eyes the space necessary

t o le t the ir le ad pass be tween the trunks of the trees,

leaped from one rock to ano ther. Afraid of missingthe ir mark

,the t ravellers saw them step a few minute s

to scan the ground,and bring t ogether the ir four fee t

like wild goat s . If the animal did no t reach the nearest

block of stone,he sank half his depth into the soft

o chreous clay,that filled up the interst ices of the rock .

When the blo cks were want ing,enormous ro o ts served

8 4 INDIANS ON A TRAMI’ .

as support s for the fe et of men and beasts . Some of

th ese roo t s were twenty inches thick,and they Often

branched out from the trunks of the tree s much abovethe leve l of the so il . The Creo le s had sufficient confidence in the addre ss and inst inct of the mules

,to remain

in the ir saddles during this long and dangerous descent .Fearing fat igue less than they did

,and be ing accustomed

t o trave l slowly for the purpose of gathering plan ts andexamining the nature of the ro cks

,Humboldt and Bon

plaud preferred go ing down on foot .The weather was cloudy. The sun at t imes illu

'

minedthe tOps of the t rees

,and

,though shelt ered from its

rays,they felt an Oppressive heat . Thunder ro lled at a

distance ; the clouds seemed suspended on the t ops ofthe lofty mountains of the Guacharo ; and the plaint ivehowling of the monkeys deno t ed the proximity of astorm . They st opped t o observe these monkeys

,wh ich

,

t o the number of th irty or forty,cro ssed the road

,pass

ing in a file from one tre e t o ano th er over the horizontaland int ersect ing branches . While the trave llers wereobserving the ir movement s they saw a troop of Indiansgo ing t owards the mountains Of Caripe . They werewithout clo thing

,as the nat ives of this country generally

are . The women,laden with rath er h eavy burdens

,

closed the march . The m en were all armed,and even

the youngest boys had bows and arrows. They movedon in silence , with the ir eyes fixed on the ground . The

travellers endeavoured t o learn from them whe ther theywere ye t far from the Mission ofSanta Cruz

,Where they

int ended passing the night . They were overcome withfat igue

,and suffered from th irst . The heat increased as

the storm drew near,and they had no t me t with a Single

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8 6 EACH AT CUMANA .

instead of passing be tween the island of Margareta and

the isthmus -of Araya. They accordingly started fromthe mission of Catuaro

,and proceeded to the town of

Cariaco,where they embarked in a canoe

,on the morn

ing ofthe 2 4 th . Quit t ing the t own they sailed we stwardalong the river of Carenicuar

,which ran through g ar

dens and plantat ions of co t ton t ree s . They saw the

Indian women on the banks washing the ir clo thes withthe fruit Of the soap-berry. Contrary winds be set themin the gulf of Cariaco . The rain fell in t orrent s

,and

the thunder ro lled very near. Swarms of flaming o es,egre ts

,and cormorant s filled the air

,seeking the shore

,

whil st the alcatras alone cont inued p eaceably to fish inthe middle of the gulf. They landed t ill evening

,and

then resumed their voyage,under a misty sky. In the

morning they saw the vultures perch ing on the cocoatrees

,in flo cks of forty or fifty.

At last they reach ed Cumana.

CHAPTER IH.

TOWARDS THE ORINOCO.

HUMBOLDT and Bonpland remained a mon th at Cu

mana,employing themselves in preparing for a vis it to

the Orinoc o and the Rio Negro . They had to choo sesuch instruments as could b e most easily transport ed in

narrow boat s ; and to engage guides for an inland j ourney of t en months

,acro ss a count ry without communica

t ion with the coast s . The astronomical de t erminat ion Ofplaces being the mo st important obj ect ofthis undertaking

,

Humboldt fe lt desirous no t to miss the observat ion ofan

eclipse of the sun,which was to b e visible at the end

ofOctober : and in consequence preferred remain ing t illthat period at Cumana

,where the sky was generally clear

and serene . It was now to o lat e t o reach the banks ofthe Orinoco before October ; and the high valleys ofCaracas promised less favourable Opportunit ies on ac

count of the vapours wh ich accumulat ed round the ne ighb ouring mountains .He was

,however

,near be ing compelled by a deplor

able occurrence,to renounce

,or at least delay for a long

t ime,his journey to the Orinoco . On the 2 7 th of Octo

b er,the day before the eclipse

,he and Bonpland went as

usual t o take the air on the Shore of the gulf,and to

observe the instant of high wat er,wh ich in those parts

8 8 FIGHT WITH THE ZAMBO .

was only twelve or th irteen inches . It was eigh t in theevening

,and the bre eze was no t ye t st irring. They

cro ssed the beach which separated the suburb of the

Guayqueria Indians from the landing-place . Here Humbo ldt heard some one walking beh ind them

,and on turn

ing he saw a tall Zambo,naked t o the waist . He

held almo st over Humbo ldt ’s head a st ick of palm-tree

Wo od,enlarged to the end like a club . Humbo ldt

avo ided the stroke by leaping towards the left ; b ut Bonpiand

,who walked on his rig ht , was less fortunat e . He

did no t see the Zambo as so on as Humbo ldt did,and re

ceiv ed a stroke above the t emple,wh ich levelled him

to the ground. The travellers were alone,without

arms,half a league from any habitat ion, on a vast plain

bounded b y the sea. The Zambo,inst ead of at tacking

Humbo ldt,moved off slowly to pick up Bonpland’s hat ,

wh ich,having somewhat deadened the vio lence of the

blow,had fallen off and lay at some distance . Alarmed

at see ing his companion on the ground,and for some

moment s sense less,Humboldt thought of him only.

He helped Bonpland t o raise h imse lf,and pain and anger

doubled his strength . They ran t owards the Zambo,who

,

e ither from cowardice,or because he perce ived at a dis

tance some men on the beach,did no t wait for them

,but

ran off in the direct ion of a lit tle thicke t of cactus. Hechanced to fall in running

,and Bonpland

,who reached

him first,se ized him round the body. The Zambo drew

a long knife and in th is unequal struggle the t rave llerswould infallibly have been wounded

,if some Biscayan

merchants,who were taking the air on the beach

,had

no t come to the ir assistance . The Zambo see ing himse lfsurrounded

,thought no longer of defence . He again

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90 THE EARTHQUAKE .

felt . The atmosphere was burning ho t,and the j e reb ed

and dusty ground was cracked on every side . On the

4 th of November,about two in the aft ernoon

,large

clouds ofpeculiar blackness enveloped the high mountainsof the Brigant ine and the Tataraqual. They extendedby degre es as far as the zenith . About four in the afternoon Humbo ldt and Bonpland heard thunder over the irheads

,at an immense he ight

,no t regularly rolling

,b ut

with a ho llow and Often interrupt ed sound. At the mo

ment of the strongest e lectric explosion,at twe lve minut es

past four,there were two shocks of earthquake , wh ich

fo llowed each o ther at the int erval of fifteen seconds.The people ran int o the stree t s

,ut tering loud cries. Bon

plaud,who was leaning over a table

,examining plant s

,

was almo st thrown on the flo or. Humbo ldt fe lt thesho ck very strongly

,though he was lying in a hammock.

Some slaves,who were drawing water from a well

e ight e en or twenty feet deep,near the river Manzanares

,

heard a no ise like the explosion of a strong charge of

gunpowder. The no ise seemed to come from the bo t tom

of the we ll.A few minut es before the first shock there was avery v io lent blast of wind

,fo llowed by e lectrical rain

,

falling in great drops . The Sky remained cloudy,

and the blast of wind was fo llowed by a dead calm,

which lasted all night . The sunse t presented a picture of extraordinary magnificence . The th ick ve ilof clouds was rent asunder, as in shreds, quite near the

horizon ; the sun appeared at 1 2 ° of alt itude on a sky

of indigo -blue . It s disk was enormously enlarged,dis

torted,and undulat ed t owards the edges. The clouds

were gilded ; and fascicles of divergent rays,reflect ing

MORE RED VAPOURS . 9 1

the mo st brilliant rainbow hues, ext ended over the heavens . A great crowd of people assembled in the publicsquare . This celestial phenomenon ,

the earthquake,the

thunder wh ich accompanied it,the red vapour seen dur

ing so many days,all were regarded as the effect of the

eclipse . About nine in the evening there was ano ther

shock,much slighter than the former

,b ut at tended with

a subterraneous noise . In the night between the 3d and

4 th of November the reddish vapour was so thick that

Humbo ldt could no t dist inguish the situat ion ofthe moon,

except by a beautiful halo of 2 0° diame ter.

The t rave llers had frequent Visit s from persons whowished to know whe ther the ir instrument s indicat ed newSho cks for the next day ; and alarm was great and general when

,on the 5th

,exact ly at the same hour as on the

pre ceding day, there was a vio lent gust ofwind, at t endedby thunder

,and a few drops of rain . No shock was

felt . The wind and storm returned during five or sixdays at the same hour, almo st at the same minut e .

The reddish vapour disappeared after the 7 th Of No

v emb er. The atmo sphere resumed its former purity,

and the firmament appeared,at the zenith

,of that deep

blue t int peculiar t o climat es where heat,light

,and a

great equality of e lectric charge seem all t o promo te themo st perfect disso lut ion ofwater in the air. Humbo ldtobserved

,on the nigh t of the 7 th

,the immersion of the

second sate llite ofJupit er. The be lt s of the planet weremore dist inct than he had ever seen them before .

The nigh t of the 1 l th was cool,and extremely fine .

From half after t wo in the morning,the mo st ex traordi

nary luminous me te ors were seen in the direct ion of the

east . Bonpland,who had risen to enjoy the freshness of

9 2 FALLING STARS .

the air,perceived them first . Thousands of bolides and

falling stars succeeded each o ther during the space of fourhours. No trace of clouds was to b e seen. From the

first appearance of the phenomenon,there was no t in the

firmament a space equal in ext ent to three diame ters ofthe moon

,which was no t filled every instant with bolides

and falling stars . The first were fewer in number,b ut

as they were of different sizes,it was impo ssible t o fix

the limit between these two classes of phenomena. Allthese met eors left luminous traces from 5° to 10° in

length . The pho sphorescence of these traces,or lumi

nous bands,last ed seven or eight seconds.

The phenomenon ceased by degree s after four o ’clock,

and the bolide s and falling stars became less frequent,

though Humbo ldt st ill dist inguished some t o the north

east by the ir whit ish light,and the rapidity of the ir

movement,a quart er of an hour after sunrise .

On the evening of the 1 6th ofNovember the travellersse t sail from Cumana for La Guayra

,descending the

lit t le river of Manzanares,the windings of which were

marked by cocoanut -trees . At high wat er they passedthe b ar at its mouth . The evening breeze gently swelledthe wave s in the gulf of Cariaco . The moon had no t

risen,but that part of the milky way which extended

from the fee t of the Centaur t owards the constellat ion of

Sagit tarius,seemed t o pour a silvery light over the sur

face of the o cean . The wh ite rock, crowned by the

castle of San Ant onio,appeared from t ime t o t ime b e

tween the high tops Of the cocoa-trees wh ich borderedthe shore

,and the voyagers soon recognised the coast s

only by the scat t ered light s of the Guayqueria fishermen .

As they advanced towards the shoal that surrounded

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9 4 PE STILENT FORESIS.

that day ; b ut the ir Indian pilo t be ing afraid of the priv ateers who were near that port

,thought it would b e

prudent t o make for land,and anchor in the lit t le b ar

bour of Higuero t e,wh ich they had already passed

,and

await the she lt er of night to pro ceed on the ir voyage .

They found ne ither village nor farm there,b ut merely

two or three huts,inhabite d by fishermen. The ir livid

hue,and the meagre condit ion of the ir children

,showed

the voyagers that this spo t was one of the most unhealthyof the who le coast . The sea had so lit t le depth alongthese shores

,that even with the smallest barks it was

impo ssible t o reach the shore without wading throughthe water. The forests came down nearly t o the beach

,

which was covered with thicke t s of mangroves,av icen‘

nias,and manch ineel-t re es. To these thicke t s

,and‘

par

ticularly to the exhalat ions Of the mangroves,Humbo ldt

at tributed the extreme insalubrity of the air. On quitt ing the boat s

,and wh ilst th ey were ye t one hundred

fe e t distant from the land,he perce ived a faint and

sickly smell,which reminded him of that diffused

through the galleries of deserted mines . The t emperature of the air rose t o heat ed by the reverberat ionfrom the white sands which fo rmed a line be tween the

mangrove s and the great trees of the forest . AS the

shore descended wi th a gent le Slope,small t ides were

sufficient alternat e ly t o cover and uncover the roo ts,and

part of the trunks of the mangroves . The sea-wat er,

along the who le coast,acquired a yellowish brown t int

,

wherever it came into contact with the mangrove trees .

The beache s around were covered with infinite numbersof mo lluscs and insect s. Loving shade and faint lightthey she ltered themselves from the Shock of the waves

CARACAS . 95

amid the scaffo lding of thick and int ertwining roo ts,

which rose like lat t ice -work above the surface of the

waters . Shell-fish clung t o th is lat tice ; crabs nest led inthe ho llow trunks ; and the seaweeds, drift ed to the coastby the winds and t ides

,remained suspended on the

branches which inclined towards the earth .

They set sail from th is noxious place at nightfall . A t

sunrise they were oppo site Caracas. The coast was

rocky and elevated,the scenery at once wil d and pictur

esque . They were sufficiently near land to dist inguishscat tered huts surrounded by cocoa-trees

,and masses of

vegetation,which stood out from the dark ground of the

rocks. The mountains were everywhere perpendicular,

and three or four thousand fee t h igh ; the ir Sides castbroad and deep Shadows upon the humid land

,which

stretched out t o the sea,glowing with the freshe st v er

dure . They soon saw the black rocks of La Guayra,

studded with bat teries rising in t iers one over ano ther ;

and in the misty distance,Cabo Blanco

,a long promon

t ory with conical summits,and of dazzling whiteness.

Humbo ldt and Bonpland remained two months at

Caracas,in a large house in the most elevated part of the

t own. From a gallery they could survey at once the

summit of the Saddl e,the serrated ridge of-the Galipano ,

and the charming valley of the Guayra,the rich culture

Of which was pleasingly cont rasted with the gloomy cur

tain of the surrounding mountains . It was in the dry

season,and t o improve the pasturage

,the savannahs and

the turf covering the steepest ro cks were set on fire .

These vast conflag rat ions, viewed from a distance, pro

duced the mo st singular effects of ligh t . Wherever thesavannahs

,fo llowing the undulating slope of the rocks

,

96 TIIE C . .TE OF THE SADDLE .

had filled up the furrows ho llowed out by the wat ers,the

flame appeared in a dark night like current s of lava suspended over the valley. The vivid b ut steady lightassumed a reddish t int

,when the wind

,descending from

the Saddle,ac cumulated streams of vapour in the low

regions . At o ther t imes these luminous bands,env e

loped in thick clouds, appeared only at intervals where itwas clear ; and as the clouds ascended the ir edges re

flect ed a Splendid ligh t . These various phenomena,so

common in the tropics,acquired addit ional int erest from

the form of the mountains,the dire ct ion of the Slopes

,

and the he ight of the savannahs covered with alpinegrasses. During the day, the wind of Pe tare

,blowing

from the east,drove the smoke towards the t own

,and

diminished the transparency of the air.

On the morning of the 3d ofJanuary they commencedthe ascent of the Saddle

,a celebrat ed mountain near

Caracas . The party consisted of e ight een persons,and

they al l walked one behind ano ther,in a narrow path

,

traced on a steep acclivity, covered with turf. Theyreached a h ill

,connected with the body of the mountain

,

and called the Gat e of the Saddle . Here they cro ssed anarrow dyke of ro cks

,which led t o the ridge of the

mountain,and looked down on two valleys

,filled with

th ick vege tat ion. In one of these valleys they heard theroaring ofwat erfalls

,which they could no t see

,they were

so thickly hidden in groves Offig -trees .From the Gate of the Saddle the

'

steepness of the‘

ascent increased,and they were obliged t o incline their

bodies considerably forwards as they advanced. Theyfel t the wan t of cramp-irons, or st icks shod wi th iron.

Short grass covered the rocks of‘gne iss, and it was

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9 8 THE PROFE SSOR’S COURAGE FAILS .

He had provided himself with long slips ofwhite paper,

which were to b e cut,and flung on the savannah

,t o ia

dicate t o tho se who might stray beh ind,the direct ion

they ought to fo llow. The professor had even promisedthe friars of his order t o fire of some rocke ts

,to an

nounce to the who le town of Caracas that they had succ eeded in an ent erprise which to him appeared of the

u tmo st importance . He had forgo t ten that his long andheavy garment s would embarrass him in the ascent .Having lost courage long before the Creoles

,he passed

the rest Of the day in a ne ighbouring plantat ion,gazing

at the t ravellers through a glass direct ed t o the Saddle,

as they climbed the moun tain. Unfortunate ly for them,

however,he had taken charge Of the water and the provi

sion so necessary in an excursion t o the mountains. The

slaves who were t o rej o in them were so long detained byhim

,that they arrived very lat e

,and the travellers were

t en hours without e ither bread or wat er.

They were some t ime s so enveloped with mist that theycould no t without difficulty find their way. At this

height there was no path,and they were obliged t o climb

with the ir hands,when the ir fee t failed them

,on the

steep and slippery ascent . Aft er pro ceeding for the

space of four hours acro ss the savannahs,they entered

into a lit tle wood compo sed of shrubs and small trees.The steepness of the mountain became less considerable

,

and they felt an indescribable pleasure in examining theplant s of this region . Quit t ing the wo od they foundthemse lves again in a savannah . They climbed over apart of the western dome

,in order to descend int o the

ho llow of the Saddl e , a valley wh ich separat ed the twoSummits of the mountain. They had great difficul ties

LOST IN THE M ST. 9

t o overcome here,occasioned by the force of the vege ta

tion,and were obliged to cut the ir way through th is

forest : the neg roes walked before them with cut lasse s,

chopping down the limbs that opposed them .

On a sudden they found themse lves enveloped in a

thick mist ; the compass alone could guide them . In

advancing northward they were in danger at every stepof finding themselves on the brink of an enormous wallof rocks

,which descended almost perpendicularly to the

depth of six thousand feet towards the sea. They wereobliged t o hal t . Surrounded by clouds sweeping the

ground,they began to doubt whether they should reach

the east ern peak before night . Happily,the negroe s

who carried the ir water and provisions,rejo ined them

,

and they reso lved t o take some refre shment . The ir repast did no t last long. As it was only two o

’clo ck inthe afternoon

,they ent ertained some hope of reach ing

the eastern summit of the Saddle before sunse t,and of

re -descending int o the valley separat ing the two peaks,

intending there t o pass the night,t o light a great fire

,

and t o make the ir ne g ro es construct a hut . They sentoff half Of the ir servant s with orders to hasten the nextmorning to mee t them with a supply of salt beef. Theyhad scarce ly made these arrangements when the east

wind began t o blow vio lently from the sea. In less thantwo minu te s the clouds dispersed

,and the two domes of

the Saddle appeared singularly near.

They shaped their course t o the eas tern summit,which

they were three-quart ers of an hour in reaching. Theywere now over eigh t thousand fe et h igh

,and they gazed

on an ext ent of sea,the radius of which was thirty-six

leag ues. It was as smoo th as glass,b ut in the distance

100 THE LITTLE ANGELS.

it was lost in the strata of air. They expected,as at

Teneriffe,to see the horizon level with the eye , b ut in

stead of dist inguishing a marked limit be tween the two

elements,the distant strata of wat er seemed to b e trans

fo rmed into vapour, and mingled with the aerial ocean .

The western dome of the Saddle concealed from them

the View of the town of Caracas ; but they dist in

g uished the nearest houses,the villages of Chacao and

Pe tare,the coffee plantat ions

,and the course of the Rio

Guayra,a slender streak of water reflect ing a silvery

light .While they were examining with the ir glasses thatpart of the sea

,the horizon ofwh ich was clearly defined

,

and the chain of the mountains of Ocumare,behind

which began the unknown world of the Orino co and the

Amazon,a thick fo g from the plains rose to the e levat ed

regions,first filling the bo t tom of the valley of Caracas.

The vapours,il lumined from above

,presented a uniform

tint of a milky white . The valley seemed overspreadwith water

,and looked like an arm of the sea

,ofwhich

th e adjacent mountains formed the steep shore .

Seat ed on the rock,Humbo ldt was de t ermining the

dip of the ne edle,when he found his hands covered with

a species ofhairy b ee , a lit t le smaller than the honey-b ee

of the north of Europe . These insects make the ir nestsin the ground . The people

,in these reg ions, call them

lit tle angels,because they seldom st ing.

The fo g became so dense that it would have been imprudent to remain any longer, so they descended. It

was now half-past four in the aft ernoon . Sat isfied withthe success of the ir journey, they forgo t that there mightb e danger in descending in the dark

,steep declivit ies

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102 THE ZAMANG DEL GUAYRE .

at the elevat ion of eight een thousand fee t,the barking

ofdogs is some t imes heard.

They did no t arrive t ill t en at night at the bo t tom of

the valley. They were overcome with fat igue and th irst,

having walked for fifteen hours, nearly without stopping.The so les of the ir fee t were cut and torn by the aSperi

t ies of a rocky so il and the hard and dry stalks, for they

had been obliged t o pull off their boo ts,the so les having

b ecome too slippery.

They passed the night at the fo o t of the Saddle .

On the 7 th of February they departed from Caracas,

en rou te for the banks of the Orinoco . No thing worthyofno t e o ccurred for several days.No t far from the v illage of Turmero

,they discovered

at a league distant,an obj ect

,which appeared at the

horizon like a round hillock,or tumulus

,covered with

vege tation. It was ne ither a hill,nor a group of t rees

clo se to each o ther,b ut one single t re e

,the famous

Zamang del Guayre , known throughout the province forthe enormous ext ent of its branches

,which fo rmed a

hemispheric head fiv e hundred and seventy-six fee t incircumference . The zamang is a fine specie s of mimosa

,

and its tort uouSbranches are divided by bifurcat ion.

Its de licate and t ender fo liage was agreeably relieved on

the azure Of the sky. They stopped a long t ime underth is vege table roof. The trunk of the Zamang del Guayrewas only sixty fee t high

,and nine thick ; its real beauty

consist ed in the form of its head. The branche s ext ended like an immense umbrella

,and bent toward the

ground,from which they remained at a uniform distance

of twe lve or fifteen fee t . The circumference of thishead was so regular

,that

,having traced different diame

FR IGHTENED BY A JAGUAR . 103

t ers,Humboldt found them one hundred and ninety-two

,

and one hundred and eighty-six fe et . One side of the

tree was entirely stripped of its fo liage,owing to the

drought ; b ut on the o ther side there remained bo thleaves and flowers ; parasites covered its branches, andcracked the bark. The inhabitant s of the adjacentVil lages

,part icularly the Indians

,he ld in great venera

t ion the Z amang del Guayre , wh ich the first conquerorsfound almo st in the same stat e in which it now remains.

Humbo ldt considered it at least as o ld as the Oro tavadragon-tree .

On the 2 1 st,in the evening

,the travellers set out for

Guacara and Nueva Valencia. They preferred travelling by night

,on account of the excessive heat of the

day. The road was bordered with large zamang-trees,

the trunks ofwhich ro se sixty fee t high . The ir branches,

nearly horizontal, me t at more than one hundred and

fifty fee t distance . The night was gloomy : the Rincondel Diablo with its dent iculat ed rocks appeared fromt ime t o t ime at a distance

,illumined by the burning of

the savannahs,or wrapped in ruddy smoke . A t the

Spo t where the bushes were thickest,the ir horses were

fright ened by the yell ofan animal that seemed to fo llowthem clo sely. It was a large jaguar

,which had roamed

for three years among these mountains. He had con

stant ly escaped the pursuits of the bo ldest hunters,and

had carried Off horses and mules from the midst Of inclosures ; b ut , having no want of food

,had no t ye t at

tacked men. The negro who conducted the trave llersut te red wild cries

,expect ing by these means to fii g hten

the jaguar,b ut his effo rts were ineffectual .

On the morning of the 2 7 th they visit ed the ho t Springs

104 THE COW TREE .

of La Trinchera. Next to the Springs of U rijino , in Ja

pan , the waters of La Trinchera are the ho t test in the

world . Humbo ldt -and Bonpland breakfasted near them,

and found that eggs plunged into the water bo iled in lessthan four minut es . The heat became st ifling as they approached the coast . A reddish vapour filled the horizon.

It was near sunset,and the breeze was no t ye t st irring.

The river of ho t water,along the banks of which they

passed,became deeper. A crocodile

,more than nine fee t

long,lay dead on the strand. Humboldt wished t o ex

amine its t eeth,and the inside of its mouth ; b ut having

been exposed to the sun for several weeks,it exhaled a

smell so fet id that he was obliged t o relinquish his designand remount his horse .

Be tween Porto Cabe llo and the valleys ofAragua theysaw a remarkable tree . They had heard

,several weeks

before,ofa tree

,the sap ofwhich was a nourish ing milk.

It was called ‘the cow-tree

’

; and they were assuredthat the negro es

,who drank plent ifully of this vege table

milk,considered it a who lesome aliment . All the milky

juices of plant s be ing acrid,bit t er

,and more or less

po isonous,this account appeared t o them very extraordi

nary ; but they found by experience during the ir stay in

the neighbourhood, that the virtues Of this tree had no t

been exaggerat ed. It ro se like the broad-leaved star

apple . Its oblong and po inted leaves, rough and alternate

,were marked by lat eral ribs

,prominent at the

lower surface and parallel . Some of them were t en

inches long. They did no t see the flower : the fruit wassomewhat fleshy

,and contained one and somet imes t wo

nuts . When incisions were made in the trunk it yieldedan abundance of glut inous milk, t o lerably thick, devo id

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106 SICK L’

UT PROUD .

his tail ; and, le t t ing fall the rest of his body,swings

h imself t ill In one ofhis oscillat ions he reaches the neighb ouring branch . The w Jle file performs the samemovements on the same snot . The Indians to ld the

travellers that when the mOrik eys filled the forests withtheir howling

,there was always one that chaunted as

leader of the chorus . During a long interval one so litary and strong vo ice was generally dist inguished

,t ill

its place was taken by ano ther vo ice of a different pitch .

’

The Missionari es assert ed that when a female amongthem was on the po int of bringing forth

,the cho ir sus~

pended its howlings till the moment of the birth Of theyoung.

At Guigue they lodged with an o ld sergeant,a nat ive

ofMurcia,a man ofa very original character. To prove

t o them that he had s tudied among the Jesuit s,he re

cited the h istory of the creation of the world in Lat in.

He knew the names of Augustus, Tiberius, and Dioclet ian ; and while enj oying the agreeable coo lness of thenigh t s in an inclo sure planted with bananas

,he employed

h imself in reading all that related to the courts of theRoman emperors. He inquired ofHumbo ldt for a remedy

for the gout,from which he suffered severely Iknow

,

said he,

“a Zambo of Valencia

,a famous cum

'

oso,who

could cure me ; b ut the Zambo would expect to b e treatedwith at tent ions wh ich I canno t pay t o a man of his

colour,so I prefer remaining as I am .

In the Mesa de Paja,in the n inth degree of lat itude

,

th ey ent ered the basin of the Llano s. The sun was

almo st at its zenith ; the earth,wherever it appeared

st erile and dest itute of vegetation,was at the temperature

of 1 18°

or No t a breath of air was felt at the height

THE LLANOS . 107

at which they were on the ir mules ; ye t , in the midst ofthis apparent calm

,whirls of dust incessant ly aro se

,

driven on by small current s ”1 air which glided over thesurface of the ground

,and were occasioned by the differ.

ence of temperature b e twc i t the naked sand and the

Spo ts covered with grass . These sand-w inds augment edthe suffocating heat of the air. Every grain of quart z

,

ho t ter than the surroun ding air,radiat ed heat in al l

direct ions ; and it was diflicult for Humbo ldt t o Observethe temperature of the atmo sphere

,owing t o the particles

of sand striking against the bulb of the thermome ter.

All around the plains seemed to ascend t o the sky,and

the vast and profound so litude appeared like an oceancovered with sea-weed The horizon in some part s wasclear and dist inct

,in o ther part s it appeared undulat ing

,

s inuous,and as if striped . The earth there was con

founded with the sky. Through the dry mist and strataof vapour the trunk s of palm-trees were seen from afar

,

stripped of the ir fo liage and their verdant summits,and

looking like the mast s of a sh ip descried upon the horizon. There was some thing awful

,as well as sad and

gloomy,in the uniform aspect of these steppes . Every

thing seemed mo t ionless ; scarcely did a small cloud,

passing acro ss the zenith,and deno t ing the approach of

the rainy season,cast its shadow on the earth .

The chief characterist ic of these steppe s was the ab so o

lut e want of hills and inequalit ie s— the perfect leve l of

every part Of the so il . Often with in a distance of thirtysquare leagues there was no t an eminence of a foo t high.

Afte r having passed two n ights on horseback, and

sough t in vain,by day, for some shel t er from the heat

of the sun beneath the t ufts of the palm-trees , they

108 THE HERDSMEN OF THE LLANOS .

arrived at a litt le farm. It was a solitary house in the

steppes,surrounded by a few small huts

,covered with

reeds and Skins. The cat t le,oxen

,horses

,and mules ‘

were no t penned, b ut wandered freely over an extent ofseveral square leagues. There was nowhere any inclo

~

sure ; men,naked to the waist and armed with lances

,

rode over the savannahs to inspect the animals,bringing

back tho se that wandered t oo far from the pastures ofthe farm

,and branding all that did no t already bear the

m ark of the ir proprietor. These mulat toe s were partlyfreed-men and part ly slaves . They were constan tly ex

po sed t o the burning heat of the tropical sun. Theirfood was meat dried in the air

,and a lit t le salt ed ; and

of this even the ir horses some t ime s parto ok. Be ingalways in the saddle

,they fancied they could no t make

the sligh test excursion on foo t . The travellers found anOld “

negro slave,who managed the farm in the absence

of his master. He to ld them of herds compo sed of

several thousand cows, that were grazing in the st eppes ;ye t they asked in

“

vain for a bowl of milk. They wereoffered

,in a calabash

,some ye llow, muddy, and fe t id

wat er,drawn from a neighbouring pool . The indo lence

of the inhabitant s of the Llano s was such that they didno t dig wells

,though they knew that almo st everywhere

,

at te n fe e t de ep,fine springs were found . After suffering

during one half of the year from the effect of inundat ions

,they quiet ly resigned themselve s

,during the o ther

half,t o the mo st distressing deprivat ion of water. The

old negro advised the trave llers t o cover the cup witha linen clo th

,and drink as through a filt er

,that they

might no t b e incommoded by the sme ll,and might swal

low less of the yellowish mud suspended in the water.

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1 10 NIGHT IN TIIE LLANOS .

rounded by short grass. They could no t flatter themse lves that the ir guides would come in search of them inthe savannah before they had prepared the ir food and

finished the ir repast . Whilst somewhat perplexed bythe uncertainty of the ir situat ion

,- they were agreeably

affected by hearing from afar the sound of a horse ad

v ancing t owards them . The rider was an Indian,armed

with a lance,who had j ust made the round

,in order to

co llect the cat t le . The sight of two whit e men,who said

they had lo st the ir way, led him at first to suspect sometrick. They found it difficult t o inspire him with con

fidence ; he at las t consent ed to guide them to the farm,

but without slackening the gent le tro t of his horse .

The ir guides assured them that they had alreadybegun to b e uneasy about them ; and

,to justify this

inquietude,they gave a long enumerat ion of persons

who , having lo st themse lves in the Llanos,

‘

had beenfound nearly exhausted.

In order to escape as much as po ssible from the heat

of the day, they se t off at two in the morning,with the

hOpe ofreach ing before no on Calabozo,a small b ut busy

trading-t own,Situat ed in the midst of the Llano s. The

aspect of the country was st ill the same . There was no

moonlight ; b ut the great masses of nebulae that spo t tedthe southern sky enlightened

,as they se t

,a part of the

t erre strial horizon. The so lemn spectacle of the starryvault

,seen in its immense expanse —the co o l bre eze

wh ich blew over the plain during the nig h t z— the wavingmo t ion of the grass

,wherever it had at tained any he ight ;

everything recalled to the ir minds the surface of the

o cean . The illusion was deepened when the disk of

the sun appearing on the horizon,repeated its imag e by

E FFECT OF THE MIRAGE . 1 1 1

the effects of refract ion,and

,soon lo sing its flattened

form,ascended rapidly and straigh t t owards the zenith .

In proport ion as the sun ro se towards the zenith,and

the earth and the strata of superincumbent air tookdifferent t emperatures

,the phenomenon of the mirage

displayed itself in its numerous modificat ions . Th e

lit t le current s of air that swept the surface of the soil

had so variable a temperature that,in a drove of wild

oxen,one part appeared with the legs raised above the

surface of the ground,wh il e the o ther res ted on it .

A we ll-informed person assured them,that he had seen

,

be tween Cal abozo and U ritucu,the image of an animal

inverted,without there being any direct image . They

several t imes though t they saw on the horizon the figuresof tumul i and towers

,which disappeared at intervals

,

without the ir being able to discern the real shape of the

obj ects . They were hil locks perhaps,or small emi

nences.

The plain assumed at sunrise a more anim

The cat t le which had repo sed during the night along thepo o ls

,or beneath clumps ofmaurit ias and rhopalas, were

now co llecte d in he rds ; and these so litudes be camepeopled with horses

,mules

,and oxen

,that lived here

free,without se t t led habitat ions

,and disdaining the care

and pro tect ion ofman .

They found at Calabozo,in the mids t of the Llano s

,

an e lectrical mach ine with large plates,electrophori

,

bat teries,and e lectrome ters ; an apparatus nearly as com

ple t e as the first scientific men in Europe po sse ssed . It

was the work of a man who had never seen any instru

ment,who had no person t o consult

,and who was

acquainte d with the phenomena of e lectricity only by

1 1 2 THE SELF-TAU GIIT ELE CTRICIAN .

reading the treat ise of De Lafond,

and Franklin’sMemo irs . Sefior Carlo s del Po zo

,the name of this

ingenious man,had begun t o make cylindrical e lectrical

machines,by employing large glass jars

,after having cut

off the necks . It was only a few years before that he

had been able to procure,by way of Philadelph ia, two

plat es,t o construct a plate machine

,and to obtain more

considerable effects. It is easy t o j udge what difficult iesSenor Po zo had t o encounter

,since the first works upon

e lectricity had fallen into his hands,and that he had the

courage t o reso lve t o procure himself,by his own industry

,

all that he had seen de scribed in his b ooks . Till now hehad enjoyed only the ast onishment and admirat ion produced by his experiment s on persons dest itut e of all

informat ion,and who had never quit ted the so litude of

the Llano s ; the abode of Humbo ldt and Bonpland at

Calabozo gave him a satisfact ion al together new . It

may b e supposed that he se t some value on the opinionsof two travellers who could compare his apparatus with

those constructed in Europe . Humbo ldt had broughtwith him e lectrome ters mount ed with straw

,pith-balls

,

and go ld-leaf also a small Leyden jar which served forhis physio logical experiment s. Senor del Pozo couldno t contain his joy on see ing for the first t ime instrumentswhich he had no t made

, yet which appeared t o b e Copiedfrom his own. Humbo ldt showed him the effect of thecontact of he terogeneous me tals on the nerves of frogs.The names ofGalvani andVo lta had no t previously beenheard in tho se vast so litudes.Next to the electrical apparatus

,no th ing at Calabozo

excit ed in the travellers so great an int erest as ! the

g ymno ti, wh ich were animat ed e lectrical apparatuses.

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1 1 4 BATTLE WITH E LE CTR ICAL EELS.

horses and mules. A cont est be tween animals of so

different an organizat ion present ed a very striking spec o

tacle . The Indians,provided with harpoons and long

slender reeds,surrounded the poo l clo se ly

,and some

climbed up the trees,the branches of which extended

horizontally over the surface of the water. By the irwild cries

,and the length of the ir reeds

,they prevented

the horses from running away and reaching the bank of

the poo l . The eels,stunned by the no ise

,defended

themselve s by the repeated discharge of their e lectricbatt eries . For a long interval they seemed likely to

prove victorious. Several horses sank beneath the v iolence of the invisible strokes which they rece ived fromall sides

,and stunned by the force and frequency of the

shocks,they disappeared under the wat er. Others

,pant

ing , with mane erect , andhaggard eyes expressing anguishand dismay

,raised themse lves

,and endeavoured to flee

from the storm by wh ich they were overtaken. Theywere driven back by the Indians into the middle of the

wat er ; b ut a small number succeeded in e luding the

act ive vig ilance of the fishermen. These regained the

shore , stumbling at every step, and stre tched themselveson the sand

,exhaust ed with fat igue

,and with limbs

benumbed by the electric shocks of the g ymno ti.In less than fiv e m inut es two of the horses weredrowned. The ee ls be ing fiv e fee t long, and pressing

themselve s against the be lly of the horse s,made a dis

charge . along the who le ext ent of the ir e lectric organ.

They at tacked at once the heart,the intest ines

,and the

coeliac fo ld of the abdominal nerves . The horses wereprobably no t killed

,b ut only stunned . They —were

drowned from the impossibility of rising amid the

THE INDIAN GIRL IN THE LLANOS. 1 1 5

prolonged struggle be tween the o ther horses and the

eels .The travellers had lit t le doubt that the fishing would terminate by killing successively all the animals engaged ;but by degrees the impe tuo sity of this unequal combatdiminished

,and the wearied g ymno ti dispersed. They re

quired a long rest,and abundant nourishment

,t o repair

the galvanic force which they lo st . The mules and horsesappeared less fright ened ; their manes were no longerbrist led

,and their eyes expressed less dread . The g ym

no t i approached t imidly the edge of the marsh,where

they were taken by means of small harpoons fast ened t olong cords . When the cords were dry the Indians fe ltno shock in raising the fish into the air. In a few min

ut es Humbo ldt had fiv e large e els,mo st of which were

b ut sligh t ly wounded. Some o thers were taken,by the

same means,t owards evening.

The travellers left the t own of Calabozo on the 2 4 th,

highly sat isfied with the ir stay,and the experiments they

had made on an object so worthy of the at t ent ion of

physiologist s. As they advanced into the southern partof the Llano s

,they found the ground more dusty more

dest itut e of herbage,and more cracked by the effect of

long drought . The palm-t rees disappeared by degrees .The calmer the air appeared at eight or t en feet high

,the

more they were enve loped in tho se whirlwinds of dust,

caused by the current s ofair that swept the ground. In

the afternoon they found a young Indian girl stre tchedupon the savannah . She was almo st in a stat e ofnudity

,

and appeared to b e about twe lve or thirt e en years of ag e .

Exhausted with fat igue and thirs t,her eyes

,no strils

,and

mouth filled with dust,she breathed with a rat t ling in

1 1 6 FORDING THE URITUCU .

her throat,and was unable t o answer their quest ions .

A pitcher,overturned

,and half-filled with sand

,was

lying at her side . Happily one of the ir mules was laden

w ith water ; and they roused the g irl from her le thargicstate by bathing her face

,and forcing her to drink a few

drops ofwine . She was at first alarmed on see ing herself surrounded by so many persons ; but by degrees shetook courage

,and conversed with the ir guides. She

j udged,from the po sit ion of the sun

,that she must have

remained during several hours in that stat e of le thargy .

They could no t prevail on her t o mount one of the irbeasts of burden

,and she would no t re t urn to U ritucu .

She had been in service at a neighbouring farm ; and shehad been discharged

,because at the end of a long sick

ness she was le ss able t o work than before . The irmenaces and prayers were alike fruitle ss ; insensible tosuffering

,she persist ed in her re so lut ion of going t o one

of the Indian Missions near the city of Calabozo . They

removed the sand from her pitcher,and filled it with

wat er. She resumed her way along the st eppe before

they had remounted the ir horses, and was so on separatedfrom them by a cloud of dust . During the night theyforded the river U ritucu wh ich abounded with a breed

o f cro codiles remarkable for the ir fero city. They were

advised t o prevent the ir dogs from go ing to drink in the

rivers,for it often happened that the cro codiles of U ri

t ucu came out of the wat er, and pursued dogs upon the

shore .They were shown a hut

,in which their host of

Calabozo had witnessed a very extraordinary scene .

Sleeping with one of his friends on a bench or couchcovered with leather, he was awakened early in the

morning by a vio lent shaking and a ho rrible no is

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1 l 8 SAN FERNAND O.

Often saw them perched upon the hammocksthey were reposing

,in Open day.

On the 2 7 th of March they arrived at

San Fernando,the capital of the Mission Of

ch ins,in the province Of Varinas.

CHAPTER IV

UP THE ORINOCO.

THE next journey that the trave llers made was t o theOrino co . In the afte rno on Of the 30th Of March

,they

se t sail from San Fernando in a large cano e,managed by

a pil o t and four Indians. They constructed,near the

stern,a cabin covered with palm -leaves

,sufficient ly

spacious to contain a t able and benches. The se weremade Of ox -hides

,strained t ight

,and nailed to fl ame s of

brazil-wood. The cano e was loaded with provisions fora month ; fowls, eggs, plantains, cassava, and co coa, no tforget ting sherry wine , oranges

,and tamarinds

,which

were given them by the Capuchins .They soon ent ered a land inhabite d only by tigers

,

crocodiles,and tapirs. They saw flocks of birds, crowded

SO close ly together as t o appear against the sky like a

dark cloud which every instant changed its form . The

river widened by degrees . One of its banks was barrenand sandy from the effect of inundat ions ; the o ther was

h igher,and covered with lofty trees . In some parts the

river was bordered by forests on each side,and formed a

straight canal nine hundred fee t broad . The manner inwhich the trees were disposed was remarkable . Firstwere bushe s Of sanso

,forming a kind Of hedge four feet

l 2 0 CROCODILES .

high,and appearing as if they had been clipped by the

hand Ofman. A copse of cedar,brazille t to

,and lignum

vitae rose beh ind this hedge . Palm-trees were rare . The

large quadrupeds Of those regions,the jaguars

,tapirs

,

and peccaries had made openings in the hedge Of sauso,

through which they passed when they came t o drink at

the river. As they feared b ut lit t le the approach Of aboat

,the trave llers had the pleasure Of viewing them as

they paced slowly along the shore t ill they disappearedin the forest

,which they ent ered by one of the narrow

passes left at intervals be tween the bushe s.When the shore was of considerable breadth

,the hedge

Of sauso remained at a distance from the river. In the

int ermediat e space they saw cro codiles,some t imes t o the

number of e igh t or t en,stre tched on the sand. Mo t ion

less,with the ir jaws wide Open

,they repo sed by each

o ther,without displaying any Of those marks Of affec

t ion Observed in o ther animals living in socie ty . The

t roop separat ed as so on as they quit ted the shore . Thesemonstrous creature s were so numerous

,that throughout

the who le course of the river almo st at every instant fiveor six were in view. Ye t at this period the swelling Ofthe Rio Apure was scarce ly perceived ; and consequent lyhundreds Of crocodile s were st ill buried in the mud

‘

Of

the savannahs . About four in the afternoon Humbo ldtstopped to measure a dead cro codile which had beencast ashore . It was sixte en fee t e igh t inches long ; somedays aft er Bonpland found ano ther

,a male

,twenty-two

fe e t three inches long. The Indians to ld them that at

San Fernando scarce ly a year passed without t wo or

three grown-up persons, part icularly women who fe tchedwater from the river

,be ing devoured by these carniv o

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1 2 2 THE JAGUAR AND THE VULTURE S.

descending the river,they had some difficulty in turn ng

quickly about . A large do g , wh ich had accompaniedhim in his journey from Caracas to the Rio Negro

,was

one day pursued in swimming by an ene rmous crocodile .

The lat ter had nearly reached its prey,when the do g

escaped by t urning round suddenly and swimmingagainst the current . The cro codile performed the samemovement

,but much more slowly than the do g , which

succeeded in gaining the shore .

Near the Joval the travellers saw the largest jaguarthey had ever met with . The nat ives themselves wereastonished at its prodigious length

,wh ich surpassed that

Of any Bengal t iger ever seen in the museums Of Europe .

The animal lay stre tched beneath the shade Of a largezamang. It had j ust killed a tapir

,but had

,no t ye t

t ouched its prey,on which it kept one ofits paws . The

zamuro vultures were assembled in great numbers t odevour the remains of the jag uar

’s repast . They pre

sent ed the mo st curious spectacle , by a singular mixtureOf bo ldness and t imidity. They advanced within the distance of two feet from the animal

,but at the least move

ment he made they drew back . In order t o Observemore nearly the manners Of these creatures

,Humboldt

and Bonpland went int o the lit t le skiff that accompan iedthe ir cano e . Tigers very rare ly at tack boat s by swimming t o them ; and never but when the ir fero city ishe ightened by a long privat ion of food . The no ise Ofthe ir oars led the animal t o rise slowly

,and hide it self

beh ind the sanso bushe s that bordered the shore . The

vultures tried t o profit by th is moment of absence t odevour the tapir ; b ut the t iger

,no twi thstanding the

proximity of the bo at,leaped into the midst Of them

,

DON IGNACIO POMPOSO. 1 2 3

and in a fit Of rage , expressed by his gait and the movement of his tail

,carried off his prey to the forest .

Cont inuing to descend the river,they met with a

great herd Of tapirs wh ich the t iger had put to flight,and

from whom he had se lect ed his prey. These animals sawthem land very unconcernedly ; some were seated, andgazed upon them

,moving

'

the upper lip like rabbit s .They seemed no t t o b e afraid Of man

,but the sight of the

do g put them to flight . Their h ind legs be ing longerthan the ir fore legs

,their pace was a sligh t gallop

,b ut

with so lit t le swiftne ss that the travellers succeeded incatch ing two Of them .

They passed the night in the Open air,though in a

plantat ion,the proprie tor Of which employed himself in

hunt ing t igers . He wore scarce ly any clo thing, and wasOf a dark brown complexion like a Zambo . This did no tprevent his classing himself among the whit es . He calledhis wife and his daughter

,who were as naked as himse lf

,

Doria Isabella and Dona Manuela. Without havingever quit ted the banks Of the Apure

,he to ok a lively

interest in the news Of Madrid,enquiring eagerly re

spect ing “tho se never-ending wars

,and everyth ing down

yonder.

” He knew,he said

,that the king was soon t o

come and visit the grandees Of the country of Caracas,

b ut he added with some pleasantry,

“as the people of

the court can eat only wheaten bread, they will never

pass beyond the t own Of Victoria,and we shall no t see

them here . Humboldt had brough t with him a tapir

which he had int ended t o have roaste d ; bu t his ho st

assured him that such ‘Indian game ’was no t food fit

for white gent lemen like the travellers and himself.Accordingly he Offered them some venison, which he

1 2 4 DRENCHE D IN THE TEMPE ST.

had killed the day before with an arrow,for he had

ne ither powder nor fire -arms.They suppo sed that a small wood of plantain-trees

concealed the b ut of the farm ; b ut th is man,so proud

Of his nobility and the colo ur ofhis skin,had no t taken

the trouble of construct ing even a hut Of palm-leave s .

He invited them to have the ir hammocks hung near his

own,be tween two tree s ; and he assured them with an

air Of complacency,that

,if they came up the rive r in the

rainy season,they should find him beneath a roof. They

soon had reason t o complain of a system of philosophywh ich was indulgent to indo lence

,and rendered a man

indifferent to the conveniences Of life . A furious windaro se after midnight

,ligh tnings flashed over the horizon,

thunder ro lled,and they were we t to the skin. During

this storm a whimsical incident served to amuse themfor a moment . Doria Isabella’s cat had perched uponthe tamarind-tree

,at the foo t of wh ich they lay. It fe ll

into the hammock Of one Of the ir companions, who be inghurt by the claws Of the cat

,and suddenly aroused from

a profound sleep,imagined he was at tacked by some

wild beast of the fore st . They ran to him on hearinghis cries

,and had some trouble to Convince him of his

error. While it rained in t orrents on the ir hammocksand on the ir instrument s which they had brought ashore

,

their host congratulat ed them on the ir good fortunein no t sleeping on the strand

,b ut finding themselves in

his domain,among wh it es and persons Of respectability.

We t as they were , they could no t easily persuade them

se lves of the advantages of the ir situat ion,and they

listened with some impat ience t o the long narrat ivewhich he gave Of his pretended expedit ion to the

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1 2 6 PORPOISES AND BIRDS .

party,and which t ill then had never ceased barking ,

began t o howl and seek for shelter beneath the ir hammocks. Some t imes

,aft er a long silence

,the cry Of the

t iger came from the tops of the tre es ; and then it wasfo llowed by the sharp and long whist ling of the monkeys

,

which appeared t o flee from the danger that threatenedthem . When the nat ives were interrogat ed on the causesof the tremendous no ise made by the beast s of the forestat certain hours Of the nigh t

,they answered

,

“ They are

keeping the feast Of the full moon .

”

The travellers set sail on the 2 d ofApril . The morning was beautiful and co ol . The porpo ises ploughedthe river in long files . The shore was covered with fishing

-birds,Some Of these perched on the float ing wood as

it passed down the river,and surprised the fish that pre

ferred the middle Of the stream . The cano e was agroundseveral t imes during the morning. These shocks weresufficient ly vio lent to split a light bark . They werecaused by the limbs of large trees, which had remained

for years in an Oblique posit ion,sunk in the mud.

Reach ing a spo t near the island Of Carizales,they saw

trunks of the locust-tree,Of an enormous size

,above the

surface Of the wat er. They were covered with a specie sOf plo tas

,nearly resembling the whit e bellied darter.

These birds perched in files,like pheasants

,and re

mained for hours ent irely mo t ionless,with their beaks

raised towards the sky.

It rained t owards evening,and before the rain fe ll

,

swallows skimmed over the surface of the wat er. Theysaw also a flock Of paroque ts pursued by lit t le go shawks.The piercing cries of these paroque ts contras ted singularly with the whistling Of the birds of prey. They

IN DANGER FROM A JAGUAR . 1 2 7

passed the nigh t in the Open air,upon the beach near

the island ofCarizales. There were several Indian hutsin the ne ighbo urhood

,surrounded with plantat ions .

The ir pilo t assured them beforehand that they shouldno t hear the cries of the jaguar

,wh ich

,when no t ex

t remely pre ssed by hunger, withdraws from places wherehe do es no t re ign unmo lest ed.

“ Men put him out of

humour,

” said the people in the Missions.They stopped at noon the next day in a spo t called

Al godonal. Leaving his companions whil e they drew theboat ashore and were occupied in preparing their dinner

,

Humbo ldt went along the beach t o g et a near view of agroup Of cro codiles sleeping in the sun

,and lying in such

a manner as to have the ir tails rest ing on one ano ther.

Some lit t le herons,wh ite as snow

,walked along the ir

backs,and even upon the ir heads as if passing over

trunks of tree s. The crocodiles were of a g re enish gray,half covered with dried mud from the ir co lour and im

mobility they might have been t aken for bronze statues.This excursion had nearly proved fatal t o him . He hadkept his eyes constant ly t urned towards the river ; but ,wh ilst picking up some spangles of mica agglomeratedtoge ther in the sand

,he discovered the recent foo t st eps

of a t iger,easily distinguishable from the ir form and size .

The animal had gone t owards the forest,and turn ing his

eye s on that side,he found h imse lf with in e ighty paces

Of.

a t iger that was lying under the thick fo liage Of a

ce iba. NO t iger ever appeared to him so large .

He was extremely alarmed, ye t sufficient ly master Of

h imse lf and of his mo t ions to enable him t o fo llow the

advice wh ich the Indians had so’

oft en given him as to

how he ought to act in such cases. He cont inued to

1 2 8 TROUBLED WITH ZANCUDOS.

walk on wi thout running,avo ided moving his arms

,and

thought he Observed that the jaguar’s at tent ion was fixedon a herd of capybaras wh ich was cro ssing the river.

He then began t o re turn,making a large circuit t oward

the edge of the wat er. He was Often t empted t o lookback in order to assure h imse lf that he was no t pursued !Happily he yielded very tardily t o this desire . The

jaguar had remained mo t ionless . He arrived at the boatout Of breath

,and relat ed his adventure to the Indians.

They appeared very litt le interested by it ; ye t , after theparty had loaded the ir guns

,they accompanied him t o

the ce iba beneath which the jaguar had lain. He wasthere no longer.

The 4 th Of April was the last day that they passed on

the Rio Apure . During several days they had sufferedcruelly from the st ings of zancudo s

,which covered their

faces and hands . These insect s were gnat s,though very

different from tho se that they had seen in Europe . Theyappeared only aft er sunse t . The ir probo scis was so longthat

,when they fixed on the lower surface Of a hammo ck

,

they pierced through it and the thickest garment s witht he ir st ing.

The trave llers had intended to pass the night at theVuelta del Palmito

,b ut the number Of jaguars at that

part of the Apure was so great that the Indians foundtwo hidden behind the trunk Of a lo cust -tree

,at the

moment when they were go ing t o sling the ir hammocks.

Finding no trees t o wh ich they could suspend the ir hammocks

,they were obliged to sleep on ox-hides spread on

the ground . The boat s were too narrow and too full ofzancudo s to permit them t o pass the night in them .

In the place where they had landed their instruments,

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1 30 THE MOUNTAINS OE ENCARAMADA.

bare as the shores of the sea,re sembled at a distance

,

from the effect of the mirage,poo ls Of stagnant water.

These sandy shore s,far from fixing the limits of the

river,rendered them uncertain

,by enlarging or contract

ing them al ternately,according t o the variable act ion Of

the so lar rays .Struck with the extreme breadth Of the Orinoco

,b e

tween the mouth Of the Apure and the rock Curiquima,

Humbo ldt ascertained it by means Of a base measuredtwice on the western beach . The b ed of the Orino co

,at

low wat er,was over six thousand fee t broad ; b ut this

breadth was increased t o thirty-two thousand fee t in therainy season .

The travellers first pro ceeded south-west,as far as the

shore inhabit ed by the Guarico t o Indians on the left bankof the Orinoco

,and then advanced straigh t t owards the

south. The river was SO broad that the mountains OfEncaramada appeared t o rise from the wat er

,as if seen

above the horizon of the sea . They formed a cont inuedchain from east t o we st . These mountains were com

po sed Of enormous blocks Of granite,cleft and piled one

upon ano ther. What contributed ab o ve all to embellishthe scene at Encaramada was the luxuriance of vege tat ion that covered the sides Of the rocks

,leaving bare only

the ir rounded summit s . They looked like ancient ruinsrising in the midst Of a forest .In the port ofEncaramada they met with some Caribs

of Panapana. A cacique was go ing up the Orino co inhis cano e , to j o in in the famous fishing Of turt le

’s eggs.His canoe was rounded t oward the bo t tom

,and fo l

lowed by a smaller boat . He was seat ed beneath a sortof t ent

,constructed

,like the sail, Of palm-leaves . His

THE CARIES. 1 3 1

co ld and s ilent gravi ty,the respect with wh ich he was

treat ed by his at t endant s,everything deno t ed hint t o b e

a person Of importance . He was equipped,however

,in

the same manner as his Indians. They were all equallynaked

,armed with bows and arrows

,and painted with

ono to . The chief,the domest ics

,the furniture

,the boat

,

and the sail were all paint ed red. These Caribs weremen Of an almo st athle t ic stature ; they appeared to the

trave llers much taller than any Indians they had hithert oseen. The ir smooth and thick hair

,cut short on the

forehead like that Of chorist ers,the ir eyebrows paint ed

black,the ir look at once gloomy and animat ed

, g ave a

singular expression to the ir count enances . The women,

who were very tall,and disgusting from the ir want Of

cleanliness,carried the ir infant s on their backs. The

thighs and legs Of the infant s were bound at cert ain distance s by broad strips of co t ton clo th

,and the flesh

,

strongly compressed beneath the ligatures,was swelled

in the int ers t ices .Near Encaramada a very long island divided the riverinto two branches . They passed the night in a ro ckycreek

,Oppo site the mouth Of the Rio Cab ul lare

,which

was formed by the Payara and the Atamaica. The

evening was beaut iful . The moon il lumined the t opsOf the granite rocks. The heat was so uniformly distribut ed

,t hat

,no twithstanding the humidity of the air

,no

twinkling Of the stars was observable,even at four or

fiv e degrees above the horizon . Towards midnight,the

north -east wind became extreme ly vio lent . It brought

no clouds,bu t the vault Of the sky was covered more and

more with vapo urs. Strong gusts were fe lt , and made

them fear for the safety Of the ir canoe . During this

1 3 2 THE PAINTED ROCK.

who le day they had seen very few cro codiles, but all of

an extraordinary size,from twenty to twenty four fee t .

The Indians assured them that the young cro codile spreferred the marshes

,and the rivers that were less

broad and less deep .

Speaking Of the mountains Of Encaramada, Humboldtsays that the natives of those countries had re tained thebelief that

,

“at the t ime Of the great waters

,when their

fathers were forced t o have recourse to boat s,to escape

the general inundat ion, the waves Of the sea beat against

the rocks ofEncaramada.” This belief was ,no t confined

t o one nation singly,it made part ofa system Of historical

tradit ion,Of wh ich he found scat tered no t ions among

the Maypures Of the great cataracts ; among the IndiansOf the Rio Erev ato

,and among almo st all the tribes of

the Upper Orinoco . When the Indians were asked howthe human race survived this great deluge they said

,

“a man and a woman saved themselve s on a high moun

tain,called Tamanacu

,situat ed on the banks Of the

Asiv eru and cast ing behind them,over the ir heads

,the

fruits of the mauri tia palm-tree,they saw the seeds con

tained in tho se fruit s produce men and women,who

repeopled the earth .

” A few leagues from Encaramada,

a rock,called “

the paint ed ro ck,

”rose in the midst Of the

savannah . Upon it were traced representat ions of ani

mals and symbolic figure s . Be twe en the banks of theCassiquiare and the Orinoco

,be tween Encaramada

,the

Capuchino,and Caycara, these h ieroglyph ic figure s were

o ften se en at g reat height s, on rocky cliffs which couldb e acce ssible only by construct ing very lofty scaffo lds .When the nat ive s were asked how those figures couldhave been sculptured

,they answered with a smile

,as if

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1 3 4 How THEY FOUND TIIE EGGS .

the Superior of the Franciscan Missions,and the bro the r

in-law of the Governor Of Varinas,who accompanied

them,soon dissipat ed the doubts to which the ir dre ss

,

the ir accent,and the ir arrival in th is sandy island

,had

given rise among the White s . The missionary invit edthem to partake a frugal repast Of fish and plantains .He told them that he had come to encamp with the

Indians during the t ime of the harvest Of eggs,

“to

celebrate mass every morning in the Open air ; to procurethe Oil necessary for the church -lamps

,and especially to

govern this mixed republic in wh ich every one wishedto profit singly by what God had granted to all .

”

They made the t our of the island,accompanied by the

missionary and by a trader, who boast ed ofhaving, for tensuccessive years

,visit ed the camp Of the Indians

,and

at t ended.

the turt le-fishery. They were on a plain Ofsand perfect ly smoo th ; and were to ld that , as far as theycoul d see along the beach

,turtles’ eggs were concealed

under a layer Of earth . The missionary carried a longpo le in his hand. He showed them

,that by means Of this

pole,the ext ent of the stratum Of eggs could b e de ter

mined as accurat ely as the miner det ermines the limits Ofa b ed Of marl

,Of b o g iron-ore

,or Of coal . On thrusting

the rod perpendicul arly into the ground, the suddenwant of resistance showed that the cavity or layer Ofloose earth

,containing the eggs

,had been reached . They

saw that the stratum was generally spread with so muchuniformity

,that the po le found it everywhere in a radius

of sixty fee t around any given spo t . Here they talkedcont inually of square perches of eggs ; it was like a

mining-country,divided into lo ts

,and worked with the

g reate st regul arity. The stratum of eggs,however

,was

IIATCHING THE EGGS . 1 3 5

far from covering the who le island ; they were no t fo undwhereve r the ground ro se abrupt ly

,because th e t urt le

could no t mount he ights . The Indians assured themthat

,in go ing up the Orinoco from its mouth t o its

j unct ion with the Apure,no t one island or one beach

was to b e found,where eggs could b e collect ed in

abundance . The g reat’

t urt le dreads places inhabitedby men

,or much frequent ed by boat s . It is a t imid

and mistrus tful animal,raising only its head above

the wat er,and h iding it self at the least no ise .

The period at which it lays its eggs co incides with theperiod Of the lowest waters . The Orinoco be g inning toincrease from the vernal equinox

,the lowest flat s are

found uncovered from the end of January till the 2 0thor 2 5th of March . The turt le s co llect in troops in the

month Of January,then issue from the wat er

,and warm

themse lves in the sun,repo sing on the sands . The In

dians believed that great heat was indispensable t o the

health of the animal,and that its expo sure t o the sun

favoured the laying Of the eggs . They are found on theb each a great part Of the day during the who le month of

February . At the beginning Of March the stragglingtroops assemble

,and swim towards the small number Of

islands on which they habituall y deposit the ir eggs . At

th is period,a few days before they lay the ir eggs

,thou

sands Of these animals may b e seen ranged in long files,

on the borders of the islands of Cucuruparu , Uruana,and Pararuma

,stret ching out their necks and holding

the ir heads above wat er,t o see whe ther they have any

thing to dread. The Indians,who are anxious that the

bands when assembled should no t separat e,that the tur

tle s should no t disperse,and that the laying Of the eggs

13 6 MAD TURTLE S .

should b e performed tranquilly, place sent inels at certaindistances along the shore . The people who pass in boats

are to ld to keep in the middle of the river, and no t

frigh t en t he turtles by cries . The laying of the eggst akes place always during the night

,and it begins soon

after sunset . With its hind fee t,which are very long

,

and furnished w ith crooked claws,the animal digs a ho le

of three fee t in diame t er and two in depth . These turtlesfeel SO pressing a desire t o lay their eggs

,that some Of

them descend into ho les that have been dug by o thers,

b ut wh ich are no t ye t covered with earth . There theydepo sit a new layer of eggs on that which has beenrecent ly laid. In this tumultuous movement an immensenumber Of eggs are broken. The missionary showed thetravellers

,by removing the sand in several places, that

this lo ss probably amount ed t o a fifth Of the who le quant ity. The ye lk of the broken eggs contributes

,in drying

,

t o cement the sand ; and they found very large concre

t ions of grains Of quartz and broken shells . The num

b er Of animals working on the beach during the night isso considerable

,that day surprises many of them before

the laying of the ir eggs is t erminated. They are then

urged on by the double necessity of depo sit ing their eggs,

and closing the ho les they have dug , that they may no t

b e perce ived by the jaguars . The turtles that thus remain too lat e are insensible t o the ir own danger. Theywork in the presence Of the Indians

,who visit the beach

at a very early hour,and who call them ‘mad turt les .’

No twithstanding the rapidity Of the ir mov emen

are then easily caught with the hand .

The encampment s formed by the Indians began aboutthe end Of March or commencement Of April . The

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1 3 8 UP THE ORINOCO.

ebulli tion. When well prepared,it was limpid

,inodorous

,

and scarcely yellow. The missionaries compared it tothe bes t Olive Oil

,and it was used no t merely for burning

in lamps, b ut for co oking. It was no t easy

,however

,to

procure Oil Of turt les’ eggs quite‘

pure . It had generallya putrid smell

,owing t o the mixture of eggs in which

the young were already formed. The Indians broughtaway a great number Of eggs to eat them dried in the

sun ; and they broke a considerable number throughcarelessness during the gathering. The number Of eggsthat were hatched before the people could dig them upwas so prodigious

,that near the encampment Of Uruana

Humbo ldt saw the who le Shore Of the Orinoco swarmingwi th lit t le turt les an inch in diame t er

,e scaping with diffi

culty from the pursuit of the Indian children.

At the Playa de huevo s where the ir pilo t had an

chored t o purchase provisions,the ir store having begun

to run short,the trave llers found fresh meat

,Ango stura

rice,and even biscuit made Of wheat -flour. The ir In

dians filled the boat with lit t le live t urt les,and eggs dried

in the sun,for the ir own use . Having taken leave of

the missionary of Uruana,who had treated them with

great kindness,they set sail about four in the afternoon.

The wind was fresh,and blew in squalls . Since they

had ent ered the mountainous part Of the country,they

had discovered that the ir cano e carried sail very badly ;but the mast er was de sirous Of showing the Indians whowere assembled on the beach

,that

,by go ing clo se to the

wind,he could reach

,at one Single tack

,the middle of

the river. At the very moment when he was boast ingof his dext erity , and the bo ldness of his manoeuvre

,the

force Of the wind upon the sail became so great that they

UPSET BY A SQUALL. 1 3 9

were on the point Of go ing down . One side of the boatwas under water

,wh ich rushed in with such vio lence

that it was soon up t o the ir knees. It washed over a

lit tle table at which Humbo ldt was writing at the st ernOf the boat . He had some difficulty in saving his j ournal,and in an instant they saw the ir books

,papers

,and dried

plants,all afloat . Bonpland was lying asleep in the

middle of the cano e . Awakened b y the entrance of

the wat er and the crie s Of the Indians,he understood the

danger Of the ir situat ion,whilst he maintained a coo lness

wh ich he always displayed in the mo st diffi cult circumstances. The lee -side right ing itse lf from t ime t o t imeduring the squall

,he did no t consider the boat as lost .

He thought that,were they even forced to abandon it

,

they might save themse lve s by swimming,since there

were no crocodil es in sight . Amidst this uncertainty thecordage of the sail suddenly gave way. The same gustOf wind

,that had thrown them on the ir beam

,served also

to right them . They laboured t o bail the water out Ofthe boat with calabashes

,the sail was again se t

,and in

less than half an hour they were in a stat e“

to pro ceed.

The wind now abated a lit t le . Squalls alternat ing withdead calms were common in that part ofthe Orinoco whichwas bordered by mountains. They were very dangerousfo rboat s deeply laden

,andwithout decks . The t ravellers

had e scaped by a miracle . To the reproache s that wereheaped on the ir pilo t for having kept to o near th e wind,he replied with the phlegmat ic coo lness peculiar t o the

Indians,Observing that the whites would find sun

enough on tho se banks to dry the ir papers .” They lo st

only one book,the first vo lume Of the “ Genera Plan

tarum ” Of Schreb er,wh ich had fallen overboard. At

1 40 THE BEACH OF PARARUMA .

nightfal l they landed on a barren island in the middle Ofthe river

,near the mission Of Uruana. They supped in

a clear moonligh t,seat ing themselves on some large

turt le -shells that were found scat tered about the beach.

On the 8 th the trave llers passed the mouths Of the Suapure and the Caripo

,on the eas t

,and the ou tle t Of the

Sinaruco on the wes t . This last river was,next to the

Rio Arauca,the most considerable between the Apure

and the Me ta . The Suapure,full of lit tle cascades

,was

celebrated among the Indians for the quant ity Of wildhoney obtained from the forests in its ne ighbourhoo d .

Early on the fo llowing morning the travellers arrivedat the beach of Pararuma

,where they found an encamp

ment of Indians. They had assembled to search the

sands,for co llect ing the turtles’ eggs

,and extracting the

Oil b ut they had unfortunat ely made a mistake of several days. The young turt les had come out Of their she lls b efore the Indians had formed the ir camp and consequent lythe crocodiles

,and a species of large white herons

,availed

themselves of the de lay. These animals,and birds fond

Of the flesh Of young turtles,devour an innumerable

quant ity. They fish during the nigh t,for the young

turt les do no t come out Of the earth to gain the ne ighb ouring river t il l after the evening twilight . The zamurovul tures are too indo lent to hunt after sunse t . They

stalk along the shores in the dayt ime , and alight in the

midst of the Indian encampment to st eal provisions ; b ut

they Often find no o thermeans Of sat isfying the ir v e racitythan by at tacking young croc odiles of seven or eightinches long

,e ither on land

,or in water Of lit t le depth .

It was curious to see t he address with which these lit t le

animals defended thems elves for a t ime against the vul

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1 4 2 INDIANS PAINTING.

unacquainted wi th the passage Of the rapids of the Orinoco

,and would no t undertake t o conduct the ir bark

any farther. They were obliged to conform to his will.Happily fo r them

,the missionary Of Carichana consented

t o sell them a fine cano e at a very moderat e price : and

Father Bernardo Z ea,missionary Of the Atures andMay

pures near the great cataracts,Offered

,though st ill un

we ll,t o accompany them as far as the front iers Of Brazil .

Mo st Of the missionaries Of the Upper and Lower Orinoco permit t ed the Indians of the ir Missions t o paintthe ir skins ; some of them even speculated on this b ar

barous pract ice of the nat ives . In the ir huts,pompously

called convent s,Humbo ldt Often saw sto res Of chica

,

which they so ld as high as four francs the cake . To

form a j ust idea Of the extravagance Of the decorat ion of

these naked Indians,he t ells us that a man Of large

stature gains w ith difficulty enough by the labour of afortnight

,to procure in exchange the chica necessary t o

paint himself red. Thus as we say in t emperat e climates,Of a poor man

,

“ he has no t enough t o clo the h imself,

”

the Indians Of the Orinoco say,“that man is so poor

,

that he has no t enough to paint half his body .

”

Humbo ldt was surprised to see,that

,the women far

advanced in years,were more o ccupied with the ir orna

ment s than the youngest women . He saw an Indianfemale Of the nat ion Of the Ot tomacs employing two Ofher daught ers in the operat ion Of rubbing her hair withthe Oil Of turt les’ eggs

,and paint ing her back with anato

and caruto . The ornament consisted Of a sort of lat t icework formed of black line s cro ssing each o ther on a red

ground. Each lit t le square had a black do t in the centre .

It was a work of incredible pat ience . He re turned from

ANIMALS OF THE OR INOCO . 3

a very long herb oriz-

at ion,and the paint ing was no t half

finished .

The Indians were no t always satisfied with one colouruniformly spread ; they some t ime s imitated in the mo stwh imsical manner

,in paint ing the ir skin

,the form of

European garments . The travellers saw some at Pararuma

,who were paint ed with blue jacke ts and black

but tons. The missionarie s relat ed t o them that the

Guaynav es of the Rio Caura were accustomed t o stainthemselves red with anato

,and t o make b re ad transverse

stripes on the body,on wh ich they stuck spangle s Of

silvery mica. Seen at a distance,the se naked men ap

peared t o b e dressed in laced clo thes .The trave llers had an exce llent opport unity wh ile on

the Orinoco of examining several animals in the ir naturalstat e

,wh ich

,t ill then

,they had seen only in the co llee

t ions Of Europe . These lit t le animals formed a branchOf commerce for the missionarie s. They exchanged t obacco

,resin

,the pigment Of chica

,ro ck-manakins

,orange

monkeys,capuch in monkeys

,and o ther specie s of mon

keys in great request on the coast,for clo th

,nails

,hat ch

e ts,fish-ho oks

,and pins . The product ions of the Ori

noco were bought at a low price from the Indians,who

lived in dependence on the monks ; and these same Indians purchased fishing and gardening implement s from

the monks at a very high price,with the money they

gained at the e g o-harvest . Humbo ldt and Bonpland

bought several animals,which they kept throughout the

rest of the ir passage on the river,and studied th e ir man

ners . Among the se was a lit t le monkey called the t it i .NO o ther monkey has so much the physiognomy Of ach ild as the t it i ; there is the same expressio n Of inno

1 4 4 THE MONKEY’S TASTE IN ART.

cence,the same playful smile

,the same rapidity in the

transit ion from joy t o sorrow. Its large eyes are in

stantly filled with t ears,when it is se ized with fear. It

is extremely fond of insect s, part icularly of spiders . Thesagacity of this lit tle an imal is so great that one broughtin the ir boat to Ango st ura dist inguished perfectly the

different plat es annexed t o one Of Cuvier’s works on

Natural History. The engravings Of this work wereno t co loured ; ye t the t it i advanced rapidly its lit t le handin the hOpe Of catching a grasshopper or a wasp

,every

t ime the trave llers showed it the plate,on which these

insects were repre sent ed. It remained perfect ly indifferent when it was shown engravings of ske le tons or headsOf mammiferous animals. When several Of these lit tlemonkeys

,shut up in the same cage

,were expo sed to the

rain,they twisted the ir tail round the ir neck

,and inter

twined the ir arms and legs t o warm one ano ther. The

hunters t o ld the travellers that in the forest s they Oftenmet groups Of ten or twe lve Of these animals

,whilst

o thers sent forth lamentable cries, because they wished

t o ent er the group to find warmth and shel ter. Byshoo t ing arrows dipped in weak po ison at one Of thesegroups

,a great number Of young monkeys are taken

alive at once . The t it i in falling remains clinging t o itsmo ther

,and if it b e no t wounded by the fall

,it do es no t

quit the shoulder or the neck Of the dead animal . Mo stOf those that were found alive in the hut s of the Indians

,

had been taken thus from the dead bodies of the ir

mo thers.TO gain some thing in breadth in the ir narrow canoe

the trave llers constructed a sort Of lat t ice-wo rk on the

stern with branche s Of t rees, that ext ended o n each side

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46 STORMY WEATHER .

branches,on which Humboldt and Bonpland were com

pelled t o remain stre tched the great er part of the day.

If they wished to take the least Obj ect out Of a trunk,o r

t o use an instrument,it was necessary t o row ashore and

land. To these inconveniences were jo ined the tormentof the mo squit o s which swarmed under the roof

,and the

heat radiat ed from the leave s Of the palm-trees,the upper

surface of which was cont inually expo sed t o the so larrays . They at t empted every instant

,b ut always without

success,t o mend the ir situat ion . While one Of them

hid himself under a shee t to ward Off the inse cts,the

o ther insisted on having green wo od ligh ted beneath theroof in the hope Of driving away the mo squito s by thesmoke . The painful sensat ions of the eye s

,and the

increase Of heat,already st ifling

,rendered bo th these

contrivances alike impract icable .

On the 1 l th of April they found the course Of the

river encumbered by blo cks Of granite rocks. Theypassed on the west the Cafio Orupe

,and then a great

rock known by the name Of the Ro ck Of the Tiger. The

river there was so deep, that no bo t tom could b e foundwith a line of twenty-two fathoms . Towards eveningthe weather became cloudy and gloomy. The proximityOf th e storm was marked by squalls alt ernat ing with deadcalms . The rain was violent

,and the roof Of fo liage

,

under which the travellers lay, afforded b ut lit t le shelter.

Happily these Showers drove away the mosquito s forsome t ime . They found themselves before the cataract

of Cariv en, and the impulse Of the wat ers was so strong,

that they had great diffi cul ty in gaining the land. Theywere cont inually driven back t o the middle Of the cur

rent . At length two Salive Indians, excellent swimmers,

RIVERS OBSTRUCTED BY ROCKS. 1 4 7

leaped into the water,and

.

having drawn the boat t oshore by means of a rope

,made it fast t o a shelf Of bare

rock,on which they passed the night . The thunder

cont inued t o roll during a part Of the nigh t ; the swell

of the river became considerable ; and they were severalt imes afraid that the ir frail bark woul d b e driven from

the shore by the impe tuo sity of the waves .The next day they found the b ed Of the river

,to the

length Of thirty-six hundred fee t,full of g ranite rocks.

They passed through channels that were no t five fee tbroad . The ir cano e was somet imes jammed be tweentw o block s Of granite . Wh en the current was to o vio lent

t o b e resisted the rowers leaped into the wat er,and

fast ened a rope t o the po int of a rock,t o warp the boat

along. This manoeuvre was very tedious ; and the tra

v ellers sometimes availed themselves of it , to climb therocks among which they were entangled . The ro cks

were Of all dimensions, rounded, very black, glo ssy likelead

,and dest itut e Of vege tation . It was an extraordinary

ph enomenon to see the wat ers Of one Of the largest riverson the globe in some sort disappear. They perce ived

,

even far from the shore,those immense blo cks ofgranite

rising from the ground,and leaning one against ano ther.

The int ervening channels in the rapids were more thantwenty-fiv e fathoms deep ; and were the more difficult tob e Observed

,as the rocks were oft en narrow towards the ir

bases,and formed vaul ts suspended over the surface of

the river.

From the mouth of the Me ta,the Orinoco appeared to

b e freer Of shoals and rocks . Th ey navigated ina Channe lthre e thousand fee t bro ad. The Indians remained row

ing in the bo at,without t owing o r pushing it forward

1 4 8 THE MISSION OF SAN BORJA.

with the ir arms,and wearying the travellers wi th th e ir

wild cries. It was nigh t when they reached the CataractOf Tabaj e . As the Indians would no t hazard passing thecataract

,they slept on a very incommodious Spo t

,on the

she lf Of a rock,with a Slope Of more than e ight een

degrees,and of wh ich the crevices she ltered a swarm of

bat s. They heard the cries Of the jaguar very near themduring the who le night . The jaguars were answeredby the ir great dog in leng thened howlings. Humboldtwaited the appearance Of the stars in vain : the sky wasexceedingly black ; and the hoarse sounds Of the cascadesOf the Orinoco mingled with the ro lling Of the distantthunder.

Early in the morning of the 1 3 th they passed the

rapids Of Tabaj e,and again disembarked . Father Z ea

,

who accompanied them,desired t o perform mass in

the New Mission Of San Borja,e stablished two y

before . They found there six houses inhabit ed by un

cat ech ised Guah ibos. They differed in no th ing from the

wild Indians . The ir eyes,which were large and black

,

had more vivacity than tho se of the Indians who inhabit ed the ancient missions. They were Offered brandy

,

b ut they would no t even t aste it . The face s of all the

young girls were marked with round black spo ts ; like

the pat ches by which the ladie s of Europe formerlyimagined they set Off the wh it eness of the ir skins. The

bodies Of the Guah ibo s were no t paint ed. Several Of

them had beards,Of wh ich they seemed proud ; and

,

t aking the white men by the chin,they showed therri

by signs,that th ey were made like them .

The Orinoco , in running from south t o north,was

crossed by a chain of granit ic mountains . Twice con .

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1 50 THE HAIRY MAN OF THE WOODS.

grass near the village Of Atures,in the middle Of a

savannah . At two O’clock in the afterno on,a jaguar

issued from the forest,and approached the children

,

bounding around them ; some t imes he hid himself in thehigh grass

,some t imes he sprang forward

,his back bent

,

his head hung down, in the manner of a cat . The lit t leb oy, ignorant Of his danger, seemed t o b e sensible Of itonly when the jaguar with one of his paws gave himsome blows on the head. These blows

,at first slight

,

b ecame ruder and ruder; the claws of the jaguarwounded the child, and the blood flowed freely. The

lit t le girl then took a branch Of a tre e , struck the animal,

and it fled from her. The Indians ran up at the cries Of

the ch ildren , and saw the jaguar,wh ich bounded Off

without making the least show Of resistance .

The lit t le b oy, who was brought to the trave llers, appeared live ly and intelligent . The claw of the jaguarhad torn away the skin from the lower part Of the forehead

,and there was a second scar at the t op Of the

head.

Among the cataract s Of Ature s the trave llers began tohear of the hairy man of the woods

,that carried Off

women,constructed huts

,and some t imes ate human flesh.

The Tamancas called it ach i, and the Maypures vasitri,

or great devil.” The nat ives and the missionaries hadno doubt of the exist ence Of this man-shaped monkey

,

Of wh ich they ent ertained a singular dread. Father Gill

gravely relates the h istory Of a lady in the t own of San

Carlo s,in the Llano s Of Venezuela

,who much praised

the gent le charact er and at tent ions Of the man Of thewoods . She is stated t o have lived several years withone in great domest ic harmony

,and only request ed some

ZANCUDOS AND MOSQUITOS. 1 5 1

hunt ers to tak e her back,

“ because she and her children

(a lit t le hairy also) were weary of living far from the

church and the sacrament s .” The travellers did no t seethis mythical hairy man .

They were horribly torment ed in the day by mosqui

tos and the j ej en,a small venomous fly

,and at night by

the zancudo s. The ir hands began t o swell considerably,

and this swelling increased daily t ill the ir arrival on thebanks Of the Temi . The means that were employed t oe scape from the se lit t le plagues were extraordinary. The

good missionary Bernardo Z ea,who passed his life t or

ment ed by mo squitos,had construct ed near the church

,

on a scaffo lding Of palm-trees,a small apartment

,in

wh ich the trave llers breathed more freely. To this theywent up in the evening

,by means Of a ladder

,t o dry

the ir plants and w rit e their journal . The m issionary

had Observed,that the insect s abounded more part ien

larly in the lowest strata of the atmosphere,that wh ich

reaches from the ground t o the heigh t Of twelve orfifteenfe et . At Maypures the Indians quit ted the village at

nigh t,to g o and sleep on the lit t le isle ts in the midst Of

the cataract s . There they enjoyed some rest,the mos

quit o s appearing to shun air loaded with vapours. The

t rave llers found everywhere fewer in the middle of the

river than near its banks.In the missions Of the Orino co

,in the village s on the

banks of the river,surrounded by immense fore sts

,the

plague of the mosquito s,afforded an inexhaust ible sub

jec t Of conversat ion. When two persons me t in the

morning,the first quest ions they addressed t o each o ther

were ° How did you find the zancudo s during the

nigh t ? How are w e to day for the mosquito s These

1 5 2 TWENTY YEARS OF MOSQUITOS .

quest ions reminded Humboldt of a Chinese form Of pOl it eness

,which indicat ed the ancient state of the country

where it t ook birth . Salutat ions were formerly made inthe Cele st ial Empire in the fo llowing words

,

“ Have youbeen incommoded in the nigh t by the serpent s ?”

How comfortable mus t people b e in the moon ! saida Salive Indian t o Father Gumilla ; “ She looks so beaut iful and so clear

,that she must b e free from mo squito s .

”

The se words wh ich deno ted the infancy of a people wereremarkable . The sat e llite of the earth appears t o all

savage nat ions the abode Of the blessed,the country Of

abundance . The Esquimaux,who count s among his

riches a plank or trunk of a tree,thrown by the currents

on a coas t dest itut e Of vege tat ion,see s in the moon plains

covered with forest s ; the Indian Of the forests Of Orinoco beho lds there open savannahs

,where the inhabit

ants are never stung by mosquitos.

At Mandavaca the travellers found an o ld missionary,

who t o ld them with an air of sadness,that h e had had

“ his twenty years of mo squit os in America.

” He desired them t o look at his legs

,

“that they might b e able

t o t ell one day beyond the sea,what the poor monks

suffer in the forests Of Cassiquiare . Every st ing leaving a small darkish brown po int

,his legs were so

speckled that it was difficult t o recognise the wh itenessof his skin

,through the spo t s of coagulated blood .

What appeared t o the trave llers singular,was that

the different species did no t associat e toge ther,and that

at different hours Of the day they were stung by distinctspecies. Every t ime t hat the scene changed, and, t o use

the simple expression of the missionaries,o ther insect s

“ mount ed guard,”they had a few m inutes, Oft en a quar

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1 54 THE CATARACT OF THE GUAHIBOS.

lena the Indians often invited the travellers to stretchthemselves on ox -skins

,near the church

,in the

’

middle

Of the great square,where they had assembled all the

cows in the ne ighbourhood. The proximity Of cat t legive s some repose t o man . The Indians Of the UpperOrinoco and the Cassiquiare , see ing that Bonpland couldno t prepare his herbal

,owing t o the cont inual t orment

Of the mosquito s,invit ed him to enter the ir ovens . Thus

they called the lit t le chambers,without doors or win

dows,into which they crept horizontally through a

' verylow opening. When they had driven away the insect sby means of a fire Of w e t brushwo od

,wh ich emi t t ed a

great deal of smoke,they clo sed the Opening of the oven .

The absence of the mo squito s was purchased dearlyenough by the excessive heat of the stagnat ed air

,and

the smoke of a torch of Copal,Which ligh ted the oven

during the ir stay in it . Bonpland,with courage and

pat ience we ll worthy ofpraise,dried hundreds ofplants

,

shut up in the se ovens Of the Indians.They embarked on the morning of the 1 7 th Of April.

On the 1 8 th they stopped at the mouth of the Rio Tomo .

The Indians went on shore,to prepare the ir fo od

,and

take some repo se . When the trave llers reached the fo o tOf the Cataract Of the Guah ibo s it was near fiv e in the

aft ernoon. It was extremely difficult to g o up the cur

rent against a mass Of wat er,precipitated from a bank of

gne iss several fe e t high . An Indian threw himse lf intothe water

,to reach

,by swimming

,the rock that di vided

the cataract int o two part s . A rope was fast ened to thepo int of this rock

,and when the cano e was hauled near

enough,the ir instrument s

,the ir dry plant s, and the pro

vision they had collected at Atures,were landed in the

LEMONADE FOR THE MISSIONARY. 1 55

cataract it se lf. They remarked with surprise,that the

natural dam over which the river was precipitated, pre

sented a dry space of considerable extent,where they

stopped t o see the boat g o up .

The ro ck of gne iss exhibit ed circular ho les,the larg est

OfWhich were four fee t deep,and eight een inches wide .

These funne ls contained quartz pebbles,and appeared t o

have been formed by the frict ion Of masses ro lled alongby the impulse Of the waters. The ir situat ion

,in the

midst Of the cataract,was singular enough

,b ut unat

t ended by the smallest danger. The missionary,who

accompanied them,had his fever-fit on him. In order

to quench the th irst by wh ich he was tormented,the

idea suggest ed itself to them Of preparing a refreshingbeverage for him in one of the excavations Of the rock .

They had taken on board at Atures an Indian baske tfilled with sugar

,limes

,and grenadil las . AS they were

dest itute Of large Ve ssels for ho lding and mixing liquids,

they poured the water Of the river,by means Of a cala

bash,into one Of the holes Of the rock : t o this they

added sugar and lime -j uice . In a few minut es they hadan excellent beverage .

After an hour Of expectat ion they saw their boatarrive above the cataract

,and were soon ready t o depart .

They were now overtaken by a sto rm,accompanied

happily by no wind,b ut the rain fell in torrent s. Aft er

rowing awhile,the pilo t declared

,that

,far from gaining

upon the current,they were again approaching the cata c

rae t . These moments Of uncertainty appeared to themvery long ; the Indians spoke only in wh ispers

,as they

always did when they thought the ir situat ion perilous .They redoubled their efforts

,and the travellers arrived

1 56 THE VILLAGE OF MAYPU R ES.

at nightfall,without any accident

,in the port ofMay

pures . The night was extremely dark,and it was

two hours or more before they could reach the village .

They were we t to the skin. In proport ion as the rain

ceased,the zancudo s re -appeared

,with that voracity

which t ipulary insects always display immediat ely aftera storm. The ir fe llow-trave llers were uncert ain whe therit would b e best t o stop in the port or proceed on the ir

way on foo t,in spite Of the darkness Of the night .

Father Z ea was det ermined t o reach his home . He hadgiven direct ions for the construct ion Of a large house Oftwo stories

,which was t o b e begun by the Indians Of

the mission. You will there find,

” said he gravely,“the

same conveniences as in the open air; I have ne ithera bench nor a table

,b ut you will no t suffer so much

from the flies,wh ich are le ss trouble some in the mission

than on the banks of the river. They fo llowed the

co unse l of the missionary,who caused t orches of Copal

t o b e light ed . They walked at first over beds of ro ck,

wh ich were bare and slippery,and then ent ered a thick

grove Of palm-tree s. They were twice obliged t o passa stream on trunks of t rees hewn down . The - t orcheshad already ceased t o give light . Being formed on a

strange principle,the wo ody substance which resemb led

the wick surrounding the resin,they emit t ed more smoke

than light,and were easily extinguished. The Indian

pilo t,who expre ssed h imself withs ome facility in Span

ish,t o ld the t rave llers Of snakes

,wat er-serpent s

,and

t igers,by wh ich t hey might b e at tacked.

Arriving during the nigh t at Maypures they wereforcibly struck by the solitude Of the place ; the Indianswere plunged in profound sle ep

,and no thing was heard

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1 5 8 THE MOUTH OF THE ZAMA.

They spent two days and a half in the lit tle Village of

Maypures, on the banks of the great Upper Cataract,

and on the 2 1 st ofApril embarked in the canoe theyhad Obtained from the missionary of Carichana. It

was much damaged by the shoals it had struck against,

and the carelessness of the Indians ; b ut st il l great er dangers awaited it . It had t o b e dragged over land

,acro ss

an isthmus of thirty-six thousand fe e t ; from the Rio

Tuamini t o the Rio Negro,t o g o up by the Cassiquiare

t o the Orinoco,and t o repass the two cataracts .

They landed at the mouth of the Rio Vichada orV isata

to examine the plants of that part Of the country. The

scenery was very singular. The forest was thin,and an

innumerable quant ity Of small rocks ro se from the plain.

These formed massy prisms,ru ined pillars

,and solitary

towers fift een or twenty feet high . Some were shadedby the trees Of the forest

,o thers had the ir summits

crowned with palms.Passing the Cafio Pirajavi on the e ast , and then a small

river on the west,they rested on the night Of the 2 2 d on

the shore Of the Orinoco , at the mouth Of the Zama.No twithstanding the “ black wat ers ” of the Zama

,they

suffered greatly from insect s . The night was beaut iful,

without a breath of wind in the lower regions of the at

mosphere , b ut t owards two in the morning they saw thickclouds cro ssing the zenith rapidly from east t o west .When

,declining t owards the horizon

,they traversed the

great nebulae Of Sagit tarius and the Ship,they appeared

of a dark blue .

The travellers left the mouth of the Zama at fiv e in the

morning of the 2 3d. The river cont inued t o b e skirtedon bo th side s by a thick forest . The mountains on the

UP THE GUAVIARE . 15 9

east seemed gradually t o re tire farther back. They passedfirst the mouth Of the Rio Mataveni

,and afterwards an

isle t of a very singular form ; a square granit ic rock that

ro se in the middle Of the water. It was called by the mis

sionaries the Lit t le Cast le . They passed the nig htion the

right bank Opposit e the mouth Of the Rio SiucuIivapu,near a rock called Aricagua. During the n ight an in

numerable quant ity Of bat s issued from the cleft s Of the

ro ck,and hovered around the ir hammocks .

On the 2 4 th a violent rain obliged them early to re

t urn t o the ir boat . They depart ed at two O’clo ck, aft erhaving lo st some books

,wh ich they could no t find in the

darkness Of the night,on the ro ck Of Aricagua. The

river ran straight from south t o north ; its banks werelow

,and shaded on bo th sides by thick forests . They

passed the mou ths Of the U cata,the Arapa

,and the

Caranav eni. “About four in the afternoon they landedat the Indian plantat ions of the mission OfSan Fernando .

The good people Wished to de tain them among them,b ut

they cont inued t o g o up against the current,which ran

at the rat e Of fiv e feet a second . They entered the mouthof the Guaviare on a dark night

,passed the po int where

the Rio Atabapo jo ins the Guaviare,and arrived at t he

mission afte r midnight . They were lodged as usual atthe Convent

,that is

,in the house of the missionary

,who

,

though much surprised at the ir unexpected visit,never

theless rece ived them with the greate st ho spitality.

During the night,they had left

,almost unperce ived

,

th e wat ers of the Orinoco ; and at sunri se found themselves as if t ransport ed t o a new countfy, o n the banksof a river the name Of which they had scarcely everheard pronounced

,and which was t o conduct them

,by

160 THE CONQUE ST OF SOULS.

the portage of Pimichin,to the Rio Negro

,on the from

t iers Of Brazil. “ You will g o up, said the preside ntOf the missions

,who resided at San Fernando

,

“ first theAtabapo

,then the Temi

,and finally

,the Tuamini. When

the force Of the current Of black wat ers ’ h inders

you from advancing, you will b e conducted out of the

b ed Of the river through forests,which you will find in

undated. Two monks only are se t t led in those desertplaces

,be tween the Orinoco and the Rio Negro ; b u t at

Javita you will b e furnished with the means of havingyour canoe drawn over land in the course of four dayst o Ca'

no Pimichin . If it b e no t broken t o pieces youwill descend the Rio Negro without any Obstacle (fromnorth-west to south east) as far as the lit t le fort Of SanCarlos ; you will g o up the Cassiquiare (from south t o

north), and then re turn to San Fe rnando in a month,

descending the Upper Orinoco from east t o west .” Such

was the plan traced for their passage , and they carried itint o effect without danger

,though no t without some

suffering,in the space of thirty-three days .

In the irwalks t oge ther the president Of the missiongave the travellers an animat ed account Of his incursions on the Rio Guaviare . He related t o them how muchthese j ourneys

,undertaken for the conquest of souls

,were

desired by the Indians of the missions . All,even women

and o ld men,t ook part in them . Under the pre t ext of

recovering neophyte s who had deserted the village,chil

dren above eigh t or t en years Of ag e were carried Off, anddistribut ed among the Indians Of the missions as serfs.Three years before the arrival of the travellers themissionary Of San Fernando led his Indians t o the

banks Of the Rio Guaviare,On one Of those host ile in

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1 62 HER PUNISHMENT AND E SCAPE .

and farther from her b ut and her nat ive country. Shesucceeded in breaking her bonds

,threw herself into the

wat er,and swam t o the left bank of the Atabapo . The

current carried her to a she lf Of rock, wh ich bears her

name t o this day— The Mo ther’s Rock. She landed and

took she lter in the woods, but the president Of the missions ordered the Indians to row t o the shore

,and fo llow

the traces of the Guahiba. In the evening she was

brought back. Stre tched upon the rock,a cruel punish

ment was inflict ed upon her with straps Of manat i leather,

wh ich served for whips in that country,and with wh ich

the alcalde s were always furnished. The unhappy woman

,her hands t ied behind her back

,was then dragged

t o the mission ofJavita.

She was there thrown into one Of the caravanserais.It was the rainy season

,and the night was profoundly

dark. . Forest s t ill then believed t o b e impene trableseparat e d the mission Of Javita from that of San Fer

nando,which was twenty-five league s distant in a straight

line . NO o ther rout e was known than that by the

rivers ; no man ever at t empted to g o by land from one

village to ano ther. But such difficult ies could no t de t era mo ther

,separated from her children . The Guahiba

was care lessly guarded in the caravanserai . Her armsbe ing wounded

,the Indians Of Javita had loo sened her

bonds,unknown t o the m issionary and the alcaldes.

Having succeeded by the help Of her t ee th in breaking them ent ire ly

,she disappeared during the night ; and

at the fourth sunrise was seen at the mission of San

Fernando,hovering around the hut where her children

were confined .

“ What that woman performed,

”added

the missionary,who gave the trave llers this sad narra.

UP THE RIO TEMI . 1 63

t ive,

“the mo st robust Indian would not have vent ured

to undertake l” She t raversed the wo ods when the sky

was Constan t ly covered with clouds, and the sun during

the who le days appeared b ut for a few minut es . Did thecourse of the waters direct her way ? The inundat ions

Of the rivers forced her t o g o far from the banks Of themain stream

,through the midst Of woods where the

movement of the water was almo st impercept ible . HowOft en must she have been stopped by the thorny lianas

,

that formed a ne twork around the trunks they entwined !How Oft en must she have swum acro ss the rivule t s thatran into the Atabapo ! This unfortunate woman was

asked how she had sustained herse lf during the four

days . She said that,exhaust ed with fat igue

,she could

find no o ther nourishment than black ant s . The trave llers pre ssed the missionary t o t e ll them whether the

Guahib a had peacefully enj oyed the happine ss of remain

ing with her Children ; and if any repentance had fo llowed this excess of crue lty . He would no t sat isfy the ircurio sity ; b ut at the ir re turn from the Rio Negro theylearned that the Indian mo ther was again separat ed fromher children

,and sent to one of the missions Of the Upper

Orino co . She there died,refusing all kind of nourish

m ent .

Above the mouth Of the Guasucari they entered the

Rio Temi . The country exhibit ed the uniform aspect

Of forests covering ground perfect ly flat . Wherever theriver had fo rmed caves the forest was inundat ed to theext ent of more than half a league square . To avo idthe sinuo sit ies Of the river and shorten the passage , thenavigat ion was performed here in an extraordinary man

ner. The Indians made the travellers leave the b ed Of

1 64 DOLPHINS IN THE FORE ST.

the river ; and they pro ceeded southward across theforest

,through Open channels of four or fiv e fee t broad .

The depth Of the water seldom exceeded half a fathomThese channels were formed in the inundated fore st likepaths on dry ground . The Indians

,in go ing from o ne

mission t o ano ther,passed with the ir boats as much as

possible by the same way ; b ut the communicat ions no tbe ing frequent the force Of vege tat ion some t imes produced unexpected Obstacles . An Indian

,furnished with

a mache t e,a great knife

,the blade ofwhich was fourt een

inches long,stood at the head of the ir boat

,employed

cont inually in chopping off the branches that crossedeach o ther from the two sides Of the channel . In the

th ickest part of the forest they were astonished by an

extraordinary no ise . On beat ing the bushes,a shoal Of

fresh-water do lphins,four fe e t long

,surrounded the ir

boat . These animals had concealed themselves beneaththe branches Of a Bombax ce iba. They fl ed acro ss theforest

,throwing out tho se spout s of compressed air and

wate rwh ich have given them in every language the nameof “ blowers . HOW '

sing ular was this spectacle in an

inland spo t,three or four hundred leagues from the

mouths of the Orino co and the Amazon IAt fiv e in the evening they regained with some difficulty the b ed Of the river. Their cano e remained fastfor some t ime be tween two trunks Of trees ; and it wasno sooner disengaged than they reached a spo t whereseveral small channels crossed each o ther

,SO that the pilo t

w as puzzled to dist inguish the mo st open path . Theynavigat ed through a forest so thick that they could guidethemse lves neither by the sun nor by the stars.

On the 1 st ofMay the Indians cho se to depart long

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1 66 VIPERS IN THE HUT.

men,lit tle at tached to property. A great sto re of resin

was accumulat ed round the house . This was used by theIndians to pitch the ir cano es

,and fix the bony spines of

the ray at the po ints of the ir arrows. They found in thesame place jars filled with a vege table milk

,wh ich served

as a varnish,and was celebrated in the missions by the

name of “ milk for paint ing.

” Before they to ok po ssessionof the deserted hut

,the Indians killed two great mapanare

serpent s. These serpent s grow t o four or fiv e fe e t long.

As the inside Of the b ut was filled with grass,and Hum

bo ldt and Bonpland were lying on the gro und,there

be ing no means of suspending the ir hammocks,they

were no t without inqu ie t ude during the night . In

the morning a large viper was found on lift ing the

jaguar-skin upon which one Of the ir domest ics hadslept .They embarked on the Rio Negro on the 8 th ofMay.

Passing the mission of Maroa,and the mouths of the

Aquio and the Tomo,they arrived at the lit t le mission

ofSan Migue l de Dav ipe . Here they bought provisions,

among which were some fowls and a pig. This purchasegreat ly intere sted the ir Indians

,who had been a long

t ime deprived of meat . They pressed the trave llers todepart in order t o reach the island of Dapa

,where the

pig was t o b e killed and roast ed during the night . Theyreached th is island at sunset

,and were surprised t o find

some cult ivat ed ground on it,and on the top of a small

h ill an Indian hut . Four nat ives Were seat ed round a'

fire Of brushwo od,in this hut

,and they were eat ing a

sort of white paste with black spo t s. These black spo tsproved to b e large ant s

,the hinder part s Of which resem

bled a lump Of grease . They had been dried,and black

AN EXCELLENT ANT PASTE . 161

sued by smoke . The t rave llers saw several bags of

them suspended above the fire . These go od people paidb ut lit t le at t ent ion t o their guests ye t there were mo rethan fourt e en persons in this confined hu t

,lying naked

in hammocks hung one above ano ther. When FatherZ ea arrived

,he was rece ived with great demonstrat ions

ofjoy. Two young women came down from the ir hammocks

,t o prepare for them cakes Of cassava. In answer

t o some inquiries which were put to them through an

interpre t er,they answered that cassava grew poorly o n

the island,b ut that it was a good land for ants

,and fo od

was no t wanting . In fact,these ants furnished subsist

ence t o the Indians Of the Rio Negro and the Guainia.

They did no t eat the ants as a luxury,b ut because the

fat Of ants was a very substant ial fo od. When the

cakes of cassava were prepared,Father Z ea

,who se fever

seemed rather to sharpen than to enfe eble his appe t it e,

ordered a lit t le bag t o b e brought to him filled withsmoked ants . He mixed these bruised insect s w ith flourOf cassava

,wh ich he pressed Humboldt and Bonpland t o

taste . It somewhat resembled rancid but ter mixed withcrumb Of bread. The cassava had no t an acid taste

,b ut

some remains Of European prej udice s prevent ed the irj o ining in the praise s bestowed by the good missionaryon what he called an excellent ant paste .

”

The violence Of the rain obliged them t o sleep in thiscrowded hu t . The Indians slept only from e ight t ill two

in the morning ; the rest of the t ime they employd in

conversing in the ir hammocks, and preparing the ir bit t erbeverage Of cupana. They threw fre sh fue l on the fire

,

and complained Of co ld, although the t emperature of the

air was at This custom Of being awake,and even

1 68 STOPPED AT SAN CARLOS.

on foot,four or fiv e hours before sunrise

,was general

among the Indians Of Guiana.

The trave llers left the island of Dapa long before daybreak ; and no twithstanding the rapidity of the current

,

and the act ivity of the ir rowers,the ir passage t o the fort

OfSan Carlo s del Rio Negro occupied twelve hours .They were informed at San Carlo s that

,on account of

po lit ical circumstances,it was difficult at that moment to

pass from the Spanish t o the Portuguese set t lement s ;b ut they did no t know t ill after the ir re turn to Europethe ext ent Of the danger t o wh ich they woul d have beenexpo sed in proceeding as far as Barce llos . It was knownat Brazil

,through the medium Of the newspapers

,that

Humbo ldt was go ing to visit the missions Of the RioNegro

,and to examine the natural canal which united

two g reat systems Of rivers. In those desert forest s in

struments had been seen only in the hands Of the com

missioners Of the boundaries ; and at that t ime the subaltern agent s Of the Portugue se government could no t

conce ive how a man Of sense could expose himse lf t o thefat igues of a long j ourney

,

“t o measure lands that did

no t belong to him . Orders had been issued t o se ize hisperson

,his instrument s

,and above all

,his registers of

astronomical Observat ions. The pair of dangerous naturalists were t o b e conducted by way of the Amazon toGrand Para

,and thence sent back t o Lisbon . But for

tunat ely for Humboldt , the government at Lisbon,On

being informed Of the zeal Of its ignorant agents,in

stant ly gave orders that he should no t b e disturbed inhis Operat ions ; bu t that on the contrary they should beencouraged

,if he traversed any part Of the Portuguese

possessions .

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1 70 THE WH ITE WATER S .

the Temi,the Tuamini

,and the Rio Negro In again

ent ering the Orinoco by the Cassiquiare they would havet o navigat e three hundred and twenty leagues

,from San

Carlo s t o Ango stura. By this way they would have t o

struggle against the currents during t en days ; the restwas t o b e performed by go ing down the stream Of theOrinoco . It would have been blamable

,they thought

,

t o have suffered themselves to b e discouraged by the fearof a cloudy Sky, and by the mo squito s Of the Cassiquiare .

The ir Indian pilo t promised them the sun,and “

tho segreat stars that eat the clouds

,

”as soon as they should

have left the black wat ers of th e Guaviare .

'

They therefore carried out the ir first proj ect Of re turning to San

Fernando de Atabapo by the Cassiquiare ; and, fortu

nat ely for the ir researches,the predict ion Of the Indian

was verified. The white wat ers brought them by degreesa more serene sky

,st ars

,mo squito s

,and crocodiles .

They reached San Carlo s again, and Humbo ldt passeda part of the night in the Open air

,wait ing vainly for

stars . The air was misty,no twithstanding the white

wat ers,wh ich were to lead them beneath an ever-starry

They passed three night s at San Carlo s,Humboldt

watch ing during the great er part of them,in the hope Of

seizing the moment Of the passage of some star over themeridian . That he might have no thing to reproach him

self with , he kept his instruments always ready for an

Observat ion.

On the banks of the Cassiquiare he , purchased fromthe Indians two fine large birds. a toucan , and a speciesOf macaw

,seventeen inches long

,having the who le

body of a purple co lour. He had already in his canoe

THE IR BIRDS AND MONKEYS . 1

seven parrots,two manakins

,a mo tmo t

,two guans

,two

manav iris,and eight monkeys . Father Z ea whispered

some complaints at the daily augmentat ion of this ambulatory collect ion. The toucan resembles the raven inmanners and intelligence . It is a courageous bird

,but

easily tamed. Its long and stout beak serve s to d efendit at a distance . It make s itself mast er Of the house

,

steals whatever it can come at,and love s to bathe Often

and fish on the banks Of the river. The toucan that

Humbo ldt bought was very young ; yet it to ok de light ,during the who le voyage

,in t easing the nocturnal mon

keys,which were melancho ly and irritable .

Mo st of the animals were confined in small wickercages ; o thers ran at full liberty in all parts Of the boat .

At the approach Of rain the macaws sent forth no isycries

,the toucan wanted t o reach the shore t o fish

,and

the lit t le monkeys went in search of Father Z ea,to take

shelt er in the large sle eves ofhis Franciscan habit . Theseincidents some t imes amused the trave llers so much thatthey forgo t the torment of the mo squit os . A t night theyplaced a leather case containing the ir provisions in the

centre ; then the ir instrument s,and the cag es of the ir

animals ; their hammo cks were suspended around thecages

,and beyond were tho se Of the Indians. The ex

terior circle was formed by the fires which were ligh tedto keep Off the jaguars . Such was the order of the ir encampment on the banks Of the Cassiquiare .

Among the Indians in the ir canoe was a fugit ive fromGuaisia

,who had become suflicient ly civilized in a few

weeks t o b e useful to them in placing the instruments necessary for the ir Observat ions at nigh t . He was no lessmild than intelligent

,and they had some de sire Of taking

1 7 2 A CANNIBAL AMONG THEM.

him into the ir service . What was the irhorrorwhen,talk

ing to him by means Of an interpre ter, they learned, thatthe flesh of the marimonde monkeys

,though blacker

,

appeared to him t o have the taste Of human flesh . Het o ld them that “ his relat ions preferred the inside Of thehands in man

,as in bears.” This assert ion was aecom

panied with gesture s of savage grat ificat ion . They inquired Of th is young man

,so calm and so affect ionate in

the lit t le services wh ich he rendered them,Whe ther he

still felt some t imes a desire to eat of a Cheruv ichahena.

He answered,without discomposure

,that

,living in the

mission,he would only eat what he saw. was eaten by

the Padres.As they approached the bifurcat ion Of the Orinoco

the ir passage became troublesome,on account Of the

luxuriance Of the vege tat ion. There was no longera bank : a palisade Of tufted trees formed the marginOf the river. They saw a canal, one thousand two

hundred fee t broad,bordered by two enormous walls

,

clo thed with lianas and fo liage . They Oft en tried toland

,b ut without succe ss . Towards sunse t they sailed

along for an hour seeking t o discover,no t an Opening

,

since none existed,but a spo t less wo oded

,where the ir

Indians by means Of the hat chet and manual labour,

could clear space enough for a rest ing-place for twe lveor thirt een persons. It was impo ssible to pass the nightin the canoe ; the mosquitos, which tormented them during the day, accumulat ed t owards evening beneath the

roof covered with palm-leaves,which served to shelter

them from the rain. Their hands and faces had neverbefore been so much swelled. Father Z ea, who had til lthen boasted Of having in his missions Of the cataracts

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1 74 THE CR IES OF THE JAGUARS.

o ther at almost equal intervals. The Indians,who seldom

ennobled by the ir expressions the wanderings of the imag ination, named the falling-stars the urine

,and the dew

the spit tle Of the stars . The clouds thickened anew,and

the trave llers discerned ne ither the met eors,nor the real

stars,for which they had wait ed during several days .

They had b een to ld that they should find the insectsat

.

Esmeralda st ill more crue l and voracious,than in the

branch Of the Orinoco which they were go ing up ; nevertheless they indulged the hOpe of at length Sleeping in a

spo t that was inhabit ed,and of taking some exercise in

herb alizing . This ant icipat ion was,however

,disturbed

at the ir last re st ing-place on the Cassiquiare . Whilstthey were sleeping on the edge of the forest

,they were

warned by the Indians,in the middle Of the night

,that

they heard very near the cries Of a jaguar. These cries,

they alleged,came from the top Of some

“

ne ighbouringtrees.As the ir fires burnt bright ly

,the trave llers paid lit tle

at tent ion to the cries of the jaguars,who had been

at tract ed by the sme ll and noise of their do g . Thisanimal began at first to bark ; and when the jaguars drewnearer

,to howl

,hiding h imself below the hammo cks

Of the travellers . Great was the ir grief,when in the

morning,at the moment o f re -embarking

,the Indians

informed them that the do g had disappeared ! Therecould b e no doubt that he had been carried Off by thejaguars . Perhaps

,when the ir cries had ceased he had

wandered from the fire s on the side Of the beach . Theywait ed part Of the morning

,in the hope that the do g had

only strayed. Three days after they came back to thesame place ; they heard again the cries Of the jaguars,

THE SHOP KEEPER OF ESMERALDA . 1 75

b ut al l their search was in vain . The do g , wh ich hadaccompanied them from Caracas

,and had so Oft en in

swimming e scaped the pursuit Of the crocodiles,had been

devoured in the fo rest .

On the 2 1 st they again entered the b ed Of the Orinoco,

three leagues be low the mission Of Esmeralda. It was

now a month since they had left that river near the mouthOf the Guaviare . They had stil l to proceed seven hundredand fifty leagues before reaching Ango stura.

A t Esmeralda they were cordially rece ived by an OldOflicer

,who t o ok them for Catalonian shopke epers

,and

who suppo sed that trade had led them t o the missions.On see ing packages Of paper intended for drying the irplant s

,he smiled at their simple ignorance . You

come,

” said he,

“to a country where this kind Of mer

chandise has no sale ; we writ e lit t le h ere ; and the driedleaves Of maize

,the plantain-tree

,and the he liconia serve

us,lik e paper in Europe

,t o wrap up ne edles

,fish-hooks

,

and o ther lit t le art icles of wh ich we are careful . ThisOld Officer unit ed in his person the civil and ecclesiast icalauthority. He taugh t the children the Ro sary ; he

rang the bells t o amuse himse lf and impelled by arden tzeal for the service of the church

,he some t imes used his

chorister’s wand in a manner no t very agre eable t o the

natives.When they arrived at Esmeralda

,the great er part Of

the Indians were returning from an excursion wh ich

they had made t o the e ast,beyond the Rio Padamo , to

gather brazil nuts . The ir re turn was ce lebrat ed by afest ival

,which was called in the mission the fest ival of

brazil nuts,and which resembled the harvest -home s and

Vintag e-feasts Of Germany. The women had prepared a

1 76 ROASTED MONKEYS .

quant ity Of fermented liquor,and during two days the

Indians were in a state of intoxicat ion . The harvest

was celebrated by dancing and drinking. The hu t

where the nat ives were assembled,displayed during

several days a singular aspect . There was ne ither tablenor bench ; but large roast ed monkeys

,blackened by

smoke,were ranged in regular order against the wall.

The manner of roast ing these animal s contributed to

render the ir appearance extremely disagreeable in the

eyes Of the trave llers. A lit t le grat ing or latt ice Of veryhard wood was formed

,and raised one foo t from the

ground. The monkey was skinned,and bent into a

sit t ing posture ; the head generally resting on the arms,

which were meagre and king. When it was t ied on thegrat ing

,a very clear fire was kindled be low . The mon

k ey, enve loped in smoke and flame,was bro iled and

blackened at the same time . On see ing the nat ives devour the arm or leg of a roast ed monkey

,it was difficult

no t to believe that this habit of eat ing animals so clo selyresembling man in the ir physical org anizat ion, had, t o acertain degree

,contributed to diminish the horror of can

nib alism among these people . The fle sh Of monkeys isSO lean and dry, that Bonpland preserved in his co lleet ions at Paris an arm and hand

,which had been bro iled

over the fire at Esmeralda ; and no sme ll ro se from themafter the lapse Of a number ofyears.The trave llers saw the Indians dance . The mono t onyOf their dancing was increased by the women no t daringt o take part in it . The men

,young and Old, formed a

circle,ho lding each o ther

’s hands,and turned somet imes

to the right,somet imes to the left

,for who le hours, with

silent gravity. Mo st frequent ly the dancers themselves

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1 7 8 THE RIO MATAVENI.

scended from the mountains,and mingled with the

palm-t rees of the plain . They‘rest ed that night on the

island Of Minisi ; and, after having passed the mouthsOf the lit t le rivers Quejanuma, Ubua, andMasao , arrived,on the 2 7 th , at San Fernando de Atabapo . Theylodged in the same house which they had o ccupied a

month previously,when go ing up the Rio Negro . Then

they directed the ir course towards the south,by the

Atabapo and the Temi ; they were now re turning fromthe we st

,having made a long circuit by the Cassiquiare

and the Upper Orinoco .

Quit t ing San Fernando on the 2 7 th,they arrived

,by

h elp of the rapid current of the Orino co,in seven hours

,

at the mouth Of the Rio Mataveni . They passed the

night in the Open air,under the granit ic ro ck El Cas

t illito,which ro se in the middle Of the river

,the form of

which reminded Humbo ldt Of the ruin called the Mouset ower

,opposite Bingen .

Fair Bing en On the Rhine .

On the evening Of the 3 1 st they landed just beforesunset on the east ern bank Of the Orino co in order tovisit the cavern Of A taruipe , the sepulchre of a de

stroyed nat ion.

They climbed with difficulty,and no t without some

danger,a st eep ro ck of granite

,ent ire ly bare . It would

have been almo st impo ssible for them to have fixed the ir

fee t on its smoo th and Sloping surface , b u t for large crystalsof fe ldspar

,resist ing decompo sit ion

,wh ich stood ou t from

the ro ck,and furnished po int s of support . Scarce ly had

they at tained the summit Of the mountain when they

THE CAVERN OF ATARUIPE . 1 7 9

beheld the singular aspect Of the surrounding country .

The foamy b ed Of the wat ers was filled with an archipelago of islands covered with palm-trees . Westward

,

On the left bank Of the Orin oco,the wide -stre t ching

savannahs of the Me ta and the Casanare resembled a

sea Of verdure . The set t ing sun seemed like a globe Offire suspended over the plain

,and the so litary peak of

U niana,which appeared more lofty from be ing wrapped

In vapours wh ich softened its outline,all cont ribut ed t o

deepen the maj esty Of the scene . Immediate ly belowthem lay a deep valley

,inclo sed on every side . Birds of

prey and goatsuckers winged the ir lone ly flight in thisinaccessible place . The trave llers found a pleasure info llowing with the eye the ir fleet ing shadows

,as they

glided slowly over the flanks of the ro ck.

The mo st remo t e part Of the valley was covered by a

thick forest . In this shady and so litary spo t,on the

declivi ty Of a steep mountain, the cavern Of Ataruipeopened t o the V iew. It was less a cavern than a j ut t ing

ro ck,in which the waters had sco oped a vast ho llow

when,in the ancient revo lut ions Of our planet

,they

at tained that he igh t . In this t omb Of an ext inct tribe

the trave llers count ed nearly six hundred ske le tons we llpreserved

,and regularly placed. Every ske le ton reposed

in a sort Of baske t made Of the pe tio les of the palm-tree .

These baske ts had the fo rm ofa square b ag . The ir size was

proport ioned to the ag e of the dead ; there were some fo r

infant s cut Off at the moment Of the ir birth . The trave llers saw them from t en inch e s to three feet four inche s long,the ske let ons in them be ing bent t oge ther. They were

all ranged near each o ther,and were so ent ire that no t a

rib or a phalanx was want ing. The bones had been

1 80 FUNERAL URNS.

prepared in three different manners, e ither whitened inthe airand the sun

,dyed redwith ano to

,or like mummies

varnished with Odoriferous resins, and enveloped in leavesOf the heliconia

,or the plantain-tre e . The Indians in

formed them that the fresh corpse was placed in dampground

,that the flesh might b e consumed by degrees ;

some months afterwards it was taken out,and the flesh

remaining on the bone s was scraped Offwith sharp stones.Earthen vases half-baked were found near the baske t s.They appeared t o contain the bone s of the same family .

The large st Of the se vases,or funeral urns

,were fiv e fee t

h igh,and three feet three inche s long. The ir colourwas

greenish -grey,and the ir oval form was pleasing to the

eye . The handles were made in the shape of cro codile sor serpent s ; the edges were bordered with paint ed meanders

,labyrinths

,and grecques

,in rows variously com

b ined. Such designs are found in every zone amongnat ions the farthest removed from each o ther

,e itherwith

respect t o the ir respect ive po si t ions on the globe,or to

the degree Of civilizat ion which they have at tained.

They st ill adorn the common pot t ery made by the

inhabitant s Of the lit t le mission of Maypures theyornament the bucklers Of the Otahe itans

,the fishing

implement s Of the Esquimaux,the walls of the Mexican

palace Of Mit la,and the vase s Of ancient Greece .

They could no t acquire any precise idea Of the period towhich the origin of the baske ts and the painted vase s

,

contained in the bone -cavern Of Ataruipe , could b e traced.

A tradit ion circulat ed among the Guah ibos,that the war

like Atures,pursued by the Caribs

,e scaped to the ro cks

that ro se in the middl e Of the Great Cataracts ; and therethat nat ion became gradual ly ext inct

,as well as its lan

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1 8 2 SME LLING THE IR OLD RELATIONS.

b etween Angostura and Nueva Barcelona,the nat ives

assembled round the ir mule s,

t o admire the monkeyswhich they had purchased at the Orinoco . These go odpeople had scarce ly t ouched the ir baggage

,when they

announced the approach ing death Of the beast Of burdenthat carried the dead. In vain t h e trave llers to ld themthey were dece ived in the ir conjectures ; and that the

baske t s contained the bones Of crocodiles and manat is ;they persisted in repeat ing that they smelt the resin thatsurrounded the ske letons

,and “

that they were their Oldrelat ions.” The trave llers were obliged to request thatthe monks would interpose the ir authority

,t o overcome

the aversion Of the nat ives,and procure for them a change

Of mules .They withdrew in silence from the cavern OfA taruipe .

It was one of those calm and serene nights which are so

common in the t orrid zone . The stars shone with a mildand plane tary light . The ir scintillat ion was scarce lysensible at the horizon

,which seemed illumined by the

great nebulae of the southern hemisphere . An innumer

able mult itude Of insects spread a reddish light upon theground

,loaded with plants

,and resplendent with these

living and moving fires,as if the stars Of the firmament

had sunk down on the savannah . On quit t ing the ca

vern the travellers stopped t o admire the beauty of

th is singular scene . The Odoriferous vanilla and fes

t o ons ofbignonia decorat ed th e entrance ; and above,on

the summit Of the h ill,the arrowy branches of the palm

trees waved murmuring in the air. They descendedtowards the river

,t o take the road t o the mission, where

they arrived late in the night .The v stayed at the mission of Atures only during the

PASSING THE CATARACI‘

OF ATURE S . 8 3

time necessary for passing the cano e through the GreatCataract . The bo t tom of the ir frail bark had become so

thin that it required great care t o prevent it from splitt ing. They took leave Of the missionary

,Bernardo Z ea

,

who remained at Atures,after having accompanied them

during two months,and shared all the ir sufferings. This

poor monk stil l cont inued to have fits Of t ertian ague ;they had become t o him an habitual evil

,to wh ich he

paid lit t le at t ent ion . Other fevers Of a more fatal kindprevailed at Atures on their second Visit . The greaterpart Of the Indians could no t leave the ir hammocks

,and

the travellers were obliged t o send in search Of cassavabread

,the mo st indispensable food Of the country

,to the

independent b u t ne ighbouring tribe Of the Piraoas.

The trave llers passed in the ir cano e through the lat

t er half Of the Cataract Of Atures . They landed hereand there

,t o climb upon the rocks

,wh ich like narrow

dike s jo ined the islands one t o ano ther. Some times thewat ers forced the ir way over the dike s

,somet imes they

fell with in them with a ho llow no ise . A considerableport ion of the Orinoco was dry, because the river hadfound an issue by subt erraneous caverns . In these so litary haunts the rock-manakin with gilded plumage

,one

of the mo st beaut iful birds of the tropics,built its nest .

The lit t le Cataract of Carucari was caused by an accumulation Of enormous blo cks Of granit e

,several Of which

were sphero ids of fiv e or six feet in diame t er,and they

were piled t oge ther in such a manner,as t o form spacious

caverns. The t rave llers e nt ered one Of these caverns t ogather the confervae that were Spread over the clefts and

humid Side s of the ro ck. This spo t displayed one of the

most extraordinary scenes Of nat ure,that they had con

1 8 4 WAITING IN THE STORM.

t emplated on the banks Of the Orinoco . The river rol ledits wat ers turbulent ly over the ir heads . It seemed likethe sea dashing against reefs of rocks ; b ut at the en

t rance of the cavern they could remain‘

dry beneath a

large sheet Of wat er that precipitat ed it self in an archfrom above the barrier. In o ther cavit ies

,deeper

,b ut

less spacious,the rock was pierced by the effect of suc

c essiv e filtrations. They saw co lumns Ofwater,e igh t or

nine inches br'

oad,descending from the top Of the vault ,

and finding an issue by cleft s,that seemed t o communi

cat e at great distances with each o ther.

They had the Opportunity Of examining this extraordinary sight longer than they wished. The ir boat wast o coast the eas tern bank Of a narrow island

,and to take

them in again after a long circuit . They passed an hourand a half in vain expectat ion Of it . Night approached

,

and with it a tremendous storm. It rained with v io

lence . They began t o fear that the ir frail bark had beenwrecked against the ro cks

,and that the Indians

,con

formably t o the ir habitual indifference for the evils of

o thers,had re turned tranquilly t o the mission. There

were only thre e of the party they were comple te ly wet,

and uneasy respect ing the fat e Of the ir boat : it appearedfar from agreeable t o pass

,without sleep

,a long night

ofthe t orrid zone,amid the no ise ofthe cataracts . Bon

pland proposed t o leave Humbo ldt On the island,and t o

swim acro ss the branches Of the river, that were separatedby the granit ic dikes . He hoped to reach the forest

,

and seek assistance at Atures from Father Z ea. Theydissuaded him with difiiculty from undertaking this

hazardous enterprise . The lit t le monkeys wh ich they

had carried along with them for months, were depo sited

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1 86 THE D IRT EATERS .

Though t he travellers could stay only one day at

Uruana,this short space Of t ime sufliced t o make them

acquaint ed with the preparat ion of the balls of earth .

Humbo ldt also found some traces of this vit iated appe t it e

among the Guamo s ; and between the confluence Of theMet a and the Apure

,where everybody spoke of dirt

eat ing as Of a thing ancient ly known .

The inhabitant s of Uruana belonged to tho se nat ionsOf the savannahs called wandering Indians, who , morediflicult to civilize than the nat ions of the forest

,had a

decided aversion t o cult ivat ing the land,and lived almost

exclusively by hunt ing and fishing. They were men Ofvery robust const itut ion ; but ill-lo oking, savage , v indict ive

,and passionate ly fond of fermented liquors. They

were omnivorous animals in the h ighest degree ; and

therefore the o ther Indians,who considered them as

barbarians,had a common saying

,

“no th ing is so loath

some b ut that an Ot tomac will eat it .” While the wat ersOf the Orinoco and its t ributary streams were low

,the

Ot tomacs subsist ed on fish and turtle s. The former theykilled with surprising dexterity

,by sho o t ing them with

arrows when they appeared at the surface of the wat er.

When the rivers swelled fishing almost ent irely ceased.

It was then very diflicult to procure fish,which oft en

failed the poor missionaries,on fast -days as we ll as fl esh

days,though all the young Indians were under the obli

g ation of fishing for the convent . During the period ofthese inundat ions

,which lasted two or thre e months

,the

Ot tomacs swallowed a prodigious quant ity of earth . The

travellers found heaps of earth -balls in the ir hut s,piled

up in pyramids three or four fee t h igh . These ballswere five or Six inches in diameter. The e arth which

ANGOSTURA . 1 8 7

the Ottomacs at e was a very fine and unctuous clay,of

a yellowish grey co lour ; when it was slight ly bakedat the fire

,the hardened crust had a t int inclining t o red

,

owing t o the oxide Of iron which was mingled with it .

The travellers brought away some of this earth,which

they took from the winter-provision of the Indians .They reached Ango stura on the 1 3 th of June . In

seventy-fiv e days they had performed a passage Of fivehundred leagues on the. fiv e great rivers

,Apure

,Orinoco

,

Atabapo,Rio Negro

,and Cassiquiare ; and in this vast

extent they had found but a very small number Of inhabit ed places . After the life they had led in the wo ods

,

the ir dre ss was no t in the very best order,neverthe less

they hast ened t o present themselve s to Don Fe lipe deYnc iart e

,the governor of the province of Guiana. He

rece ived them in the most cordial manner,and lodged

them in the house of the secre tary Of the Int endencia.

Coming from an almost de sert count ry,they were struck

with the bust le Of the t own,though it contained only six

thousand inhabitant s. They admired the convenience swhich indust ry and commerce furnish t o civilized man .

Humble dwellings appeared to them magnificent ; and

every person with whom they conversed,seemed t o b e

endowed w ith superior intelligence . Long privat ionsg ive a value to the smallest enjoyments ; and Humbo ldtcould no t express the pleasure he fe lt

,when he saw for

the first t ime wheat en bread on the governor’s table .

They felt themselve s on the first days after the ir arrivalt ired and enfe ebled

,b ut in perfect health . Bonpland

began t o examine the small number Of plants wh ich hehad been able to save from the influence Of the dampclimMe ; and Humboldt was occupied in set t ling by

1 8 8 TAKEN DOWN WITH FEVE R .

astronomical Observat ions the longitude and lat itude Ofthe capital

,as we ll as the dip Of the magne t ic needle .

These labours were soon int errupt ed. They were bo that tacked almo st on the same day by a disorder

,wh ich

with Bonpland took the charact er Of a debilitat ing fever.

At th is period the air was in a stat e Of the greatestsalubrity at Ango stura ; and as the only mulat to servantthey had brought from Cumana fe lt symptoms Of thesame disorder

,it was suspect ed that they had imbibed the

germs of typhus in the damp fore sts Of Cassiquiare .

The ir mulat to servant having been much more expo sedto the rains than they were

,his disorder increased with

frightful rapidity. His prostrat ion of strength was excessive

,and on the ninth day his death was announced

t o them . He was however only in a state ofSwo oning,

which last ed several hours,and was fo llowed by a salu

tary crisis . Humbo ldt was at tacked,at the same t ime

with a vio lent fit Of fever,during which he was made to

take a mixture Of honey and bark,a remedy much

exto lled in the country by the Capuchin missionaries.The int ensity Of the fever increased

,but it left him on

the fo llowing day. Bonpland remained in a very alarming stat e , which during several weeks caused them the

mo st serious inquie tude . Fortunat e ly he preserved sufficient se lf-possession t o prescribe for h imself. The feverwas cont inual ; and

,as almo st always happens with in

the tropics,it was accompanied by dysent ery. Bonpland

displayed that courage and mildness of charact er whichnever forsook him in the mo st trying situat ions. Humbo ldt was agitat ed by sad presage s ; for he rememberedthat the bo tanist Lo efling , a

‘

pupil Of Linneus, died no tfar from Ango stura

,near the banks of the Carony, a

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CHAPTER V .

TO CUBA AND BACK.

THE travellers left Angostura on the 10th of July.

Night had se t in when they cro ssed for the last t ime theb ed of the Orinoco . They purpo sed t o re st near the lit tlefort San Rafael

,and on the fo llowing morning at daybreak

t o set out on the ir journey through the plains of Venezuela. About a month had e lapsed since their arrival atAngostura ; and they earnest ly wished to reach the co ast

,

with the View offinding, at Cumana, or at Nueva Barcelona

,a vesse l in which they might embark for the island

ofCuba,thence to pro ceed t o Mexico . Aft er the sufferings

to wh ich th ey had been expo sed during several months,

wh ilst sailing in small boat s on rivers infested by mos

quit os,the idea Of a sea-voyage was no t without its

charms. They had no idea of ever again re turning toSouth America. Sacrificing the Andes Of Peru t o the

Arch ipelago Of the Philippines,they adhered to the ir Old

plan Of remaining a year in Mexico,then proceeding in

a galleon from Acapulco tO'

Manilla,and re turning t o

Europe by way Of Bassora and Aleppo .

Their mules were in wait ing for them on the left bankOf the Orino co . The co llect ion Of plant s

,and the differ

ent geo lo g ical serie s, which they had brought from the

THE CARIES AT CAR I . 1 9 1

Esmeralda and Rio Negro,had great ly Increasedfi

x

baggage ; and, as it would have been dangerous to lo se

Sight of the ir herbals, they expected to make a very slowjourney across the Llano s.On the 1 3 th they arrived at the Village of Cari

,the

first of the Caribbee missions. They lodged as usual at

the convent . The ir host could scarce ly compreh end“ how nat ives of the north Of Europe could arrive at his

dwelling from the front iers of Brazil by the Rio Negro,

and no t by way st Of Cumana. He t reat edthem in the m manner

,at the same t ime

manifest ing that somewhat importunate curio sity which

the appearance of a stranger, no t a Spaniard, always excit ed in South America. He expressed his belief thatthe minerals they had collected must contain go ld ; andthat the plant s

,dried with so much care

,must b e medici

nal . Here,as in many part s Of Europe

,the sciences

were thought worthy t o o ccupy the mind only so far as

they conferred some immediat e and pract ical benefi t on

so cie ty .

The trave llers found more than fiv e hundred Caribs inth e village Of Cari ; and saw many o thers in the sur

rounding missions . They were a very tall race of men,

the ir he ight be ing from fiv e fe e t six,to fiv e fe et t en

inche s . Acc ording t o a pract ice common in Ameria’

the women were more sparingly clo thed than the men .

The former wore only the g uajuco, in the form of a band.

The men had the lower part of the body wrapped in a

piece Of blue clo th,so dark as t o b e almo st black . Th is

drapery was so ample,that

,on the lowering of the tem

perat ure towards evening, the Caribs threw it over the irShoulders. The men out their hair in a peculiarmanner.

1 9 2 DIFFICULTIES WITH THE MULETEERS.

very much in the style of the monks . A part of the

forehead was shaved,which made it appear extremely

high,and a circular tuft Of hair was left near the crown

Of the head. The Carib women were less robust and

good~looking than the men . On them devo lved almo stthe who le burden Of dome stic work, as well as much Ofthe out -door labour. They asked the travellers eagerlyfor pins

,wh ich they stuck under the ir lower lip

,making

the head Of the pin penetrat e deeply into the skin. The

young girls were painted red,and were almo st naked.

On quit t ing the mission of Cari,they had some diffi

cult ies to set t le with the ir Indian mulet eers . They haddiscovered that the travellers had brought skeletons withthem from the cavern of Ataruipe ; and they were fullypersuaded that the beasts of burden which carried thebodies Of their Old re lations would perish on the journey.

Every precaution the trave llers had taken was use less ;no thing could escape a Carib’s penetrat ion and keen senseOf smell

,and it required all the authority Of the mission

ary to forward the ir passage . They had to cro ss the RioCari in a boat

,and the Rio de Agua Clara

,by fording

,

or,it may almost b e said

,by swimming. They had t wo

b ad stat ions,one at Matagorda and the o ther at Los

Riece tos,before they reached the lit t le town Of Pao

They beheld everywhere the same Obj ect s ; small huts

constructed Of reeds, and roofed with leather ; men on

horseback armed with lances,guarding the herds ; herds

Of cat t le half wild, remarkable for the ir uniform co lour,and disput ing the pasturage with horses and mules.The t ravellers arrived, on the 2 3rd

,at the town Of

Nneva Barce lona,less fat igued by the heat of the Llano s

,

to wh ich they had been long accustomed, than annoyed

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1 94 TAKEN BY A _ PRIVATEER .

lers hired an open boat called a lancha,a So rt of craft

employed habitually in the lat itude s east Of‘

Cape Codera

,where the sea was scarcely ever rough . The ir

lancha,wh ich was laden with co coa

,carried on a contra

band trade with the island Of Trinidad . For this reasonthe owner imagined they had no thing t o fear from the

enemy’s ve ssels,which then blo ckaded all the Spanish

port s . They embarked the ir co llect ion of plants,the ir

instrument s,and the ir monkeys ; and, the weather be ing

de lightful,they hoped t o make a very short passage from

the mouth of the Rio Nev eri to Cumana. But they hadscarcely reached the narrow channe l be tween the cont inent and the ro cky isle s Of Borracha and the Chimanas

,

when t o their great surprise they came in sight of an

armed boat,which

,wh ilst hailing them from a great dis

tance,fired some musket -sho t at them . The boat b e

longed to a privat e er Of Halifax. The pro te stat ions ofthe trave llers were without effect ; they were carried on

board the privat e er,and the cap tain

,affect ing no t t o re

cognise the passport s de livered by the governor Of Trinidad for the illicit trade

,declared them t o b e a lawful

prize . Be ing a lit t le in the habit Of speaking English,

Humbo ldt entered int o conversat ion with the captain,

begg ing no t t o b e taken t o Nova Sco t ia, but t o b e put onshore on the neighbouring coast . While he endeavoured

,

in the cabin,to defend his own right s

,and tho se of the

owner Of the lancha, he heard a no ise on deck. Something was wh ispered to the captain

,who left in co n

st ernation . Happily for them an English Sloop of

war,the Hawk, was cruising in tho se part s

,and had

signalled the captain t o bring to ; b ut the signal no tbeing prompt ly answered, a g un was fired from the Sloop,

RELEASED BY THE ENGLISH CAPTAIN . 1 95

and a midshipman sent on board the vessel . He gaveHumbo ldt hope s

,that the lancha

,which was laden with

cocoa,would b e given up

,and that on the fo llowing day

they might pursue the ir voyage . In the meant ime he in

v ited the traveller to accompany him on board the Sloop,assuring him that his commander

,Captain Garnier

,would

furnish him with be t ter accommodat ion for the nigh t,

than he would find in the vesse l from Halifax.

Humbo ldt accept ed the se Obliging offers,and was re

ceiv ed with the utmo st kindness by Captain Garnier,

who had made the voyage to the north -west coast of

America with Vancouve r,and who appeared to b e highly

int ere st ed in all he relat ed t o him re spect ing the greatcataract s ofAtures and Maypures, the bifurcat ion Of theOrino co

,and its communicat ion with the Amazon . He

introduced to him several Of his Oflicers,who had been

with Lord Macartney in China. Humbo ldt had no t,

during the space Of a year,enjoyed the socie ty Of so

many we ll-informed persons . They had learned from

the English newspapers the Obj ect of his ent erprise . Hewas treat ed with great confidence

,and the commander

gave him up his own state -ro om .

The travellers cont inued the ir passage the next day,and were surprised at the depth Of the channe ls be tweenthe Caracas Islands

,where the sle ep worked her way

through them almost t ouch ing the ro cks . Numbers of

pe licans,and offlaming o es, which fished in the nooks

,or

harassed the pelicans in order to seize the ir prey,indi

cated the ir appro ach t o the coast Of Cumana. A t sun

rise the sea-birds suddenly appeared,and animat ed the

scene,reminding the travellers

,in these soli tary re

gions,Of the act ivity Of the cit ies of Europe at the

1 96 BACK AT CUMANA .

dawn of day. At nine in the morning they reached thegulf Of Cariaco

,which served as a roadstead t o the town

of Cumana. The hill,crowned by the cast le ofSan An

tonio,stood out

,prominent from -its whitene ss

,on the

dark curtain Of the inland mountains. They gazed withint erest on the shore

,where they first gathered plant s in

America,and where

,some mon ths lat er

,Bonpland had

been in such dahg er. Among the cactuses that rose inco lumns twenty feet high appeared the Indian huts ofthe Guayquerias. The ir friends at Cumana came out . to

meet them : men Of all cast es,with whom the ir frequent

herborizat ions had brought them in contact,expressed

the greater joy at sigh t Of them,as a report that they

had perished o n the banks of the Orinoco had been cur

rent for several months .The trave llers hast ened t o visit Don Vicente Emparan

,who se recommendat ions and constant so licitude

had be en so useful t o them during the long journey theyhad just t erminated. He procured for them

,in the centre

of the t own,a house wh ich was extremely useful for

the ir instrument s. They enjoyed from its t erraces a ma

jest ic View of the sea,of the isthmus ofAraya

,and the

arch ipelago of the islands of Caracas,Picuita

,and Bor

racha. The port Of Cumana was every day more and

more blockaded,and the vain expectat ion of the arrival

Of Spanish packe t s detained them two months and a halflonger. They were often nearly t empt ed to g o t o the

Danish islands,wh ich enjoyed a happy neutrality ; but

they feared that,if they left the Spanish co lonies, they

migh t find some Obstacles to the ir re turn . They em

ployed th e ir t ime in complet ing the Flora of Cumana,

geo lo g ically examining the east ern part of the peninsula

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1 98 HAVANNA.

appeared higher than the moon ; this iris-band was near

2 ° broad,and its summit seemed t o rise nearly from 80°

t o 85° above the horizon of the sea. The sky was sin

g ularly pure ; there was no appearance of rain and

what struck him mo st was,that this phenomenon

,which

perfectly resembled a lunar rainbow,was no t in the

direct ion Oppo site t o the moon. The arch remained stat ionary, or at least appeared t o do so

,during e igh t or

t en minut es ; and at the moment when he tried if it werepo ssible to see it by reflect ion in the mirror of the sex

tant,it began t o move and descend

,crossing successively

the mo on and Jupiter. It lacked six minut es ofone O’clockwhen the summit of the arch sank below the horizon.

This movement of an arch,coloured l ike the rainbow

,

filled with astonishment the sailors who were on wat chon the deck . They alleged

,as they did on the appearance

Of every extraordinary me t eor,that it deno t ed wind.

The t ravellers anchored at Havanna on the 1 9th of

December. No t be ing able to find a passage in any neu

tral vessel,Humbo ldt fre igh ted a Catalonian Sloop

,lying

at Batabano,wh ich was t o b e at his disposal t o take him

e ither t o Porto BellO or Carthagena,according as . the

gale s Of Saint Martha should permi t .The travellers se t sail on the 9th Of March

,somewhat

incommoded by the smallness Of the ir vessel,which

afforded no sleeping place b ut upon deck . The cabinrece ived no air or light b ut from above ; it was merelya ho ld for provisions, and it was with difficulty that theycould place the ir instrument s in it .They were soon in the gulf Of Batabano

,which was

bounded by a low and marshy coast,and looked like a

vast desert . The fish ing birds,which were generally at.

GARDENS AND BOWER S . 1 99

the ir post whilst the small birds and the indo lent vult ure s were at roo st

,were se en only in small numbers .

The sea was of a g re enish brown hue , as in some of the

lakes Of Switzerland ; while the air,owing t o its extreme

purity,had

,at the moment the sun appeared above the

horizon,a co ld t int of pale blue

,similar t o that which

landscape painters Observe at the same hour in the southof Italy

,and wh ich makes distan t Obj ects stand out in

strong re lief. They sailed taking the passag eOf Don Cristoval

,t o reach the ro cky island of Cayo de

Piedras,and to clear the arch ipe lago

,which the Spanish

pilo ts,in the early t imes of the conquest

,designat ed by

the names Of Gardens and Bowers . The Que en’s Gardens

,properly so

,called

,were nearer Cape Cruz

,and

were separat ed from the arch ipe lago by an open sea

thirty-fiv e league s broad. Co lumbus gave them the

name they bear,in 14 94

,when

,on his second voyage

,

he struggled during fifty-e igh t days with the winds and

current s between the island ofPino s and the eastern capeOf Cuba. He describes the islands of th is archipe lago as

verdant,full of tre e s and pleasant .

A part Of these so -styled gardens was inde ed beaut iful ;the voyagers saw the scene change every moment

,and the

verdure Of some of the islands appeared the more love lyfrom its contrast with chains of ro cks

,displaying only

wh ite and barren sands . The surface of these sands,

heated by the rays of the sun,seemed t o b e undulating

like the surface Of a liquid . The contact Of layers Of airOf unequal t emperature

,produced the mo st varied pheno ~

mena Of suspension and mirage,from t en in the morning

till four in the afternoon . Even in these de sert placesthe sun animat ed the landscape

,and gave mobility to the

2 00 THE PASS OF DON CRISTOVAL.

sandy plain,to the t runks of trees

,and t o the rocks that

proj ected into the sea like promonto ries . When the sun

appeared these inert masses seemed suspended in air ;

and on the ne ighbouring beach,the sands presented the

appearance of a shee t Of water gent ly agitated by the

winds . A train of clouds sufficed to seat the t runks oftrees and the suspended rocks again on the so il ; to renderthe undulat ing surface Of the plains mo t ionless ; and t odissipat e the charm which the Arabian

,Persian

,and

Hindoo poe ts have celebrat ed as

The sw ee t illusions Of the lonely desert .’

They doubled Cape Matahambre v erv slowly. Humbo ldt de termined

,

“as they sailed

,as they sailed

,

”the

po sit ions of Cayo de Don Cristoval,Cayo Flamenco

,

Cayo de Diego Perez,and Cayo de Piedras . He also

employed himse lf in examining the influence which thechange s at the bo t tom Of the sea produce on its t empera

ture at the surface .

No thwithstanding the small size of the ir bark, and theboasted skill Of the ir pilo t

,they Often ran aground . The

bo t t om be ing soft,there was no danger ; b ut , neverth eless,

at sunse t,near the pass Of Don Crist oval , they preferred

to lie at anchor. The first part Of the night was beaut ifully serene : they saw an incalculable number Of fallingstars

,all fo llowing one direct ion

,Oppo sit e to that from

whence the wind blew in the low regions Of the atmoSphere . The most abso lut e so litude prevailed in thisspo t

,which

,in the t ime Of Co lumbus, was inhabit ed and

frequented by great numbers offishermen. The inhabit

ant s Of Cuba then employed a small fish t o take the

great sea-turt les. The “ fisher-fish,

” formerly employed

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2 02 SLAUGHTER ING THE YOUNG ALCATRAS.

probably never had any communicat io n with each o ther,

furnish the mo st striking analogies in the means theyemploy in exercising the ir empire over animals .It was thre e days before the travellers could leave thislabyrinth ofGardens and Bowers. A t night they lay at

anchor ; by day they visi ted the islands,or chains of

rock,that were most easily accessible .

One day while they were employed in herborizing o nthe Cayo Bonito , the ir sailors were search ing amongthe rocks for lobsters . Disappo int ed at no t findinglobst ers there

,they avenged themse lves by climbing on

the mangrove s and making a dreadful slaugh ter of the

young alcatras,grouped in pairs in the ir nests . With

the want Of fo re sigh t peculiar t o th e great pelagic birds,

the alcatra builds his nest where seve ral branches Of tre esuni te toge ther Humbo ldt and Bonpland count ed fouro r fiv e ne st s on the same t runk Of a mangrove . The

young birds defended themselve s valiant ly with the irenormous beaks

,which were six o r seven inches long ;

the Old Ones hovered over the ir heads, making hoarse andplaint ive cries . Blood stre amed from the t ops of the

trees,for the sailors were armed with great st icks and

cut lasses . In vain were they reproved for th is cruel ty .

Condemned t o long Obedience in the solitude of the seas,

they fe lt pleasure in exercising a crue l tyranny overanimals

,when o ccasion offered. The ground

covered with wounded birds struggling in death . A t

the arrival Of the sailors a profound calm prevailed inth is secluded spo t ; when they left , everything seemed t osay : Man has passed this way.

They sailed along the coast keeping two or three milesdistant from land. On the 1 3 th

,a lit t le before sunset

,

TR INIDAD DE CUBA 2 03

they were oppo site the mou th of the Rio San Juan,which

was dreaded by navigators on account of the innumera

le quant ity Of mo squ it o s and zancudos wh ich filled theatmo sphere . Humbo ldt passed a great part Of the nigh tOn deck . The coast was dreary and deso late . No t a

light announced afisherman’s hut . There was no village

betwe en Batabano and Trinidad,a distance of fifty

leagues scarcely were there more than two or three

farm-yards,containing hogs or cows . Ye t

,in the t ime

of Co lumbus,th is territory was inhabit ed along the shore .

When the ground is dug to make wells,orwhen torrent s

furrow the surface of the earth in floods,stone hatchet s

and copper ut ensil s are Often discoveredOn the 1 4 th the trave llers entered the Rio Guaurab o

,

one Of th e two port s ofTrinidad de Cuba,t o pu t on shore

the pilo t of Batabano,who had st eered them acro ss the

flat s Of the Bowers,though no t without causing them t o

run aground several t imes . They also hoped t o find apacke t -boat in this port

,wh ich would take them to Car

thag ena. Humbo ldt landed towards evening,and placed

Borda’s azimuth compass and the art ificial horizon,on

the shore,fo r the purpose of Observing th e passage of

some stars by the meridian b ut they had scarce ly begun

the irpreparat ions,wh en a party oftraders

,who had dined

on board a fore ign sh ip recently arrived,invit ed them t o

accompany them t o the t own . They reque st ed the tra

v ellers to mount t wo by two on the same ho rse ; and, as

the heat was excessive,the ir offer was accept ed .

The road leading to the port was bril lian tly illuminat edby phospho re scent insect s. The grass that overspreadthe ground

,the branche s and fo liage of the t rees

,all

shone with a reddish and moveable ligh t,wh ich varied

2 04 CHEAP LANTE RNS .

in its intensity at the will Of the animal by wh ich it was

produced. It seemed as though the starry firmament

repo sed on the savannah . In the hu t Of the poo rest in

habitant s of the country, fifteen of these insect s,placed

in a calabash pierced with ho les,afforded sufficient light

t o search for anything during the night . To shake thecalabash forcibly was all that was necessary t o excite the

animal to increase the int ensity of the luminous discssituat ed on each side ‘Of it s body. The people Of thecountry remarked

,that calabashes filled with these phos

phorescent insect s were lant erns always ready light ed.

They were,in fact

,only ext inguished by the sickness or

death of the insects,wh ich were easily fed with a lit t le

sugar-cane . A young woman at Trinidad de Cuba to ldt he travellers

,that during a long and difficult passage

from the main land,she always made use of their ph o s

phorescence when she gave suck t o her child at nigh t ;the captain of the ship would allow no o ther ligh t on

board,from the fear Of co rsairs.

The trave llers quit t ed Trinidad on the night of the

l 5th . The municipality caused them t o b e conducted tothe mouth Of the Rio Guaurab o in a fine carriage linedwith Old crimson damask ; and, t o add to the ir confusion

,

an ecclesiast ic,the po et of th e place

,habit ed in a suit of

velve t no twithstanding the heat of the climat e,ce le

b rat ed,in a sonne t

,the ir voyage to the Orinoco .

On the morning ofthe 1 7 th they came within sight Of themost east ern island of the group of the Lesser Caymans.As long as t hey were within sight Of this island

,sea

turt le s Of extraordinary dimensions swam round theirvessel . The abundance Of these animals led Co lumbusto give the whole group Of the Caymans the name Of

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2 06 HUMBOLDT MEETS A FELLOW-COUNTRYMAN .

stories of boas,vipers

,and the at tacks of jaguars ; b ut

during a long residence among the Chayma Indians Of theOrino co

,the t rave llers were used to these exaggerat ions .

Quit t ing the coast of Zapo t e,covered with mangroves

,

they entered a fore st remarkable for a great varie ty Ofpalm-trees.After an hour’s walk

,they found

,in a cleared spo t

,

several inhabitant s employed in co llect ing palm-tree

wine . The dark t int Of the Zambos formed a strongcontrast with the appearance of a lit t le man with lighthair and a pale complexion

,who seemed t o take no share

in the labour. Humbo ldt thought at first that he was a

sailor who had e scaped from some North American v es

sel ; b ut was soon undece ived. This fair-complexionedman was his countryman

,born on the coast Of the Bal

t ic ; he had served in the Danish navy, and had lived forseveral years in the upper part Of the Rio Sinu

,near

Santa Cruz de Lorica. He had come,t o use the words

Of the lo ungers of the country,

“t o see o ther lands

,and

t o roam about : no thing e lse .

” The sight Of a man who

could speak t o him of his country,seemed t o have no

at tract ion for him ; and,as he had almo st forgo t ten Ger

man w ithout be ing able t o expre ss h imself clearly inSpanish

,the conversat ion was no t very animat ed. Dur

ing the fiv e years of his travels in Spanish America,

Humboldt found only t wo Opportunit ies Of speaking hisnat ive language . The first Prussian he me t with was asailor from Memel

,who served on board a ship from

Halifax,and who refused t o make himse lf known t ill

aft er he had fired some muske t -sho t at his boat . The

second,the man he me t at the Rio Sinu

,was very amica

bly disposed . Without answering his quest ions, he con

THE PAPS OF TOLU. 2 07

t inned repeat ing,with a smile

,

“that the country was ho t

and humid ; that the houses in the t own of Pomeraniawere finer than those of Santa Cruz de Lorica ; and that ,if they remained in the forest

,they would have the t er

t ian fever from wh ich he had long suffered. The t ravellers had some difficulty in showing the ir grat itude t o thisman for his kind advice ; for according t o his somewhataristo crat ic principle s

,a whit e man

,were he barefoo ted

,

should never accept money “ in the presence of thosevile co loured people l” Less disdainful than the ir European countryman

,the travellers saluted politely the

group Of men Of co lour,who were employed in drawing

Off int o large calabashe s,the palm-tree wine

,from the

t runks of felled tre es .They we ighed anchor in the road of Zapo t e

,on the

2 7 th ,at sunrise . The sea was less stormy

,and the

weather rather warmer,although the fury Of the wind

was undiminished . They saw on the north a succe ssionOf small cones of extraordinary form

,as far as the Morro

de Tigua ; these cones were known by the name of the

Paps ofSant ero,To lu

,Rincon

,and Chichimar. The two

lat ter were nearest the coast . The Paps of To lu ro se inthe middle Of the savannahs . There

,from the trunks

of the To luifera balsamum was co llect ed the preciousbalsam ofTo lu . In the savannahs ofTo lu the trave llerssaw oxen and mule s wande ring half wild . In the arch ipelago Of San Bernardo

,they passed be twe en the island

OfSalamanquilla and Cape Boqueron . They had scarcely

quit t ed the gulf Of Moro squillo , when the sea became so

rough,that the waves frequent ly washed over the deck

Of the ir lit t le vessel . The ir captain sought in vain a

she ltering-place on the coas t,t o the north of the village

2 08 THE ISLAND OF BARU.

of Rincon. They cast anchor at four fathoms ; buthaving discovered that they were l y ing o ve r a re ef ofcoral they preferred the Open sea.

The wind having dropped during the nigh t they couldonly advance t o the island of Arenas

,where they an

chored . The weather became stormy during the night .They again set sail on the morning Of the 2 9th

,hoping

t o b e able to reach Boca Chica that day. The gale blewwith extreme vio lence

,and they were unable t o pro ceed

with the ir frail bark against the wind and the current,

when by a false manoeuvre in se t t ing the sails (they hadb u t four sailors), they were during some minut es in imminent dang er. The captain

,who was no t a very bo ld

mariner,declined t o pro ceed further up the coast

,and

they took refuge,she lt ered from the wind

,in a nook Of

the island ofBaru .

There was t o b e an eclipse Of the moon during thenight

,and the next day an occultat ion of a star in V ir

g o . The Observat ion Of the lat ter phenomenon mighthave been very import ant in de t ermining the longitudeOf Carthagena. In vain Humboldt urged the captain t oallow one Of his sailors to accompany him by land t o thefoo t ofBo ca Chica

,a distance Of-fiv e miles. He obj ect ed

on account of the wild stat e Of the count ry,in which

there was ne ither habitat ion nor path . A lit t le incident,

which might have rendered the expedit ion more fatal,

j ust ified the prudence Of the capt ain . Humbo ldt and

Bonpland went by moonligh t,t o collect plant s on the

shore ; as they approached the land,they saw a young

negro issue from the thiCk e t . He was quit e naked,

loaded with chains,and armed with a long knife . He

1nv it ed them t o land on a part Of the beach covered with

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2 10 CIIANGE OF ROUTE .

c eeding to G uayaquil , and in that case the voyage on the

Pacific would b e ext remely lingering,as they would have

t o sail against contrary winds and current s . The personsthey consulted all agreed that ’ the j ourney by land alongthe Cordilleras

,by Santa Fé de Bogo ta

,Popayan

,Quito

,

and Caxamarca,would b e preferable t o the sea-voyage

,

and would furnish an immense field for explorat ion.

The predilect ion Of Europeans for the co ld and t emperat eclimat e that prevailed on the back Of the Andes

,gave

further we ight t o these counsels . The distances wereknown

,but Humbo ldt was dece ived with respect t o the

t ime it would take t o traverse them on mules’ backs. Hedid no t imagine that it would require over e ight eenmonths t o g O from Carthagena to Lima. No twithstand

ing this delay,or rather owing to the slowness with

wh ich he passed through Cundinamanca,the provinces

of Popayan,and Quito

,he did no t regre t having sacri

ficed the passage of the isthmus to the rout e of' Bogo ta,

for every st ep Of the j ourney was full Of interest bo thgeographically and bo tanically . This change of dircet ion gave him o ccasion to trace the map of the Rio Mag

dalena,to de t ermine astronomically the posit ion Of e igh ty

po int s situat ed in the inland country be tween Carthagena

,Popayan

,and the upper course of the river Ama'

zon and Lima,t o discover an error in the longitude Of

Quito,t o co llect several thousand new plants

,and to Ob

serve on a vast scale the relat ions be tween the rocks ofsyenit ic porphyry and trachyt e

,with the fire of v o l

cano es.During the six days Of the ir stay at Carthagena the ir

mo st int erest ing excursions were t o the Boca Grande,and

the hill of Popa. A small port ion of hilly land sepa

THE HILL OF POPA . 2 1 1

rated the town of Carthagena and the islet of Mang e

from the Cienega de Te sca. These h ills,some of wh ich

were more than five hundred fe e t high,commanded the

t own . The Cast illo de San Lazaro was se en from afar

rismg like a great rocky pyramid ; when examined nearerits fort ificat ions were no t very formidable . Layers Of clayand sand were covered with bricks

,and furn ish ed a kind

Of construct ion which had lit t le stability . The Cerro deSanta Maria de la Popa

,crowned by a convent and some

bat teries,ro se above the fort of San Lazaro

,and was

worthy of more so lid and ext ensive works . The imageOf the Virgin

,pre served in the church of the convent

,

had been long revered by mariners . The view from the

POpa was ext ensive and varied,and the windings and

rent s Of the coast gave it a peculiar charact er. Humbo ldt was assured that some t imes from the windows ofthe convent

,and even in the Open sea

,before the fort Of

Boca Chica,t he snowy t ops of the Sierra Nevada de

Santa Marta were discernible .

In order to avo id the excessive heat s,and the diseases

wh ich prevailed during the summer at Carthagena,

the travellers removed inland to the Village Of Turbaco .

This small Indian village st o od on a b ill,at the entrance

of a maj est ic fore st,which extended towards the south

and th e east as far as the canal of Mahate s and the riverMagdalena. The houses were most ly built of bamboo s,and covered with palm leave s. Here and there limpidsprings ro se o ut Of the calcareous rock

,which contained

numerous fragment s Of pe trified coral,and were shaded

by the splendid fo liage Of the anacardium caraco li , a t re e

of colo ssal size,t o which the nat ive s at tribut ed the pro

perty Of at tract ing from great dis tances the vapours float

2 1 2 THE VOLCANOES OF TU RBACO.

ing in the atmo sphere . As the so il Of Turbaco was morethan nine hundred fee t above the leve l Of the ocean

,

a deligh tful coo lness prevailed,especially during the

night .The Indians of Turbaco

,who accompanied the trave l

lers in the ir herb alizations,spoke Of a marshy coun

try, situat ed in a forest Of palm trees,and called by the

Creo les the Lit tle Vo lcano es. They related that,accord

ing t o a tradit ion st ill exist ing among them,this spo t had

formerly been in flames ; b ut that a very pious man,a

vicar Of the village,had succeeded by his frequent asper

sions Of ho ly wat er in ext inguishing the subt errane ousfire . They added

,that

,since th is t ime

,the fiery vo lcano

had become a wat er vo lcano . From the ir long residencein the Spanish co lonies

,the trave llers were familiar with

the strange and marvellous stories,which the nat ives

eagerly recit ed t o fix the at t ent ion Of travellers On the

phenomena of nature ; though they knew,that these

stories were in general less indebt ed for the ir currency toth e superst it ion of the Indians

,than to that Of the

wh it es,the mulat to es

,and the African slaves ; and that

the reveries of a few individuals,who reasoned on the

progre ssive changes Of the surface of the globe,gradu

ally assumed the character Ofhistorical tradit ions. Without giving any credit t o the exist ence Of an ext ent Of

country in a former state of ignit ion,they were conduct ed

by the Indians t o the Vo lcano es ; and this excursionmade them acquainted with phenomena

,much more im

portant than any they could have expect ed .

The Vo lcano es were situat ed t o the east Of the villageof Turbaco

,in a thick forest

,abounding with balsam Of

To lu trees. The ground ro se gradually two hundred

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CHAPTER VI.

COLOMBIA AND PERU .

COMPLETING about the end of Apri l the Observat ionsthey propo sed t o make at the northern extremity Of thet orrid zone

,Humbo ldt and Bonpland were on the po int

ofpro ceeding t o Vera Cruz wi th the squadron ofAdmiralAriztizab al ; b ut be ing misled by false int e lligencerespect ing the expedit ion of Captain Baudin

,they were

induced t o relinquish the proj ect of passing throughMexico on the ir way to the Philippine Islands . The

public j ournals announced that t wo French Slo ops,the

Géographe ” and th e Nat uralist e,

”had sailed fo rCape

Horn ; that they were to pro ceed along the coast s OfChili and Peru

,and thence t o New Ho lland. This in

t ellig ence revived in Humbo ldt ’s mind all the proj ect s hehad formed during his

“

stay in Paris,when he so licit ed

the Directory t o hasten the departure Of Captain Baudin. The travellers at once se t to work and dividedthe ir precious herbals into three port ions

,to avo id ex

po sing to the risks of a long voyage the Obj ects theyhad Obtained with so much difficul ty On the banks of theOrino co

,the Atabapo

,and the Rio Negro . They sent

one collect ion by way Of England t o Germany, ano ther

by way Of Cadiz t o France , and a third remained at

UP THE RIO MAGDALENA . 2 1 5

Havanna. They had reason to congrat ulat e themse lveson this foresigh t : each co llect ion contained nearly the

same species,and no precaut ions were neglect ed t o have

the case s,if taken by English o rFrench vessels

,remit t ed

to SirJo seph Banks,or t o the professors ofnatural hist ory

at the Museum at Paris. It happened fortunat ely thatthe manuscripts wh ich Humbo ldt at first intended t o sendwith the co llect ion t o Cadiz

,were no t intrust ed t o Fray

Juan Gonzales,who had fo llowed them to Havanna w ith

the view of returning t o Spain . He left the island ofCuba so on after the t ravellers

,b ut the vesse l in which he

sailed foundered on the coast Of Africa,and the cargo and

crew were all lo st . By th is event the trave llers lo stsome of the duplicat es of the ir herbals

,and what was

more important,all the insect s which Bonpland had with

great difli culty co llecte d during the ir voyage to the Ori

noco and the Rio Negro .

The ir co llect ions sh ipped,the trave llers ascended the

Rio Magdalena,Bonpland

,as was his won t

,explo ring the

bo tanical treasure s Of the shore,and Humbo ldt making a

chart Of the river distric t . The sky was cloudy,b ut the

night s were tropically fine . Their o ld t ormen ts,the

mo squito s fo llowed them . By and by they passed the

lit t le city Of Monpex ,with its whit e houses and its red

roofs. They saw the inhabitants chat t ing before the

doors of the ir dwellings (it was evening at‘

the t ime,) and

promenading the darke ning stre e t s. In addit ion t o theplague Of mo squit o s

,which kept them mo st of the day

in the ir hammocks,the inhabitants Of Monpex were

horribly disfig ured wi th go itres . Their city was sur

rounded with swamps,and was liable t o inundat ions.

Some t imes they were obliged t o desert their houses,and

2 1 6 HONDA.

take t o their canoes. Crocodile s came up to the banksto feed on the offal thrown from the city.

From Monpox t o Sant a Margarita the shore was b or‘

dered with orange and lemon trees . At Pinon they sawthe mountains in the interior. The depth Of the wat erincreasing along the shore

,they were now and then

obliged to lay in the po les,and haul along by the t rees.

They passed the island ofMorales,which was shaded with

cocoa palms . Beyond Badillo the crocodiles diminished,

and cocoa plantat ions began. Some t imes the river,

broadening,re sembled a large lake

,bordered wi th fore st

t ree s. At such places the travellers saw the ir o ld friendsofCumana and the Orinoco

,flaming o es, herons, parro ts,

and macaws,and hordes Of howling monkeys . Turt le s

were plentiful,as were also cro codiles and jaguars . They

saw the cro codiles and jaguars fight ing on the banks asthey passed . At last they reached the town Of Honda

,

having been thirty-fiv e days on the river.

From Honda they pro ce eded on mules to Bogo ta.

The road was more like the b ed Of a t orren t than a

road. They descended from the mountain Of Sarjent ointo the picturesque valley Of Guaduas then theyclimbed the ste ep sides of the Alta del Trigo

,and again

descended to the plain ofV illie tas. From the paramoof Cerradera they saw the plains Of Bogo ta

,though

they were st ill nine leagues from the capital . At lastthey came in sigh t of the wh it e t owers of the cathedral

,

and the monast eries ofMonserrat and Guadalupe .

The t ravellers arrived at Bogo ta in June,and remained

t ill Sept ember,pursu ing the ir bo tan ical and g eo g raphi

cal researche s,and making excursions to the natural

curiosit ies of the neighborhood .

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2 1 8 THE LEGEND OF BOCHICA.

and tributary streams,and over and around all dart ed

strange birds,with beaut iful plumage . A great port ion o f

the fall was lost in vapour what lit t le was left below,a

dwindled streamle t,rushed impe tuously along a stony b ed

overhung with tree s,and was lo st in the dark windings

Of the rock . The crevice into wh ich the river plunged,

communicat ing with the plains Of the warm regions,a

few palm t re es had sprung up at the foo t Of the cataract .This led the inhabitant s Of Bogo ta t o say that the riverplunged from a ho t into a co ld country. Humbo ldt succeeded

,no t without danger

,in carrying his instruments

int o the crevice . It took him three hours t o reach the

bo t tom by a narrow path. A few feeble rays Of noonfell on the bo t tom of the crevice . The so litude of the

place,the richness Of the vege tat ion

,and the dreadful

roar that struck upon his ear,were long remembered by

him . He considered it one of the w ildest scenes in the

Who le range of the Cordilleras.The co lumn of vapour

,rising like a thick cloud from

the falls,could b e seen from the walks round Bogo ta

,at

fiv e leagues distance .

There was a legend connected with the place : “ In the

remo te st t imes,it ran

,

“ before the moon accompaniedthe earth

,the inhabitant s of the plain Of Bogo ta lived

like barbarians,naked

,without agriculture

,without any

form of laws or worsh ip . Suddenly there appearedamong them an Old man

,who came from the plains Situ

ate on the east Of the Cordillera of Ching asa, and who

appeared to b e Of a race unlike that Of the nat ive s,

having a long and bushy beard. He was known by

three dist inct appe llat ions,Bo chica

,Nemque theb a, and

Zuhe. This Old man instructed men how t o clo the

THE LAKE OF GUATAVITA . 2 1 9

themselve s,build huts

,t il l th e ground

,and form them

selves into communit ies . He brought with him a woman,

to whom also tradit ion give s three name s,Chia

,Yube

cayg uaya, andHuythaca. This woman,extreme ly beau

t iful and no t less malignant,thwart ed every enterprise

Of her husband for the happiness of mankind. By her

sk ill in magic she swelled the Rio Funzha,and inun

dat ed the valley of Bogo ta. The g reat er part of the

inhabitants perished in this de luge ; a few only foundrefuge on the summits Of the ne ighbouring mountains .The Old man

,in anger

,drove the beaut iful Huythaca far

from the Earth,and she became t he Mo on

,which began

from that epoch t o enligh t en our plane t during the night .Bo chica

,moved with compassion for th ose who were dis

persed over the mountains,broke with his powerful arm

the rocks that inclo sed the valley on the side of Canoasand Tequendama. By th is out le t he drained the wat ersOf the Lake Of Bogo ta. He built t owns

,introduced the

worship Of the Sun,named two ch iefs

,be tween whom he

divided the civil and ecclesias t ical authority,and then

withdrew himse lf,under the name Of Idacanzas

,int o the

ho ly valley of Iraca,near Tunja

,wh ere he lived in the

exercise Of the most aust ere penit ence for the space of

two thousand years .Afte r the excursion t o the Falls Of Tequendama

,

the travellers visited the Lake Of Guatavita. It was

situat ed t o the north of Bogo ta,in a wild and so li

tary spo t,on a ridge Of the mountains of Z ipag uira, at

a height of e ight thousand fiv e hundred fee t . It was

he ld in venerat ion by the Indians in the Olden t ime,who

were supposed t o have repaired th ither for the purposeof ablut ion and purificat ion . The trave llers found the

2 2 0 ICONONZO .

remains Of a fl igh t Of st eps,by wh ich the Indians were

accustomed t o descend to the wat er,and a channel by

which the Spaniards, after the conquest , had at tempt ed

to drain the lake,t o recover the treasures which were

said t o have been concealed there when Quesada and

his cavalry appeared on the plains of Cundinamarca. It

lay on a plain,surrounded by mountains. Its basin was

a sort Of half oval,who se stony sloping sides were over

grown with bushe s and t re es .Towards the end Of Sept ember Humbo ldt and Bon

pland bade Bogo ta adieu,and started for Quito . Out of

two roads wh ich they migh t have taken,like true natu

ralists they cho se the worst . The road from Bogo ta to

Fusagasuga and thence t o Icononzo was one Of t he mo stdifficult and least frequent ed in the Cordilleras. “ The

traveller,

” Humbo ldt aft erwards wro te,must fee l a

passionat e enthusiasm for the beaut ie s Of nature,who

prefers the dangerous descent Of the desert ofSan Fortunat o

,and the mountains Of Fusagasuga

,leading t owards

the natural bridges Of Icononzo,t o the usual road by

the Mesa de Juan Diaz,t o the banks of the Magdalena.

Journeying two days in a south-easterly direct ion theycame to Icononzo

,a ruined t own of the Muysco Indians.

It lay at the southern end Of a valley of the same name .

The rocks Of this valley seemed to have be en carved bythe hand of man . The ir naked and barren summitspresent ed a pict uresque contrast with the tuft s Of tree sand shrubs wh ich covered the brinks Of a deep crevicein the centre of the valley. Through th is valley ran a

small t orrent called th e Rio de la Summa Paz. To thistorrent the travellers came

,nor could they have cro ssed

it,without great difficulty

,had no t nature provided two

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2 2 2 THE MOUNTAIN OF QU INDIU .

The mountain of Quindiu was considered the mostdifficult passage in the Cordilleras Of the Andes . It was

a thick,uninhabit ed forest

,which

,in the finest season

,

could no t b e traversed in less than t en or twe lve days .No t even a hut was to b e seen, nor could any means ofsubsist ence b e found. Travellers

,at all. t imes of the year

,

furnished themselves with a month ’s provision,since it

Oft en happened,that

,by the melt ing of the snows

,and

the sudden swell Of the torrent s,they found themselve s

so circumstanced,that they could descend ne ither on the

side of Cartago,nor that of Ibague . The highest po int

of the road,the Garito del Paramo

,was one thousand

four hundred and fifty fee t above the leve l of the sea.

As the foo t of the moun tain,t owards the banks Of the

Cauca,was only three thousand one hundred and forty

fe e t,the climat e there was

,in general

,mild and t em

perat e . The pathway which formed the passage Of theCordilleras was only about a foo t in breadth

,and had

the appearance,in several places

,of a gallery dug , and

left Open to the sky. In this part Of the Andes therock was covered with a th ick stratum of clay . The

streamle ts which flowed down the mountains,had hol

lowed out gullies e ighteen or twenty fee t deep. Alongthe se crevices

,which were full of mud

,the travellers

were forced to grope the ir passage,the darkness ofwhich

was increased by the th ick vege tat ion that covered theOpening above . The oxen

,wh ich were the beasts of

burden commonly made use of in this coun try,could

scarcely force the ir way through these galleries, some of

which were two thousand yards in length ; if a t rave ller had me t them in one of these passages

,he could no t

have avo ided them,b ut by turning back

,and climb

A DE LUGE OF RAIN . 2 2 3

ing the earthen wall wh ich bordered the crev ice,and

keeping himself suspended,by laying hold Of the ro o ts

wh ich penetrat ed to th is depth from the surface of the

g round .

They traversed the mountain of Quindiu in October,

on foo t fo llowed by twe lve oxen,wh ich carried their

co llect ions and instrument s,amidst a de luge Of rain

,to

which they were expo sed during the las t three or fourdays in their descent on the western side of the Cordil

leras . The road passed through a co untry full Of bogs,

and covered with bamboos . The ir sho es were so torn

by the prickles which shoo t out from the roo t s Of thesegigant ic g ramz

’

na,that they were forced

,like all o ther

t rave llers who disliked be ing carried on men’s backs,t o

g o barefoo t ed. This circumstance,the co nt inued hu

midity, the length of the passage,the muscular force

required t o tread in a thick and muddy clay,and the

necessity Of fording deep to rrents of icy water,rendered

th is journey extremely fatiguing ; b ut , however painful ,it was accompanied by none Of tho se dangers with whichthe credul ity Of the people alarmed travellers. The roadwas narrow

,b ut the places where it skirt ed precipice s

were very rare . As the oxen were accustomed t o put

the ir fee t in the same tracks they formed small furrowsacross the road

,separated from each o ther by narrow

ridge s Of earth. In very rainy seasons,these ridges were

covered with water,wh ich rendered the steps of the

trave llers doubly uncert ain,since they knew no t whe ther

they placed the ir fee t on the ridge or in the furrow.

The usual mode of t ravelling for persons in easy circumstances, was in a chair

,strapped t o the back of one

Of the nat ive porters,who lived by le t t ing out the ir backs

2 2 4 R IDING ON MEN’S BACKS .

and lo ins t o travellers. They talked in this country of

go ing on a man’s back,as we ment ion go ing on ho rse

back. NO humiliat ing idea was annexed to the trade Ofporters and the men who fo llowed that o ccupat ion wereno t Indians

,b ut mulat to e s

,and some t imes even wh ites.

It was curious t o hear these men,with scarcely any

covering,quarrel ling in the midst Of a forest

,because

one had refused the o ther,who pre t ended t o h ave a

whiter skin,the pompous t it le Of don

,or Of su merced.

The usual load of a porter was six or seven arrobas ;those who were very strong carried as much as ninearrobas. When we reflect on the enormous fat igue t owhich these miserable men were expo sed

,j ourneying

e ight or nine hours a day over a mountainous coun try ;when we know

,that the ir backs were some t imes as raw

as tho se Of beast s Of burden ; that trave llers had Often thecruelty t o leave them in the forest s when they fell sickthat they earned by a j ourney from Ibague t o Cartago

,

only twelve or fourt e en piast ers in from fifteen t o twentyfiv e days ; we are at a lo ss t o conce ive how this employmen t of a porter was so eagerly embraced by all the

robust young men who lived at the fo o t of the mountains. The taste for a wandering life

,the idea Of a cer

tain independence amid forests,led them t o prefer it t o

the sedentary and mono tonous labour of cit ies . The

passage of the mo untain of Quindiu was no t the onlypart of South America which was t raversed on the backsof men. The who le ofthe province of Ant ioquia was

surrounded by mountains so difficult to pass, that tho sewho disliked entrust ing themse lve s to the skill Of a

bearer,and were no t strong enough to trave l on foo t

from Santa Fé de Ant ioquia to Bocca de Nares or Rio

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2 2 6 UNDER THE VIJAO LEAVE S.

rain fo r a long t ime . Of these leaves,with which they

were plent ifully supplied on the ir j ourney,the port ers

made a roof ; a hundred we igh t was sufficient to cover ab ut large eno ug h t o ho ld six o r e ight persons. WhenHumbo ldt and Bonpland stopped for the night

,in Quin

diu,they picked out a spo t in the forest where the ground

was dry, and the port ers lopped from the t rees a fewbranches

,and made a t ent . Dividing the ir t imber-work

int o squares, by the stalks Of some climbing plan t s thatgrew near

,or perhaps by the threads of the agave

,they

Spread over this frame -work the ir vijao leaves,the st ems

of wh ich were no tched so as t o hang,row overlapping

row,like the t iles of a house . The travellers fo und

these ex temporized houses coo l and commodious ifthey fe l t the rain during the nigh t

,they had only to

po int out the spo t through which it dropped upon them—a single leaf would mend it .Day aft er day passed, and they were st ill on the moun

tains OfQuindiu, struggling along it s difficult paths,now

buried in the depths Of its forest s,and now emerging into

so litary Openings,rugged and st ern with ro cks. When

the rain ceased,and the sun shone

,a varied pro spect

Opened before them ; deep b ut irregular valleys : tablelands Of ro ck sloping away precipitously : barren -lo okingh ills who se sides were studded with trees ; now and then

a gigant ic cactus like a bundle Of broken spears forestsbefore and beh ind

,and in the distance the snowy cone Of

Z o lima,looming among the ragged peaks

,in a wilderness

of clouds ! Then the sky would b e overcast,and the

rain would fall in t orrent s,drenching them to the skin .

They reached Popayan in November,and rest ed there

awhile t o recruit themselves. Popayan was situated in

THE CATARACTS OF THE RIO V INAGRE . 2 2 7’

the beaut iful valley of the Rio Cauca,at the fo o t of the

great vo lcano es Of Purace and So tara. They visit ed thesevo lcano es during the ir stay . On ascending from Popayantowards the t op ofPurace they found

,at an e levat ion of

e ight thousand fee t,a small plain inhabit ed by Indians

,

and cult ivat ed with th e greatest care . This deligh tful

plain was bounded by two ravines extremely deep,on the

brink o fwhich the houses Of the Village of Purace werebuilt . Wat ers sprang out profusely from the porphyrit icro ck ; every garden was inclo sed by a hedge Of euphorb iums

,with slender leaves

,and Of the most de licat e green .

No th ing could b e more agre eable than the contrast ofthis beaut iful verdure with the chain Of black and aridmountains

,which surrounded the vo lcano

,and wh ich

were cleft and t orn asunder by earthquakes .The Village Of Purace was ce lebrated in the country

for the beaut iful cataract s of the Rio Pusamb io,the

waters Of which were acid,and were called by the

Spaniards Rio Vinagre . This small river was warmtowards its source

,and probably owed its origin t o the

daily melt ing of the snows,and the sulphur that burned

in the int erior of the vo lcano . It formed,near the plains

,

three cataract s,the t wo uppermo st Of which were very

striking. Humbo ldt ske tched the second Of these in thegarden Of an Indian

,near the house Of the missionary of

Parace. The wat er which made its way through a cavernprecipitat ed itself downward nearly four hundred fe e t .The cascade was extremely picturesque

,b ut the inhabit

ants ofPopayan regre t t ed that the riverwas no t ingulfedin some abyss

,inst ead ofmingling

,as it did

,with the Rio

Cauca. For the lat ter river was dest itut e Offish for fourleagues

,on account Of the mixt ure of its wat ers with those

2 2 8 QUITO.

of the Rio Vinagre,which were loaded w ith oxide of iron

and sulphuric and muriat ic acids .The travellers arrived at Quito on the 6th Of January

,

1 802,and remained there nearly nine months . How

they filled up the great er part Of this t ime is no t stated ;b ut from the number of celebrated mountains in the

ne ighbourhood,mo st of which they visit ed

,and from

the ir omnivorous tast e in the sciences,it is certain that it

seldom or neverhung heavily on the ir hands. They hadfirst to look after the ir instrument s and the ir co llect ions ;Humbo ldt had to complet e his map Of the Rio Magdalena,and Bonpland t o arrange his crowded herbal . Then therewere visit s to b e rece ived

,and re turned ; excursions to b e

planned and execut ed : in short a thousand ways t o makethe days andmonths slip away unperce ived. When no t

in the city Of Quito it self thev resided in the neighbourhood

,in the villas and country houses Of the ir friends.

Humbo ldt resided at one t ime in the hacienda Of General

Ag uerré, at Chilco,where his port rait was painted by a

Quitan art ist,and where it st ill hangs. When Mr.

Church,our great est landscape paint er

,was in South

America,mak ing studies for his magnificent paint ing

,

“ The Heart Of the Andes,he lodged in the very room

that Humbo ldt occupied,and struck with his portrait

,

which cont inually me t his eye s 011 the wall,he procured

a copy of it,from a pupil Of the art ist who paint ed it

,

and brought it with him,in his return to the Unit ed

States. It is an invaluable re lict Of the great traveller,

represent ing him ,no t as we know him from later eng rav

ings and pho t ographs,a gray Old man

,with his head

dro oping on his bosom,heavy with its harvest Of thought ;

but in the vigour of manhood,thin and muscular

,with

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2 3 0 CoTOPAxr.

1 768 the quan t ity Of ashes sifted from it was so great,

that in the towns ofHamb ato and Tacung a, day brokeOnly at three o

’clock in the afternoon,and the inhabit

ants were obliged t o use lant erns in the stree t s.The summit of Co topaxi was one Of the mo st beaut i

ful and regular of all the co lossal summit s of the Cordilleras. It was a perfect cone , covered with an enormouslayer of snow

,which at sunset shone with a dazzling

Splendour,de taching it self picturesquely from the in

t ensely blue sky. This covering of snow concealed fromthe eyes of the travellers the smallest inequalit ies of theso il ; no po int of rock

,no stony mass pene trat ed this

coat Of ice,or broke the regularity Of the figure Of the

cone . Near the brink of the crat er they saw a ledge of

ro ck wh ich was never covered with snow,and wh ich

looked like a series Of belts Of the darke st hue . The

cone was too steep here for the snow ever t o lodge uponit ; besides, current s Of heat ed air were continuallyissuing from the crevices. The soul ofWinter himselfwould have shrunk into no thingness before these “ blastsfrom he ll .”

The crat er Of Co topaxi,like that Of Teneriffe

,was sur

rounded by a circular wall,which the trave llers were

unable to scale for unlike the crat er Of Teneriffe it hadno Opening. The lava which had poured over its b orrib le brink had never ye t made a breach in it . Indeedthey found it difiicult to at tain even the inferior boundary Of perpe tual snow : so they were reluctant ly com

pelled t o descend . Humbo ldt made two ske tches of thevo lcano

,one at Sunig uaicu ,

from a ridge of porphyriticmountains which j o ined Co topaxi t o the Nevada Of

Quelendanna— a southern View of the crater, near the

CHIMBORAZO . 2 3 1

limit .Of e ternal snow ; the o ther,a westerly View from

the t errace of a beaut iful country house,belonging t o his

friend,th e Marquis Of Maenza

,with whom h e o ccasion

ally lodged during his residence in Quito .

On the 2 2 nd of June,the birthday Of his bro ther

,

Humbo ldt commenced his ascent of Chimborazo,aecom

panied by Bonpland and Carlo s de Mont ufar,a young

Spanish naturalist . They started from the plain OfTapia

,at an e levat ion of over nine thousand feet . This

arid table -land was near the village of Lican,the ancient

residence Of the sovereigns Of Quito . From Lican t o

the summit Of Chimborazo was nearly fiv e leagues in a

st raight line . They fo llowed the plain,leaving behind

them groups Of Indians bound t o the market Of Lican,

and slowly ascending halt ed for the night at the lit t le village of Calpi. They were now at the foo t Of Chimborazo It rose before them stupendously in the ligh t Of

the se t t ing sun. The foreground was ve iled in the

vaporous dimne ss that striped the lower strata Of theair

,but as they

‘

cast the ir eye s towards the summit it det ached it self from the deep blue sky . They saw aboveth e region Of ligneous plant s and alpine shrub s a broadbelt of grass like a gilded yellow carpet . Beyond this

was a region of porphyrit ic rocks,and beyond these

rocks,e t ernal ic e and snow . As the earth below grew

darker,the heaven above seemed to grow bright er ; the ir

sight was dazzled with the refulgent splendour Of the snow .

Early the next morning the ir Indian guides awokethem

,and they began to climb the mountain on the

south -west ern side,traversing the great plains wh ich

ro se like t erraces,one above ano ther

,un t il they reached

the plain of Sisg un, twe lve thousand four hundred fee t

2 3 2 THE FORE ST OF ROCKS.

above the leve l Of the sea. Here Humbo ldt wished to makea trigonome trical measurement t o ascertain the height ofthe summi t

,b u t it was shrouded in thick clouds . From

t ime t o t ime they caught amomentaryglimpse Ofit , throughOpenings in the clouds

,but the sky was gradually darken

ing . They cont inued t o ascend unt il they reached thelit tle lake of Yana-Co cha

,a circular basin one hundred

and thirty fee t in diamet er. It was the most elevat ed spo t

ye t reached by man o n the ridge ofmountains,thre e thou

sand thre e hundred fee t higher than the summit ofMontBlanc . Here they left the irmule s. The barome t er showeda he ight Of fo urt een thousand three hundred and fifty fee t .

Cro ssing the ye llow belt Ofgrass which they had se en o vernight

,they came t o a region Of augite . Here ro cks ro se

in co lumns fifty or sixty feet high,and looked like the

t runks of trees. Traversing the aisles Of this enchant edforest Of stone

,over fields of new -fallen snow

,they gained

a narrow ridge which led direct ly to the summit Of Chimb orazo

,and by which alone they might hope t o reach it ;

for th e snow around was to o soft and yie lding t o b e v entured upon . The path became steeper and narrower

,and

at last the guides refused t o g o any furth er. When theywere sixt e en thousand fiv e hundred fee t h igh

,all b ut one

left them . No thing daunt ed,however

,the trave llers went

On,enveloped in a thick mist . The path wh ich they were

ascending was in many places no t more than e igh t or t eninches broad : the nat ives called it a knife -blade .

”On

o ne hand was a declivity of snow covered w it h a glassycoat ing Of ice

,on the o ther a chasm one thousand fe e t de ep

,

the bo t tom Of which was covered with masse s Of nakedrocks . They inclin ed the ir bodies over this chasm

,dan

g erous as it was, for they dared no t trust themselves to the

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2 3 4 STOPPED BY A CHASM.

F inally the belt s Of cloud part ed,and they saw on the

sudden,the vast dome Of Chimborazo It seeme d near

them,so near that in a few minut e s they migh t reach it .

The ledges too seemed t o”favor them by becoming

broader. They hurried onward for a short distance,

excited with the hope of soon standing on the pinnacle .

All at once the path was stopped by a chasm,four hun

dred fee t deep,and sixty fe e t broad. There was no way

by which they could cro ss it : the difficulty was insurmountable . To tantalize them st ill further they saw

that the path went forward on the o ther side Of theledge

,evident ly reaching the summit . If they could

have b ut cro ssed that chasm !It was one o

’clo ck in the aft ernoon,and they were

benumbed with cold . They were n inet een thousand twohundred feet above the level Of the sea.

The belt of clouds clo sed again,and the peak was

lost . The mist grew thicker and thicker,and everything

indicat ed a s torm . There was no thing left them b ut todescend. Halt ing long enough t o co llect a few specimensOf the ro ck they re traced th e ir st eps. A st orm Of hailovertook them

,b ut as they descended into a lower atmo

Sphere it changed int o snow. When they reached thelit tle lake OfYana-Co cha

,where they had left the ir mule s

,

they found the ground covered with snow several inchesdeep . Before dusk they reached the Indian village OfCalpi

,and were ent ert ained that night by the priest .

So ended the at t empt t o scale the summit Of Chimborazo .

No t cont ent with his defeat at Chimborazo and Co topaxi

,Humbo ldt visit ed several o thermountains and v o l

cano es in the neighbourhood of Quito . If he could not

ILLINISSA AND CORAZON . 2 3 5

ascend them,he could at least ske tch them

,wh ich was

some thing. He visit ed and ske tched Corazon,Illinissa

,

and Cayambe .

Of the various summit s Of the Cordilleras,the heigh ts

Of which have been de t ermined with any precision, Cayambe is the loft ies t after Chimborazo . From angleswhich he to ok on the Exido Of Quito

,t o Observe the

progress Of the t errestrial refract ion at diffe rent hours ofthe day,

Humbo ldt found its e levat ion t o b e e ighte enthousand seven hundred fee t . Its form

,which was that

Of a truncat ed cone,reminded him Of the peak of Z olima

,

as he saw it looming above the fore st s Of Quindiu .

Among the many snow -clad mountains that surroundedthe city Of Quit o he considered it the mo st beautiful

,as

well as the most majest ic,and it never ceased t o excite

his admirat ion when at sunse t it threw its vast shadowover the plain .

Illinissa was grand and picturesque . Its summit wasdivided into two pyramidal po int s

,which were probably

the wrecks Of a vo lcano that had fallen in . The se pyramids were visible at an enormous distance .

Corazon derived its name from the form Of its summit,

wh ich was nearly that Of a heart . It was on the westernCordillera

,be twe en Illinissa and Pichincha. Bouguer and

Co ndamine ascended this mountain in July,1 7 3 8 .

“ We

began our j ourney,say s Condamine

,in his celebrated

Voyage to the Equat or,

“ in very fine weather. The

persons whom w e had left in our tent s so on lo st sigh t ofus among the clouds

,wh ich appeared to us only a mist

,

from the t ime we ent ered them . A co ld and piercingwind covered us in a short time with icicles . In severalplaces we were forced to scale the rock

,by climbing with

2 3 6 THE BRIDGE OF ROPE S AT PENIPE.

our hands and fee t . At length we reached the summi tand on looking at each o ther

,w e perce ived all one side

of our clo the s,one of our eyebrows

,and half our beards

,

stuck full of small frozen po int s,exhibit ing a singular

spectacle .

In one Of the ir excursions t o Riobamba,on the west

ern slope of the vo lcano Of Tung urag ua the travellersvisit ed the delightful village ofPenipe

,where they saw a

famous bridge of ropes. It cro ssed the river Of Chambo,

which separat ed the Vil lage s of Penipe and Guanando .

The ropes of th is bridge,which were three or four inches

in diame t er,were made of the fibrous part of the roo t s

Of the ag ave Americana,and were fast ened on each bank

t o a Clumsy wo oden framework. As the ir we ight madethem bend t owards the middle of the river

,and as it

would have been imprudent t o have stre tched them witht oo much force

,the Indians were obliged

,when the banks

were low,to form st eps or ladders at bo th extremitie s Of

the bridge . That wh ich the trave llers cro ssed -

at Penipewas a hundred and twenty fee t long, and seven or e ightbroad. The great ropes were covered transversely withsmall cylindrical pieces of bamboo . These structure s

,

Of which the people of South America made use long b efore the arrival of the Europeans, reminded Humbo ldt Of

the chain bridge s at Boutan, and in the int erior ofAfrica.

Mr. Turner, in his int erest ing account of his j ourney t oThibet

,gives the plan of the bridge ofTchint chieu

,near

the fortress Of Chuka, which is one hundred and fo rtyfe e t in length

,and wh ich may b e passed on horseback.

Trave llers had often spoken of the extreme danger of

passing over th ese rope bridges,which look lik e ribands

suspended above a crevice or an impe tuous torren t : b ut

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2 3 8 THE PANE CILLO OF CALLO.

after usele ssly expending upwards of forty thousandpounds sterling

,to build a stone bridge

,near Santa

,over

a t orrent,which rushed from the Cordillera of the Andes .

But we must no t forge t the various monuments of theancient Peruvians

,visit ed by the travellers during the ir

nine months’ residence in Quito,especially the Pane cillo

ofCallo,and the House of the IncaHuayna-Capac. They

came upon these singular remains in April , on the irway to the vo lcano Of Co topaxi

,and Humbo ldt made a

ske tch of them as they then appeared . He found themin an immense plain covered with pumice stone . The

Panecillo was a conic hillo ck,about two hundred and fifty

fee t high,coveredwith small bushes ofmo lina

,spe rmacoce

,

and cactus. The nat ives be lieved that th is hillo ck,wh ich

resembled a bell,and was perfect ly regular in its figure

,

was a tumulus,or one Of tho se numerous hills

,which the

ancient inhabitant s of th is country raised for the intermentof the sovere ign

,or some o ther dist inguished perso nage .

It was alleged,in favour of th is Opinion

,that the Pane

cillo was who lly compo sed of vo lcanic rubbish,and that

the same pumice stone,wh ich surrounded its basis

,was

found also on its summit .This reason might appear lit t le conclusive in the eye s

of a geo logist , for the back of the ne ighbouring mountainof Tiopullo , which was much high er than the Panecillo ,was also covered with great heaps of pumice sto ne

,

probably owing t o ancient erupt ions Of Co topaxi andIllinissa. We canno t doub t

,b ut that in bo th Americas

,

as we ll as in the north ofAsia,and on the banks of the

Boristhenes,mounds raised by men

,and real tumul i of

an extraordinary height,are t o b e se en . Tho se which

are found amid the ruins Of the ancient town Of Mansiche,

THE HOUSE OF THE INCA. 2 3 9

in Peru,are not much lower than the Panecillo of Callo .

It is neverthe less po ssible,and this opinion appeared t o

Humbo ldt the mo st probable one,that the lat t er was a

vo lcanic hillo ck t o which the nat ive s had given a mo reregular form . Ulloa

,who visit ed the Panecillo

,and

who se authority is of great we igh t,adopt ed the Opinion

of the nat ive s ; he even thought that the Panecillo was amilitary monument ; and that it served as a watch t ower,t o discover what passed in the count ry, and t o insure theprince ’s safe ty on the first alarm of an un foreseen at tack .

The Inca’s House was a lit tle t o the south-west of the

Panecillo,three leagues from the crater Of Co topaxi

,and

abou t t en leagues t o the south Of the city ofQuit o . Thisedifice formed a square

,each side ofwhichwas one hundred

fee t long ; four great out er doors were st ill dist inguishable

,and e igh t apartment s

,three ofwhich were in good

preservat ion . The walls were nearly fift een fee t highand three fee t th ick. The do ors were similar t o tho seOf Egypt ian t emples ; the n iches

,e ight een in number

in each apartment,were distribut ed with the greatest

symme try. The stone made use Of in building the Inca’sHouse was a ro ck of vo lcanic origin

,a burnt and spung y

porphyry with basalt ic bases . It was probably ej ect edby the mou th Of the volcano of Co t opaxi. As thismonument appeared t o have been constructed in the b eginning Of the sixt eenth cent ury

,the mat erials employed

in it proved that it was a mistake t o consider as the firsterupt ion of Co topaxi that which took place in 153 3

,

when Sebast ien de Belalcazar made the conquest Of thekingdom Of Quit o . The stones of the Inca’s House werecut in parallelOpipedons, no t all of the same size , b utforming courses as regular as tho se of Roman workman

2 40 A NEW ROUTE .

ship . During his long abode in the Cordilleras Humbo ldtnever found any structure resembling tho se which are

t eymed Cyclopean. In every edifice that dat ed frOm the

t ime Of‘

the Incas,the front of the stones was very skil

fully cut,while the back part was rugged

,and Oft en

angular. Before Humbo ldt and Bonpland visited the

ruins at Callo,Don Juan Larea had remarked

,that in the

walls Of the Inca’s House the interst ices be tween the out erand inner stones were filled with small pebble s cement edwith clay. Humbo ldt did no t Observe this circumstance .

He saw no ve st ige Of floor,orro of ; he suppo sed , however,

that the lat terwas ofwo od. He could no t decide wh e ther”

the edifice had o riginally more than a single story,or

no t ; as the he ight of it s walls had been diminished noless by the avidity of the ne ighbouring peasantry

,who

took away the stone s for the ir own use,than by the

earthquakes,to which this unfortunat e country was con

tinually expo sed.

He thought it probable that th is edifice,as we ll as

o thers which h e h eard called at Peru,Quit o

,and as far as

the banks of th e Amazon , by the name Of Inca’s Houses

,

did no t dat e farther back than the th irte enth century.

Some t ime in August or Sept emberHumbo ldt receivedint elligence that Baudin’s expedi t ion had sailed t o New

Zealand,int ending t o pass homeward around the Cape

of Good Hope . This frustrat ed his proj ect ed visit to thePhilippine Islands . AS he was by this t ime

,however

,

somewhat accustomed t o having his plans t hwart ed,he

devised a new rout e,and as soon as it Was pract icable he

and Bonpland start ed upon it . About the last o f Sept ember th ey left Quito , fo llowing the chain Of the Andesby the way of Assuay, Cuenca, and Loxa.

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2 4 2 THE RAVINE OF THE SUN.

edifices surrounding the inclo sure showed that there wasro om enough t o lodge the small army which general lyaccompanied the Incas on these j ourneys . What wascurious about the Fortress ofCannar was the form of its

roof,which gave it the appearance of a European house .

As one of the first h istorians ofAmerica,Pedro de Cieca

de Leon , who began to describe his trave ls in 154 1s

says that several similar houses, wh ich he examined inthe province of Los Canares

,were covered with rushes

,

this roof was probably added after the conque st Of Peruby the Spaniards.Leaving the Fortress ofCannar

,the trave llers came t o

a valley ho llowed out by the river Gulan . Here theyfound small fo o t -paths cut in the ro ck . These paths ledto a fissure

,which the ancient Peruvians called the

Ravine of the Sun. In this so litary spo t,shaded by

beaut iful and luxuriant vege tat ion,the travellers saw an

iso lat ed mass Ofsandstone,twe lve orfift een feet high . One

side Of th is ro ck was remarkable for its whit ene ss : it was

cut perpendicularly as if it had been worked by the

hand ofman . On this smo o th wh ite ground were severalconcentric circle s

,represent ing the image of the sun.

They were of a blackish brown,and in the space they

inclosed were features,half effaced

,that indicated two

eye s and a mouth . Examining the se circle s clo se lyHumboldt found that they were small veins of iron ore

,

common in every format ion of sandstone . The features .

indicating the eyes and mouth,which were evident ly

made by some me tallic t oo l,were probably added by the

Peruvian prie st s t o impose upon the people . When theSpaniards conquered the country

,it was to the interest

of the missionaries t o efface them,and it was accord

THE CHAIR OF THE IXCAS. 2 4 3

ing ly done . Humbo ld t saw trace s of the ir chisels in all

the circles .The fo o t of the rock was cut int o steps

,which led to a

seat,hollowed out on the top , and so placed that from the

bo t tom of a hollow the image of the sun might b e se en.

The nat ives related that when the Inca Yupa-Yupang i

advanced with his army t o conquer the kingdom of

Quito,then commanded by the concho cando of Lican

,

the priests who accompanied him discovered on the

stone the image of the Divinity whose worship ough t t ob e introduced among the conquered nat ions . The princeand his so ldiers considered the discovery of the sto ne as

a lucky augury,and it no doubt cont ribut ed t he cho ice

of the ground on which the Fortress of Cannar was

built .Near by was a chain ofhil ls wh ich was once a part of

the garden belonging to the ancient fort ress . Here,as at

the rav1ne,the travellers found a number of small path

ways out in the slope of a rock,which ‘

was scarcelycovered with vege table mould . There was no t a tree

which seemed to have out lived fifty years . No thing reminded them of the Incas

,except a small monument of

stone,placed on the edge of a precipice . A t a distance

it resembled a sofa,the back of which was decorat ed

with a sort of arabesque,in the form of a chair. From

th is singular chair,in which b ut one person could sit at

a t ime,there was a delightful prospect . Here

,without

doubt,the Incas used to sit and gaze over the surround

ing

.

country. Before them was the verdant valley,

through wh ich ran the river Gulan,broken into cascades

,

and foaming along through tufts of gunnera and melastomas : behind and around were the everlast ing hills

2 4 4 THE CINCHONA wo ons .

The travellers rested awhile at Loxa,and visited i ts

cinchona woods wh ich yielded quinine,or Peruvian

hark . Peruvian bark was first brought into Europe inthe middle of the seventeenth century

,e ither

,as Sebas

t ian Badus asserts,t o Al cala de Henares in 1 68 2

,or t o

Madrid in on the arrival of the wife of the Viceroy,

the Counte ss of Chinchon,who had been cured of inter

mit tent fever at Lima,accompanied by her physician

,

Juan del Vego . The trees wh ich yielded the finest

quality of quinine were found from e ight to twelve milest o the south-east ofb a

,in the mountains ofU ritusing a,

V illonaco,and Rum1s1tana. They grew in dense woods

,

and aspired above th e surrounding t rees . Their leave swere fiv e inches long and two broad

,and of a pecul iar

reddish color. Wh en the upper branches waved t o and

fro in the wind,the ir glit tering could b e seen at a great

distance .

The quinine tree was cut down in its first floweringseason

,or in the fourth or seventh year of its ag e , accord

ing as it had sprung from a vigorous ro o t -shoo t,or from

a seed. Humbo ldt learned,that at the period of his

journey,according t o official computat ions

,only

lbs. of the bark were co llect ed annually. None of thisprecious store found its way at that t ime into commerce ;the who le was sent from the port ofPayta on the Pacific

,

round Cape Horn to Cadiz,for the use of the Spanish

Court . In order t o furnish this small quant ity eight ornine hundred tre es were cut down every year. The o lder

and thicker st ems were already becoming scarce ; b utthe luxuriance of vegetat ion was such that the youngertrees

,which supplied the demand

,though only six inches

in diame t er,oft en at tained the height offifty or sixty fee t .

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9 4 6 THE ROADS OF THE INCAS .

They found placed at nearly equal distances apart,sta

t ions consist ing of dwelling-houses built ofwe ll-cut stoneThese stat ions were a kind of caravanserai

,and were

called Tambo s,and Inca-houses . Some were surrounded

by a kind of fort ificat ion ; o thers were constructed forbaths with arrangement s for conduct ing ho t wat er. The

largest of them were designed for the use of the familyof the Monarch himself.There were two great art ificial Peruvian paved roads

or syst ems of roads,covered with flat st ones

,or some

t imes even with cement ed gravel . One passed throughthe wide and arid plain betwe en the Pacific Ocean and

the chain of the Andes,and the o ther over the ridges of

the Cordilleras . Mile -stone s,o r stones marking the dis

tances,were oft en found at regular intervals. The

road was conduct ed acro ss rivers and de ep ravines bybridges of stone

,wood

,and rope . Bo th syst ems ofroads

were directed to the central po int,Cuzco

,the seat of

government of the great empire . As the Peruvians employed no wheel carriages

,and the roads were con

sequent ly only designed for the march of tr00ps,formen

carrying burdens,and for light ly-laden lamas

,Hum

bo ldt and Bonpland found them o ccasionally interrup ted, on account of the steepness of the mountains

,by

long fligh t s of steps,provided with rest ing-places at

suitable intervals. Francisco Pizarro and Diego Al

magro,who on the ir dis tant expedit ions used the military

roads of the Incas with so much advantage,found great

difficultie s for th e Spanish Cavalry at the places wherethese steps o ccurred. The impediment present ed t o theirmarch on these o ccasions was so much the greater

,b e

cause in the early t imes of the Conquista,the Spaniards

WHAT THE Y WERE WHEN PERFE CT. 2 4 7

used only horses instead of the carefully treading mul e,

who in the difficult part s of the mountains seems to deliberat e on e very st ep he takes . It was no t unt il a lat erperiod that mul es were employed.

Sarmiento,who saw the Roads of the Incas wh ile they

were stil l in a perfect state of preservat ion,asks in a

Relacion wh ich long lay unread, buried in t he Libraryof the Esco rial

,

“ how a nation unacquain ted with the use

of iron could have complet ed such grand works in so

high and rocky are g ion, ext ending from Cuzco t o Quito onthe one hand

,and to the coast ofChili on the o ther? The

Emperor Charles,he adds

,

“ with all his power co uld no taccomplish even a part ofwhat the we ll -ordered Government ofth e Incas effected through the obedient people overwhom they ruled.

” Hernando Pizarro,the mo st educated

and civilized of the thre e bro thers,who for his misdeeds

suffered a twenty years’imprisonment at Medina de l

Campo,and died at last at a hundred years of ag e in the

o dour ofsanctity,exclaims : “ In the who le ofChrist endom

there are nowhere such fine roads as tho se which we hereadmire .

” The two important capitals and seat s ofgovernment of the Incas

,Cuzco and Quito

,are one thousand

English geographical miles apart in a straight line,without

reckoning the many windings of the way ; and including the windings

,the distance is e s timat ed by Garcilaso

de la Vega and o ther Conquistadores at fiv e hundredleagues . No twithstanding the great distance

,w e learn

from the well-confirmed t est imony of the Licent iat e Po lode Onde g ardo , that Huayna Capac, who se father hadconquered Quito

,caused some of the building mat erials

for the houses of the Incas in the lat t er city,to b e brough t

from Cuzco .

2 4 8 WHEN THEY WERE CONSTRU CI‘

ED .

When enterprising races inhabit a land whe re the

form of the ground presents t o them difficult ies on a

grand scale wh ich they may encount er and overcome,

this contest with nature becomes a means of increasingthe ir strength and power as we ll as the ir courage . Underthe despo t ic centralizing system of the Inca-rule

,security

and rapidity of communicat ion,especially in the move

ment of troops,became an important necessity ofgovern

ment . Hence the construct ion of art ificial roads on so

grand a scale,and hence also the e stablishment of a

highly improved po stal syst em . Among nat ions in verydifferent stages of cult ivat ion we see the nat ional act ivitydisplay it self with peculiar predilect ion in some part iculardirections

,but we can by no means de t ermine the general

stat e of culture of a people from the striking deve lopmentofsuch part icularand part ial act ivity. Egyp t ians,GreeksE truscans

,and Romans

,Ch inese

,Japanese

,andHindoo s

,

show many int erest ing contrasts in these respects . It isdifiicult to pronounce what length of t ime may have be enrequired for the execut ion of the Peruvian roads . The

great works in the northern part of the Empire of the

Incas,in the highlands ofQuito

,must at all events have

been comple t ed in less than thirty br thirty-fiv e years ;i. 6. within the short period int ervening be tween the

defeat of the Ruler of Quitu,and the death of Huayna

Capac. But ent ire obscurity prevails as to the period ofthe format ion of the Southern roads .

No twiths tanding the tribut e of admirat ion wh ich thefirst Conquistadore s paid t o the roads and aqueducts of

the Peruvians,they no t only neglected the repair and

preservat ion of bo th these classes of useful works, b utthey even wantonly destroyed them ; and th is st il l more

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2 50 THE SWIMMING POSTMAN .

in the manner ofa turban. When he came to the water.

falls he left the river,and made a circuit through the

woods. In o rder to le ssen the fat igue of swimming for solong a t ime

,he somet imes threw one arm round a piece

of a very light kind of wo od. Some t imes a friend wentwith him to bear him comp any. The pair had no concernabout provisions

,as they were always sure ofa ho spitable

recept ion in any of the scat t ered huts,which were abun

dau t ly surrounded with fruit trees .The Governor of the province of Jaen de Bracamoros

assured Humbo ldt that le t t ers carried by this singularwat er-po st were rare ly e ither we t ted o r lo st . Soon afterhis re turn to Europe from Mexico

,the traveller rece ived

,

in Paris,le t t ers from Tomependa, which had been sent in

the manner above described. Several tribes of Indians,

living on the banks of the Upper Amazon,made the ir

journeys in a similarmanner,swimming down the stream

so ciably in part ies.On approach ing the ho t climate of the basin of the

Amazons,the eyes of the trave llers were ch eered by the

aspect of a beaut iful,and o ccasionally luxuriant vege ta

t ion . They had never before,no t even in the Canaries

,

or on the ho t sea coast of Cumana and Caraccas,seen finer

orange tre es than tho se of the Huertas de Pucara. Ladenwith many thousands of go lden fruits

,they at tained a

he igh t of sixty feet ; and,instead of rounded t ops

,had

aspiring branches,almo st like laurels o r b ay tre es. The

oranges of these trees were deliciously sweet,though the

bit t e r,or Seville orange

,was no t want ing among them

No t far from thence,near the Ford of Cav ico

,the

travellers were surprised by an unexpected sight . Theysaw a grove of small trees

,only about e ighte en ornineteen

DOWN THE AMAZONS . 2 5 1

fee t high,wh ich

,inst ead of green

,had apparently

red or ro se -co loured leaves . It was a new specie s ofBougainvillaea

,a genus first established by the elder

Jussieu,from a Brazilian specimen in Commerson

’s

herbarium . The tree s were almo st ent ire ly without trueleaves

,as what were taken for leaves at a distance

,proved

t o b e thickly crowded b rac t eas. The appearance was

altoge ther different,in the purity and freshness of the

co lour,from the autumnal t ints which

,in many of our

forest tre es,adorn the woods of the temperat e zone at the

season of the fall of the leaf.They found at Chamaya rafts in readiness t o convey

them to Tomependa, wh ich they desired to visit for thepurpo se of de termining the difference of longitude b etween Quito and the mouth of the Chinchipe . Theyslept as usual under the open sky

,on the sandy shore at

the confluence of the Rio de Chamaya with the Amazons.The next day they embarked on the lat t er river

,and

descended it to the Cataracts and Narrows of Rentema,

where ro cks of coarse -grained sands tone rose like t owers,

and formed a rocky dam acro ss the river. Humbo ldtmeasured a base line on the flat and sandy shore

,and

found that at Tomependa the afterwards migh ty river ofthe Amazons was only a litt le above thirte en hundredand e ighty-six fe e t across. In the ce lebrat ed RiverNarrow of Manseritche

,be tween Sant iago and San

Borja,in a mountain ravine where at some po ints the

overhanging rocks and the canopy of fo liage forbademore than a feeble light to pene trate , and where all the

drift wood,consist ing ofa count less numbe r of trunks of

trees,was broken and dashed in pieces

,the breadth of the

stream was le ss than one hundred and sixty fee t . The

2 5 2 THE NARROW OF RENTEMA.

rocks by which all these Narrows were formed underwentmany changes in the course of centurie s. Thus a partof the rocks forming the Narrow of Rentema

,had been

broken up by a high flood a year before Humbo ldt ’sj ourney ; and there had be en pre served among the inhab itants

,by tradit ion

,a lively reco llect ion ofthe precipitous

fall of the then t owering masses of rock along the who leof the Narrow— an event which took place in the earlypart of the e ight eenth century. This fall, and the consequent blocking-up of the channel

,arrested the flow of

th e st ream ; and the inhabitant s of the village of Puaya,

situat ed below the Narro w of Rent ema,saw with

’

alarm

the wide river-b ed ent irely dry : b ut after a few hoursthe wat ers again forced the ir way. Earthquake movement s were no t suppo sed t o have o ccasioned this remarkable o ccurrenceu The powerful stream appeared to b e ,

incessant ly engaged in improving its b ed,and some idea

of the force which it exerted may b e formed from the

circumstance,that no twithstanding its breadth it was

some t imes so swo llen as to rise more than twenty-six feetin the course of twenty or th irty hours .The travellers remained for sevent een days in the ho tvalley of the Upper Amazons. Here Humbo ldt co r

rect ed and revised the chart of the Amazon made byCondamine

,by sket ching an accurat e chart of this un

known port ion of the great river,partly from his own

observat ions,and partly from careful inquiries . This

done they ascended the east ern declivity of the Gordilleras

,and arrived at the argentiferous mountain ofGual

g ayoc , the principal site of the silver mine s of Cho ta.

Gualg ayoc was an iso lat ed mass of siliceous rock,tra

versed by a mult itude of ve ins of silver wh ich often in

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2 5 4 MICUIPAMPA .

they themselves only reared some kinds ofkale and saladHere

,as in every t own in the high mountains of Peru

ennui led the richer class ofpersons to pass their t ime ingambling. They reminded Humbo ldt of the soldier of

Pizarro ’s troop,who

,after the pillage of the t emple at

Cuzco,complained that he had lost in one nigh t at play

a great piece of the sun.

”

In a high plain no t far from Micuipampa, there werefound throughout an area of above a square mile

,imme

diat ely under the turf, and as it were intertwined withthe roo ts of the alpine grasses

,enormous masses of rich

red silver ore,and threads of pure silver. Ano ther ele

v at ed plain near the Quebrada de Chiquera,was called

the Fie ld of Shells . The name referred to fossils wh ichbe longed t o the cre taceous group

,and which were found

there in such abundance that they early at tracted theat tent ion of the nat ive s. In this place there was obtainednear the surface a mas s of pure gold

,Spun round with

threads of silver in the riche st manner.

The path by wh ich the trave llers j ourneyed fromMicuipampa to Caxamarca was difficult even for mules.The ir way lay over a succession of Paramo s

,where they

were expo sed almo st incessant ly to the fury of the w ind,

and t o the sharp-edged hail so peculiar t o the ridge s ofthe Andes. The he ight of the rout e above the level ofthe sea was generally between nine and t en thousandfe e t .

Reaching at length the last of these mountain wilder

nesses, they looked down with increased pleasure on the

fert ile valley of Caxamarca. It afforded a charmingpro spect : a small river wound through the e levatedplain

,which was of an oval form and about a hundred

CAXAMARCA . 55

square miles in extent . The plain resembled that ofB0go ta : bo th were probably the bo t t oms of ancient lakesBut at Caxamarca there was want ing the myth of the

wonder-working Bochica,who opened for the wat ers a

passage through the ro ck of Tequendama. Caxamarca

was situated six hundred and forty fee t higher than Bogo ta— almo st as high as the city of Quit o ; b ut be ingshel tered by surrounding mountains it enjoyed a far

milder and more agre eable climate . The soil was ex

t remely fert ile , and the plain full of cult ivated fields and

gardens traversed by avenues of willows,large flowered

red,whit e

,and ye llow varie t ies of Datura

,Mimosas

,and

beaut ifulQuinuar-trees. Wheat yie lded on an average inthe Pampa de Caxamarca fift een t o twentyfo ld

,but the

hopes of a plent iful harvest were some t imes—

disappo intedby nigh t fro sts

,o ccasioned by the great radiat ion of heat

t owards the unclouded sky through the dry and rarefiedmountain air ; these fro sts were no t felt in the roofedhouses.In the northern part of the plain

,small porphyrit ic

dome s broke through the wide ly ext ended sandstonestrata

,and probably once formed islands in the ancient

lake before its wat ers had flowed off. On the summit ofone of these domes

,the Cerro de Santa Po lonia

,the

travellers enj oyed a beaut iful prospect . The ancientresidence of Atahuallpa was surrounded on this side byfruit gardens and by irrigat ed fields of lucerne . Co

lumns of smoke were seen at a distance rising from the

warm baths of Pultamarca,wh ich were st ill called t he

Baths of the Inca. Atahuallpa spent a part of the yearat these baths

,where some slight remains of his palace

st ill survived the devastat ing rage of the Conquistadores.

2 56 THE PALACE orv ATAHUALLPA .

A large and deep basin in wh ich, according to tradit ion,

one of the golden chairs in which the Inca was carriedhad been sunk

,and has ever since been sought in vain

,

appeared t o Humbo ldt,from the regularity of its circular

shape,t o have been art ificially excavated in the rock

above one of the fissures through which the Springsissued.

Of the fort and palace of Atahuallpa there were onlyv ery slight remains in the town

,which was adorned with

some fine churche s. The destruct ion of the ancientbuildings was hast ened by the devouring th irst of go ldwhich led men

,before the close of the sixt eenth century

,

in digging for suppo sed hidden treasures,t o overt urn

walls and carelesslv t o undermine or weaken the foundat ions of all the houses. The palace of the Inca was

situat ed on a h ill ofporphyry which had originally beenho llowed at the surface

,so that it surrounded the princi

pal dwe lling almo st like a wall or rampart . A stat eprison and a municipal building had, been erect ed on a

part of the ruins. The mo st considerable ruins st ill visib le

,b ut which were only from th irteen to sixt een feet

h igh,were opposite the convent of San Francisco ; they

consist ed of fine -cut blocks of stone two or three fe etlong

,and placed upon each o ther without cement

,as in

the fortress of Cannar.

There was a shaft sunk in the porphyrit ic rock whichonce led into subt erranean chambers

,and a gallery said

t o ext end t o the o ther porphyrit ic dome before spokenof. Such arrangements showed an apprehension of the

uncertaint ies of war,and the desire to secure the means

of escape . The burying of treasures was an old and

very generally prevailing Peruvian custom. Sub t er

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2 58 THE BLOOD-STAINED STONE .

In the chape l of the state prison the stone was shownst il l marked by th e indelible stains of blood. It was athin slab

,thirt e en fee t long

,placed in front of the altar

,

and had probably been taken from the porphyry or

trachyte of the vicini ty. Humbo ldt was no t permit ted

t o make a precise examinat ion by striking off a part

of the stone,b ut the three or four supposed blood

Spo ts appeared t o him to b e natural co llect ions of hornblende

,or pyroxide in the rock . The Licent iat e Fer

nando Mont esino s,who visited Peru scarcely a hundred

years aft er the taking of Caxamarca,even at that early

period gave currency t o the fable that Atahuallpa wasbeheaded in prison

,and that stains of blo od were st ill

visible on the stone on which the execut ion had takenplace . There is no reason however to doubt the fact

,

confirmed by many eye -witnesses,that the Inca

,t o avo id

be ing burnt alive,consented t o b e bapt ized under the

name of Juan de Atahuallpa,by his fanat ic persecutor

,

the Dominican monk Vicent e de Valverde . He was putt o death by strangulat ion

,publicly

,and in the open air.

Ano ther tradit ion re lat es that a chape l was raised o verthe spo t where Atahuallpa was garro t ed

,and that his

body rests beneath the stone ; in such case , the suppo sedspo ts of blood wo uld remain ent irely unaccounted for.

In real ity,however

,the corpse was never placed beneath

the stone in quest ion. Aft er a mass for the dead,and

so lemn funereal rit es,at which the bro thers Pizarro were

present in mourning habits,it was conveyed first to the

churchyard Of the convent of San Francisco , and afterwards t o Quito

,Atahuallpa

’s birthplace . This last trans

fer was in compliance with the expressed wish of the

dying Inca. His personal enemy,the astut e Ruminnavi,

THE SON OF ASTORPILCO . 2 5 9

from polit ical mo t ive s,caused the body to b e buried at

Quit o,with solemn Obsequies.

Humbo ldt found de scendant s Of the monarch,the

family of the Indian Cacique Astorpilco , dwelling inCaxamarca

,among the melancholy ruins of ancien t

departed splendour,and liv ing in great poverty and pri

vat ion ; b ut pat ient and uncomplaining. The son of

Cacique Asto rpilco , a pleasing and friendly youth of

sevent een,who accompanied Humbo ldt o ver the ruins of

the palace of his ancesto r,While living in extreme

poverty,had filled his imaginat ion with images ofburied

splendour and go lden treasures h idden beneath the

masses of rubbish upon wh ich they trod. He re lat ed tothe traveller that one of his more immediat e forefathershad bound his wife ’s eyes

,and then conduct ed her

t hrough many labyrinths cut in the ro ck int o the sub ter

ranean garden of the Incas. There she saw,skil fully

and e laborat e ly imitated,and formed of the purest go ld

,

art ificial trees,wi th leaves and fruit

,and birds sit t ing on

the branches ; and there to o was the much sough t fo rgolden trave lling chair Of Atahuallpa. The man com

manded his wife no t to touch any of these enchant edriches

,because the long fore to ld period of the rest orat ion

of the empire had no t ye t arrived,and that who ever

Should at tempt before that time to appropriate any of

them would die that very night . These go lden dreamsand fancie s of the yout h were founded on reco llect ionsand tradit ions of former days . These art ificial go ldengardens were Often described by actual eye -witne sses,Cieza de Leon Sarmiento

,Garcilaso

,and o ther early his

torians of the Conquest . They were found beneath the

Temple of the Sun at Cuzco,in Caxamarca

,and in the

2 60 GOLDEN DREAMS .

pleasant valley of Yucay,a favourite residence of the

monarch’s family. Where the go lden gardens were no t

be low ground,living plants grew by the side of the art i

ficial ones ; among the lat ter,tall plants and ears of

maize were ment ioned as part icularly well execut ed .

The morbid confidence with wh ich the young Astorpilco assured Humbo ldt that below their fee t

,a lit t le to

the right of the spot on which Humbo ldt stood at the

moment,there was an art ificial large -flowered Datura

tree,formed of gold wire and go ld plat es

,which spread

its branches over the Inca’s chair,impre ssed him pain

fully,for it seemed as if tho se illusive and baseless visions

were cherished as consolat ions in present sufferings . Heasked the lad : Since you and your parent s believe so

firmly in the exist ence of th is garden,are no t you some

t imes t empt ed in your n ecessi t ies t o dig in search Of t reasures so clo se at hand ?” The boy’s answer was so sim

ple , and expressed so fully the quie t resignat ion charact eristic of the ab org inal inhabitants of the country, thatHumbo ldt no t ed it down in his j ournal . Such a

desire do es no t come t o us ; father says it would b e sin

ful. Ifw e had the go lden branches with all the ir go ldenfruits

,our wh it e ne ighbours would hat e and inj ure us .

We have a small field and good wheat .”

Quit t ing Caxamarca,the travellers descended into the

valley Of the Magdalena the out le t t o which lay over themountain pass ofGuang amarca. A longing desire nowseized them to beho ld the sea

,which they had no t seen

for e igh t een mouths. In lo oking from the summit s ofthe vo lcano s near Quito , no sea horizon could b e clearlydist inguished

,by reason of the t oo great distance of the

coast and the he ight of the stat ion : it was like looking

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2 62 IN SIGHT OF THE PACIFIC.

the vo lcano ofQuito ; of the first grove of tree -ferns,and

of the Pacific Ocean .

~The days on wh ich such wishesare realized form epochs in life

,and produce ineffaceable

impressions ; excit ing fe elings of which the vividnessseeks no t j ust ificat ion by pro cesses ofreasoning.

” Withthe long ing which Humbo ldt fe lt for the first view of

the Pacific from the crests of the Andes,there mingled

the int ere st with which he had list ened as a b oy t o the

narrat ive of the adventurous expedit ion ofVasco Nunezde Balboa

,the fortunat e man who

,fo llowed by Francisco

Pizarro,first among Europeans behe ld from the height s

of Quarequa, on the Isthmus Of Panama,the east ern

p art of the Pacific Ocean .

When,after many undulat ions of the ground

,on the

summit of the st eep mountain ridge,the t ravellers finally

reached the highest po int,the Alto de Guang amarca

,the

heavens wh ich had been long veiled became suddenlyclear : a Sharp west wind dispersed the mist

,and the

deep blue of the sky in the thin mountain air appearedbe tween narrow lines of the highest cirrhous clouds. Thewho le of the we st ern declivity of the Cordillera by Chorillos and Cascas

,covered with large blo cks of quartz

,

and the plains of Chala and Mo lino s as far as the sea

Shore near Truxillo,lay beneath the ir eye s in astonishing

apparent proximity. They now saw for the first t imethe Pacific Ocean it self ; and they saw it clearly

,forming

along the line of the Shore a large mass from wh ich the

ligh t shone reflected,and rising in its immensity to the

we ll-defined horizon .

They reached Truxillo,from whence they pro ceeded

southward along the sandytracts that bordered the Pacific

,t ill they came to Lima. Near Truxillo Humboldt

THEY SET SAIL FOR MEXICO . 63

visited the ruins Of the ancient city of Chimu,and de

scended into the t omb of a Peruvian prince,in wh ich

Garci Gut ierez de Toledo,wh ile digging a gallery

,in

1576,discovered a mass of go ld amount ing in value t o

more than a mil lion of do llars . They remained somet ime at Lima and Callao

,Bonpland bo tanizing

,and

Humbo ldt studying the influence of the climat e,and

making astronomical Observat ions . They were fortu

nate enough wh ile at Lima t o observe the transit ofMer

cury over the sun’s disk,which enabled Humbo ldt to

de termine the exact latitude of the city.

Towards the end of December,1 802

,or at the beg in

ning ofJanuary,1 803

,they depart ed for Mexico

,sailing

for Acapulco in the Spanish frigat e,Atalanta. They

t ouched at Guayaquil on the ir way, and remained thereseveral days . Here they heard from the ir inacce ssibleold friend

,Co to paxi

,although they were at least one

hundred and fifty miles from him . Aft er a long periodofrest the vo lcano had suddenly burst into vio lent crupt ion

,and was discharging its t errible art illery. They

heard it day and night . After a few hasty preparat ionsthey start ed inl and

,fired with the de t erminat ion t o re

visit the vo lcano : b ut before they had gone far theywere recalled by the news

,that the frigat e was obliged

t o se t sail immediately. They were soon at sea again,

standing away to the north and west for Acapulco .

They landed in Mexico on the 2 3d ofMarch,1 803 .

CHAPTER VII.

MEXICO.

THE le t ters with which Don Mariano de Urquizo hadfurnished Humbo ldt before leaving Spain

,int roduced

him at Acapulco,and throughout Mexico

,as they had

already done in Sou th America,to the highest govern

ment oflicials. We accordingly find him three daysafter his arrival at the house of the contador

,Don Bal

tasar Alvarez Ordono,t aking Observat ions to ascertain

the lat itude and longitude of the t own . Except in a scient ific po int of view Acapulco had lit t le to att ract him .

It stood on the southern Shore of Mexico,on the recess

Of a b ay, near a chain Of granit ic mountains. On a hillcommanding the t own and the entrance to the harbour

,

st ood the cast le or fortress Of San Diego . The harbourwas Shut in by mountains. It had two entrances formedby the island of Roque t ta ; one a quarter of a milewide

,the o ther a mile and a half. This was the extent

of its picture squeness .From Acapulco

,in the beginning ofApril

,the travel

lers proceeded t o the capital,passing the plains of Chil

pantzing o , rich in wheat fields,and the lit tle town Of

Tasco,famous for its beaut iful church . They st opped at

Cuernavaca on the southern declivity of the CordilleraofGuchilaque , t o rectify the longitude

,which was incor

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2 66 THE CITY OF MEXICO.

This art ificial mountain,or pyramid

,was pro bably a

fort ified t emple,which originally contained an arsenal

,

and served in war as a fort . The Indians of the neighb ourho od Showed an ancient map , drawn before the ar

rival of the Spaniards, in wh ich , where this monumentShould have been

,there was a rude Ske tch of two war

riors figh t ing with clubs . And about thirty years beforethe arrival Of Humbo ldt and Bonpland. an iso lated stonewas found near by

,with a relief of an eagle t earing a

capt ive .

It was in the capital,however

,which they soon

reached,that the travellers found the great est number

of ruins. In fact the city of Mexico was based on ruins— the wrecks of the ancient capital

,Tenocht it lan. Under

the Great Square were fragment s of the Spacious t empleofMexit li . Beh ind the Cathedral was the palace of the

king of Axajacat l, where Mont ezuma lodg ed the Spaniards on the ir arrival ; and oppo sit e the Vice roy’s palacest ood formerly the palace ofMont ezuma h imself. Theseth ings had a great influence over the imaginat ive travellers ; b ut the ir first Obj ect

,aft er finding a residence

,and

delivering the ir le t ters,was t o inquire for a new set of

scient ific instrument s in order t o pursue the ir studies .They were no t content t o run thro ugh the

'

country likeo rdinary

.

travellers,chronicling the ir journey by a list

Of the inns at which they stopped : nor ye t like art istsor poet s

,alive t o the charm of beaut iful scenery and

strange tradit ions . They were po e ts, art ist s, travellers,it is t rue : but they were Some thing more . They weremen of science

,ph i losophers

,savans

,who se business and

pleasure it was,t o understand what they saw . They

would read,or at least would t ry to , every page in the

THE ACADEMY OE PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 2 67

great World-Book ; no t skipping any, because they werecommon

,or. tedious

,but reading all.

They found in Mexico a Schoo l of Mines,like the

Mineralogical Academy of Freyberg, (the director, by

the way, was a pupil of Humboldt’s Old t eacher

,Wer

ner) a Bo tanic Garden, and an Academy of Paint ingand Sculpture . The last bore the t it le of Academic de

los Nobles Aries de Mexico . It owed its exist ence to the

patrio t ism of several private citizens,and the pro t ect ion

of the minister,Galvez . The government had assigned

it a spacious building,wh ich was enriched by a finer

and more complet e co llect ion of cast s,than wasat that

t ime to b e found in any part ofGermany . Humbo ldt wassurprised and delight ed when he saw the Apo llo Be lvidere and the Laocoon . There were no fees for entranceat the Academy it was free t o all

,even mulat to es and

Indians. The rooms were light ed every evening w ithArgand lamps

,and filled with hundreds Of young pe o

ple , who drew from reliefs,or living models

,or copied

drawings of furniture,chandeliers

,o r ornaments in

bronze . The director of the class of sculpture,Don

Manue l To lsa,had j ust comple ted a bronze equestrian

statue of Charle s IV.,the then re igning king of Spain .

Humbo ldt was present when it was cast,and saw it

moved to the Great Square— a fiv e days’ task. As thebuildings around the Square were no t lofty it lookedadmirably on its pedestal

,standing g randly out from its

blue background ofSky.

This royal statue,the Viceroy1s palace

,and above all

the new Cathedral with its massive towers,made the Great

Square an impo sing place . Humboldt did it full j ust ice,

we have no doubt,for his tast es like his powers were

2 68 THE GREAT AZ TEC IDOL.

universal,b ut we suspect it interested him more for

what it had been,than what it was— more for what was

under it,than what was above and around it . Below it

,

as we have already remarked,were the remains of the

great t emple of Mexit li,fragment s of which were fre

quent ly brought to light . A few years before his arrival,

(in August 1 790) some workmen who were employedthere in making excavat ions

,in order to build a sub ter

raneous aqueduct,discovered a great Aztec Ido l of

basalt ic porphyry . It was about twenty fee t high,and

six or seven fee t broad,and was sculp tured on every

Side . At first it appeared an almo st Shapeless mass,b ut

on be ing examined clo se ly,upon the upper part was

found the united heads of two monst ers. The eyes werelarge

,and in each mou th were four hideous te e th . The

arms and fee t were h idden under a drapery surrounded byenormous serpent s ; the ancient Mexicans called thisdrapery the Garment of Serpent s. All these accessories

,

e specially the fringes,which were in the form of feathers

,

were sculptured with the greatest care . This double ido lprobably repre sent ed Huitzilpochtle , the Azte c God of

War,and his wife

,Teoyamiqui, who conducted the souls

Of the warriors who died in the defence of the gods,t o

the House of the Sun,where She transformed them into

humming-birds . Herbo som was surrounded w ith deaths’

heads and mut ilated hands,symbols of the sacrifices

which were celebrated in honour of this horrible pair. The

hands alt ernat ed with the figure s of vases,in which in

cense was burnt . As the ido l was sculptured on everySide it was doubt less supported in the air on two co lumns

,

be tween which the priests dragged the ir vict ims t o the

altar of the t emple beyond. Upon the under Side of the

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2 70 VIEW FROM CHAPOLTEPEC.

arch ives of the Viceroyal ty,and pored over its hoard of

Aztec manuscripts . These hieroglyph s were writ tene ither on agave paper

,or on stag-skins. They were fre

quently from sixty-five to seventy fee t in length,and

each page contained from two to three fee t of surfaceThey were fo lded here and there in the form ofa rhomb

,

and thin wo oden boards fastened t o the extremit iesformed the ir binding

,and gave them a resemblance to

o ur vo lumes in quart o . No nat ion of the o ld cont inentever made such an ext ensive use of hieroglyph ical writing as the Aztecs

,and in none of them were real books

bound in th is way. Humbo ldt pro cured several fragment s of similar manuscripts during his stay in Mexico .

'But mysterious manuscripts which he coul d no t read,

and uncouth ido ls wi th which he could have no sympathy

,were soon laid aside for the great Bo ok Of Nature

,

and the thousands ofmen around him . One ofhis favourite haunts was the famous hill of Chapolt epec . Fromthe centre Of this so litude his eye swept over a vast plainof cul t ivat ed fields wh ich ext ended to the fe e t of the distant mountains covered with perpe tual snow. Belowhim were o ld cypress trunks fiftv fee t in circumference ,and off to the east the city. It appeared as if washed bythe wat ers of the lake of Tezcuco

,who se basin

,sur

rounded with villages and hamle t s,brought t o his mind

the most beaut iful lakes Of the mountains ofSwitzerland .

Large avenues of e lms and poplars led to it in everydirect ion : and two aqueducts

,constructed over arches

of great e levat ion,cro ssed the plain like walls. The

magnificent con 'vent ofOur Lady ofGuadalupe appearedj o ined t o the mountains of Tepeyacac , among ravines;wh ich She lt ered dat e and yucca tre es . Towards the

THE MARKETS OF ME XICO . 2 7 1

south was the tract be tween San Ange l, Tacab aya, and

San August in de las Cuevas, an immense garden of

orange , peach , apple,and cherry tree s. This beaut iful

cult ivat ion formed a Singular contrast with the wild appearance of the naked mountains wh ich enclosed the

valley,among wh ich were the famous volcano es of La

Puebla,Popocat ep

'

e tl,and Iztaccihuatl . And around and

overhead,st e eped in sunsh ine

,was the deep blue t ropic Sky.

Somet ime s in the morning Humbo ldt went to the

marke t -place and wat ched the Indian huckst ers,en

trenched in verdure . No mat ter what they so ld,fruit

,

ro ots,or pulque

,the ir Shops were ornament ed with

flowers . A hedge,a yard high

,made of fresh herbs and

delicate leave s,surrounded like a semicircular wall the

fruits offered t o public sale . The bo t tom of the marke t,

which was smo o th and gre en,was divided by garlands

of flowers,which ran parallel t o one ano ther. Small

no segays placed symmetrically between the festoons,

gave this enclo sure the appearance of a carpe t strewnwith flowers. Humboldt was struck with the way

in wh ich the nat ives displayed the ir fruit in smallcages of light wood. They filled the bo t t om of thesecages with raisins and pears

,and ornament ed the t op

with the most odorous flowers. Without doubt this artof entwining fruit s and flowers had its o rigin in that

happy period when,long befo re the introduct ion of

inhuman rites,the first inhabitant s ofAnahuac Offered up

to the g reat spirit Teo tl the first fruit s of the ir harve st .But the pre t t iest Sight was to see at sunrise the In

dians with the ir boats lo aded with fruit s and flowers,

descending the canals of Iztacalco and Chalco . The

greater part of the ir fruits and roo ts were cult ivat ed on

2 7 2 THE FLOATING GARDENS .

float ing gardens. There were two sorts of these gardens,

one which was movable,and driven about by the winds

,

the o ther fixed and fas tened to the Shore . The ing eni

ous invent ion of float ing gardens appears to g o back to

the end of the fourte enth century. It had its origin inthe extraordinary Si tuat ion of a people surrounded wi thenemies

,and compelled t o live in the mids t of a lake

lit t le abounding in fish,who were forc ed to fall upon

every means ofpro curing subsistence . It is even probab le that Nature herse lf suggested t o the Aztecs the firstidea of float ing gardens. On the marshy banks Of thelakes OfXochimilco and

/

Chalco,the ag itated wat er; in the

t ime Of the great rises carries away pieces of earth

covered with herbs,and bound t oge ther by ro o t s .

These,float ing about for a long t ime as they are driven

by the wind,some times unit e int o small islands. A

tribe of men,t oo weak to defend themse lve s on the c on

tinent,would take advantage of these port ions ofground

which acciden t put with in the ir reach,and of which no

enemy disput ed the property. The o ldest float ing g ardens were merely bits of ground j o ined toge ther artifi

cially, and dug and sown upon by the Aztecs. Similarfloat ing islands are to b e me t with in all the zones . Humboldt saw them on the river Guayaquil

,twenty-fiv e or

thirty fee t long.

Ap rop os of the marke ts of Mexico . Here is a passag e from a le t t er of Cortez t o the Emperor Charles V .

,

wh ich gives a descript ion of the valley of Mexico,and

the Old city of Tenoch t itlan,marke ts included . It is

dated the 30th October,1530

,nearly three hundred

years before the visit ofHumboldt“ The province in which the residence of this great

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2 74 THE PYRAMIDS OF TEOTIHUACAN.

bers shave the head,with razors made of Obsidian ; and

there are houses re sembling our apo thecary shops,w here

prepared medicines,unguent s

,and plasters are sold .

There are houses where drink Is so ld. The marke tabounds with so many things

,that I am unable to name

them all to your highness . To avo id confusion,every

Species ofmerchandise is sold in a separate lane everything is so ld by the yard

,b ut no thing has h itherto been

seen t o b e we ighed in the marke t . In the midst of thegreat square is a house wh ich I shall call the Audiencia

,in

wh ich t en o r twelve persons sit constant ly for de termining any disput es wh ich may arise respect ing the sale of

go ods . There are o ther persons who mix cont inuallywith the crowd

,t o see that a

,

j ust price is asked . We

have seen them break the small measures which theyhad se ized from th e merchant s .”

In one of the ir excursions from the city the travellersvisit ed the pyramids of Te o t ihuacan. These pyramidsst oo d in a plain that bore the name of the Path of the

Dead . Surrounded by several hundreds of smaller edifices which formed stree ts

,in exact line s from north t o

south,and from east to west

,rose two great pyramids

which the Indians called Tonat iuh Ytzaqual, and Metzli

Yt zaqual, or the Houses of the Sun and Moon. The

largest was one hundred and seventy-five fee t in perpendicular he ight

,the smallest one hundred and fo rty fe e t .

Twenty-fiv e or thirty fe et was the average he igh t of thelesser pyramids

,which

,according t o the t radit ions of the

Indians,were burial-places fo r the chiefs of the tribe.

They were said to b e dedicat ed t o the stars .The two great pyramids of Teo t ihuacan were dividedinto four principal terraces

,which were subdivided into

EXCURSION To THE MINE S . 2 7 5

steps. These steps were covered with fragment s of ob

sidian,which were probably the edges of the instruments

with which the To lt ec and Azt ec priests in their barbarous sacrifices

,opened the chest s of the ir human vict ims .

The upper t errace was formerly crowned with colo ssalstatues of the Sun and Mo on . These statues were madeof stone

,and covered with plat es of gold. Had they

been stone merely,they migh t have remained there t o

this day, bu t being plat ed with go ld they were sure t ob e spo iled by the first fore ign invader. The so ldiers ofCorte z stripped Off the go ld at once

,and Bishop Zuma

raga,a Franciscan monk

,who undertook t o destroy

what ever re lat ed t o the worship,the h ist ory

,and the an

t iquities of Mexico , comple te d the work of his militantfo llowers

,by demo lish ing the idols . The pyramids

alone remained .

When Humbo ldt arrived in Mexico his astronomicalinstruments were sadly out Of order

,and thinking it

would b e impossible t o replace them,he int ended to re

main only a few months,and then depart for Europe .

But as Don Manuel del Rio,the director of the Scho o l

of Mines,was able t o lend him a new set

,he remained

a year,travelling in various parts of the country

,and

making Observat ions .Towards the end of April

,or the beginning ofMay

he proceeded to the mines ofMoran,and Real del Mont e

,

which lay to the no rth-east Of the capital . The road wascovered with oaks

,cypresses

,and ro se tre es. He made

several astronomical observat ions on his way, stoppingfor that purpo se at the haciendas of Zumpango

,Huehue

to ca,and Tisayuca.

Long before the arrival of the Spaniards, the nat ives

2 76 ANCIENT WORHING OF THE MINES .

Of Mexico,as well as tho se of Peru

,were acquainted

with several me tals . They were no t cont ent ed with theme tals which were found in the ir nat ive state on the sur

face of the earth,and part icularly in the beds of rivers

,

and ravines formed by the t orrents : they applied themse lves to subterranean Operat ions in the working of ve ins ;they cut galleries

,and dug pits of communicat ion and v en

t ilat ion ; and they had instruments for cut t ing the rocks.Cortez informs us in the historical account of his expedit ion

,that go ld

,Silver

,Copper

,lead

,and tin

,were publicly

so ld in the great marke t s of Tenocht itlan. The inhabitant s OfTzapo te ca andMixt ecapan separated the go ld bywashing the alluvial lands. They usually paid the irtribut es in two ways

,e ither by collect ing in leathern

sacks or small baske t s of Slender rushes,the grains of

native go ld,or by founding the metal into bars . These

bars,like tho se now used in trade

,are represented in the

ancient Mexican paint ings. In the t ime of Mont ezuma,

the nat ives hadbegun t o work the Silvermines ofTlachco,

in the province of Cohuixco,and those which run acro ss

the mountains of Zumpango . In all the great towns ofAnahuac gold and Silver vases were manufac tured. The

Spaniards on the ir first arrival at Tenoch t it lan,could

never cease admiring the ingenuity of the Mexican go ldsmiths. When Mont ezuma

,seduced by his credulity

,

recognised on the arrival of white and bearded men,the

accomplishment of the mysterious prophecy of Que tzalcoatl and compelled the Azt ec nobility to yield homaget o the king of Spain

,the quant ity of precious me tals

offered t o Cortez was one hundred and six tv -two thousand p esos de oro.

“ Beside s the great mass of go ld and

silver,

” says the famous Conquestidor in his first le t ter

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2 7 8 D ISHONE ST Y

OF THE MEXICAN MINERS .

ing . As migh t have been expect ed,it was in its infancy .

It had no t advanced Since the sixt e enth century,when it

was first transplanted from Europe . The miners wereno t ent erprising enough t o adopt any of the modern im

prov ements ; they adhered t enaciously t o the Old way,wh ich was no toriously crude and imperfect . They werebe t terpaid

,however

,Humboldt thought

,than the miners

of o ther countries ; they earned from $5 to $6 a-week,

whil e the wages of o ther labourers in Mexico did no t

exceed or for the same t ime . The minerswere no t remarkable for the ir honesty

,for they made

use of a thousand tricks t o st eal the rich minerals inwh ich they worked. AS they were nearly naked

,and

were searched on leaving the mines (no t in the mostdelicate manner e ither), they tried to conceal small morsels Of native Silver

,or red sulphuret ted and muriated

silver in the ir hair,under the ir arm-pit s

,in their mouths

,

and o ther out -Of-the -way corners of their persons. Goodor b ad

,al l were searched alike

,and a register was kept

of the minerals found about them . In the mine of

Valenciana,be tween 1 7 74 and 1 78 7

,the sum sto len

,b ut

recovered,amount ed to

The working of the mines was long regarded as one

of the principal causes of the depopulat ion OfMexico .

Humbo ldt,however

,did no t consider the mortality

among the miners much great er than among the o ther

clas ses . This seemed to him remarkable from the tem

perature t o wh ich they were expo sed. In one mine hefound the thermomet er at 93 ° at the bo t tom

,a perpen

dicular depth of one thousand Six hundred and e igh tyone fee t

,while at the mouth of the pit , in the Open

air,the same thermometer sank in winter to 3 9

°

IND IAN PORTERS OF THE MINE S . 2 7 9

above 0,a difference of 54 ° t o which the miners were

expo sed.

The hardest part of the work was performed by thenat ive Indians

,who were the be ast s of burden of the

mines. They carried the me tals out on the ir backs,in

loads of from two . hundred and fifty to three hundredand fifty pounds at a time

,ascending and descending

thousands of st eps,of an inclinat ion Of forty-fiv e degrees

,

where the air was from 7 1 ° to The mode of trans

portation was in bags, under wh ich the Indians placed a

woo llen covering,for th ey were generally naked t o the

middle,to save themse lves from be ing bruised and

chafed. Humbo ldt m e t them in files of fifty o r sixty ;men of seventy years

,and children of t en or twelve .

They threw the ir bodies forward in ascending,and rest ed

on staffs,which were generally no t more than a fo o t in

length . They walked in a zig-zag direct ion ,because

they had fo und from long experience that t he ir respiration was less impeded when they t raversed obliquely thecurrents of air which ent ered the pits from without .Great care was taken in contro lling the minerals transport ed by them . The proprie tors of the mine s knew

,

within a few pounds,what went out daily. As the

Indians were paid for what they carried,the ir lo ads were

weighed before they left the mines.The Indians of Mexico bore a general resemblance t o

tho se who inhabited the forest s of North America,and

the interior of Peru and Brazil . They had the sameswarthy and Copper co lour

,flat and smo o th hair

,small

beard,squat body, long eyes

,with the corners directed

upwards t owards the temples,prominent cheek bones

,

th ick lips,and an expression of gent leness in the mouth

,

2 8 0 DRUNHENNESS OF THE INDIANS.

strongly contrasted with a gloomy and severe look.

They had a more swarthy complexion than the Indianswhich Humbo ldt and Bonpland saw in Peru

,and more

beard likewise . Almo st all those that he saw in the

ne ighbourhood of the capital wore small moustaches .They at tained a pre t ty advanced ag e , in spite Of the irexcessive drunkenness . This vice was mo st commonamong tho se who inhabited the valley in which the

Capital stood,and the environs of Puebla and Tlascala.

The po lice of Mexico,when Humbo ldt was there

,were

in the habit of sending round tumbrils to co llect thedrunkards that were found stre tched out in the stree ts .They were t reat ed like dead bodies

,and carried to the

principal guard-house . The next morning an iron ring

was put round the ir ancles, and they were made to cleanthe stree ts for three days ; they were set free on the

fourth day, but many of them were sure to b e backagain in the course of the week.

Travellers who merely judge from the physiognomyof the Indians are t empted t o believe that it is rare t o seeOld men among them . In fact

,without consult ing parish

regist ers,wh ich in warm regions are devoured by the

ant s every twenty or thirty years,it is very difficult to

form any idea of the ag e of Indians : they themselves

are comple t e ly ignorant of it . The ir head never becomesgray. It is infinitely more rare to find an Indian than a

negro with gray hairs, and the want of beard give s theformer a cont inual air ofyouth . The Skin of the Indiansis also less subj ect t o wrinkles. Humbo ldt oft en saw

in Mexico,in the t emperate zone half way up the

Cordillera,nat ives

,and especially women, a hundred

years of ag e . This Old ag e was generally comfortable:

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2 8 2 THE OLD FAITH AND THE NEW.

the divinit ies of Az tlan and the divinity of the east .Cortez very artfully t ook advantage of a popular tradit ion

,according t o which the Spaniards were mere ly the

descendants of king Que tzalcoat l,who left Mexico for

countries situated in the e ast,t o carry among them

civilizat ion and laws . The ritual books composed by theIndians inhieroglyph ics at the beginning of the conquest

,

several fragment s ofwhich Humbo ldt pro cured while inMexico

,Show that at that period Christ ianity was con

founded with the Mexican mytho logy : the Ho ly Gho stis ident ified with the sacred eagle of the Aztecs. The

missionaries no t only t o lerat ed,b ut even favoured t o a

cert ain ext ent,this amalgamat ion of ideas

,by means of

wh ich the Christ ian worship was more easily introducedamong the nat ives . They persuaded them that the go spe lhad

,in very remo te t imes

,been already preached in

America ; and they investigat ed its trace s in the Aztecritual with the same ardourwhich the learned, who in o ur

days engage in the study of the Sanscrit,display in dis

cussing the analogy be tween the Greek mythology and

that of th e Ganges and the Barampoo t er.

The Indians knew no thing of re ligion beyond the ex

t erior forms ofworship . Fond ofwhate ver was connectedwith a pre scribed order of ceremonies

,they found in the

Christ ian relig ion part icular enjoyments. The fest ivalsof the church

,the fireworks with wh ich they were ac

companied,the proce ssions mingled w ith dance s and

wh imsical disguises,were a mo st fertile source of amuse

ment for them . In these fes tivals the ir national charact er was displayed in all its individuality . Everywheret he Christ ian rite s assume the Shades of the countrywhere they have been transplanted . In the Philippine

IND IAN PAINTINGS AND CARvINGS. 2 8 3

and Mariana islands,the nat ives of the Malay race have

incorporat ed them with the ceremonies which are peculiart o themse lves and in the province ofPast o

,on t he ridge

of the Cordillera of the Andes,Humbo ldt saw Indians

,

masked “

and adorned with small t inkling be lls,perform

savage dances around the altar,while a monk of St .

Francis e levat ed the host .The Indians were fond ofpainting

,and carvrng on wood

or stone . Humbo ldt was astonished at what they wereable t o execut e with a b ad knife on the hardest wo od.

They were part icularly fond of paint ing images,and

carving statues of saint s . They had been servilely imitating for three hundred years

,the mode ls which the

Europeans import ed with them at the conquest . Thisimitation was derived from a relig ious principle o fa veryremo te orig in. In Mexico

,as in Hindo stan

,it was no t

allowable in the faithful to change the figure of the irido ls in the smallest degree . Whatever made a part ofthe Azt ec or Hindoo ritual was subj ected to immu tablelaws . The Christ ian image s had preserved in Mexico 3.

part of that st iffness and harshness Of feature which cha

ract eriz ed the hieroglyphical pictures of the ag e ofMon

tezuma.

Re turning from Moran and Real del Mont e in July,

Humbo ldt projected a visit to the mines Of Guanaxuat o .

These ce lebrated min es,wh ich were among the riche st

in the country,lay t o the north of the capital . On his

way thither he stepped to examine the canal ofHuehuetoca.

'

From the valley of Tula,through which th is great

canal ran,he proceeded t o the plain of Quere taro

,pass

ing the mountain of Calpulalpan,and the town of San

2 8 4 THE MINE OF VALENCIANA.

Juan del Rio,t ill he came t o the city of Quere taro . He

remained there a few days t o make an astronomical observat ion

,and started for Guanaxuato

,stopping on his

way at the mines Of So to lar,Juchitlan

,Las Aguas

,Ma

eoni,El Docto r

,and San Christobal .

The mine Of Valenciana,the mo st ce lebrated of all

the mines of Guanaxuato,and the richest in Mexico

,

although it had been worked by the Indians,and the early

Spanish se t t lers,was not much wrought unt il t owards

the end of the e ight eenth century. In 1 760a Spaniard,

named Obregon,began t o work a ve in on a part of the

o ld mine,which was t ill then believed to b e dest itute of

me tals. He was without fortune,b ut as he had the repu

tat ion of be ing a worthy man,he found friends

,who

from t ime to t ime advanced him small sums to carry on

his operat ions. In 1 766 the works were over two hundred and fifty fee t deep

, ye t the expenses great ly surpassed the me tallic produce . The next year he ent eredint o partnership with a pe t ty merchant of Rayas

,named

O tero,and in a short t ime the Silver began t o b e more

plent iful ; as the pit grew deeper it grew richer. In

1 7 7 1 they drew enormous masses of sulphuret ted silver,

mixed with nat ive and red silver. From that t ime ityielded over annually .

When Obregon, or as he was aft erwards called,the

Count ofValenciana,began t o work the vein above the

ravine of San Xavier,goat s were feeding on the hill

tops. Ten years after there was a town there containingseven or e ight thousand inhabitant s. At the t ime of

Humbo ldt ’s visit the populat ion of Guanaxuato was

seventy thousand six hundred ; twenty-nine thousand

six hundred of the number were miners. He remained

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2 8 6 SALAMANCA.

Co sola,Z o lag a, and Somb re te . The mine of la V e la

Negra,near Somb re t e

,yielded in five or Six months

seventy thousand silver mares ; ye t it was no t one hun

dred fee t deep . Black silver was common in the minesof Guanaxuato

,Zacat ecas

,and Real del Mont e . Muri

at ed silver abounded in the mines of Cat orce,and Cerro

San Pedro . A t Fresnillo it was frequently Olive -green ;superb sample s of this co lour were found in the minesof V allo recas. The ve ins of Zimapan

,a lit t le to the

north of Real del Mont e,Offered a great varie ty of

curious minerals ; among o thers chrysophrase, and anew specie s of Opal ofrare beau ty . Humbo ldt procuredone of these opals of great size

,and carried it with him

when he re turned t o Europe . The mineralogist s Karst enand Klapro th described it as a fire -Opal.Of all the rock-format ions in Mexico the porphyrit ic

rocks were the richest in go ld and Silver ; then cameprimit ive slate

,graywacke

,and alpine limestone . Cop o

per was found in the mines ofIng aram ,and at San Juan

Gue tamo . Tin was some t imes Obtained by washing the

alluvial lands. Iron,to o

,was abundant .

From Guanaxuato Humbo ldt pro ceeded in a southerlydirect ion t o Salamanca. He stopped at Salamanca longenough t o fix its lat itude and longitude

,and then con

t inued his j ourney t o Vallado lid,the capital Of the In

t endancy of that name . Vallado lid was a small city,

containing onlyeight een thousand inhabitant s . Its ele

vat ion was six thousand four hundred fee t above the sea,

yet snow had been known t o fall in its stree t s. It con

tained no th ing worthy ofno t ice,except an aqueduct , and

a bishop’s palace .

From Vallado lid he proceeded t o Pascuaro .

PASCUARO .

Pascuaro was Situat ed on the picture sque banks of a

lit t le lake of the same name . This lake,and the scenery

in its vicinity,Humbo ldt declared

,would alone have re

paid him for his voyage acro ss the o cean . The city or

town of Pascuaro contained the ashes of a remarkableman

,Vasco de Quiroga

,the first bishop Of Mechoacan .

He was the benefactor of the Indians in his dio cese,

who se industry he encouraged,prescribing one part icular

branch of trade to each village . He died in 1 556 ; b uteven in Humboldt ’s t ime his memory was venerat ed bythe Indians

,who cont inued t o call him the ir father.

The Indians of the province of Vallado lid fo rmedthree races of different origin

,the Tarascs

,celebrat ed in

the sixt eenth century for the gent leness of the irmanners,

for the ir industry in the mechanical arts,and for the

harmony of the ir language,abounding in vowels ; the

Ot omit es,a tribe far behind them in civilizat ion

,who

Spoke a language full of nasal and gut tural aspirat ionsand the Chich imecs

,who had pre served the Mexican lan

guage . All the south part of the Int endancy of Valladolid was inhabited by Indians . In th e village s

,th e only

wh ite figure t o b e me t with was the cure,and he also

was frequently an Indian,or Mulat to . The b enefices

were SO poor there,that the bishop of Mechoacan had

the g reate st diffi cul ty in procuring ecclesiast ics t o se t tle

in a country whe re Spanish was almo st never spoken,

and where along the co ast Of the Great Ocean,the priests

,

infect ed by the contagious miasmata Of malignant fevers,frequen tly died before the expirat ion of seven or e ight

months.But the wonder of the Intendancy ofValladolid, and

indeed of Mexico itself,was the remarkable vo lcano of

8 8 THE VOLCANO OF JORULLO .

Jorullo,which lay a lit t le to the south ofPascuaro . The

great catastrophe in which this mountain rose from the

earth,and by which a considerable extent Of ground

to tally changed its appearance,is one of the mo st extra

o rdinary physical revo lut ions in the history of our plane t .Geo logy po int s out the part s of the ocean

,where

,at

recent epochs,within the last two thousand years

,near

the Azore s,in the ZEg ean sea

,and to the south of Iceland

,

small vo lcanic islands have risen above the surface of

the wat er ; b ut it give s us no example of the format ion,

from the centre of a thousand small burning cones,of a

mountain of scoriae and ashes one thousand seven hundred fe e t in he igh t

,comparing it only with the leve l of

the o ld adjo ining plains,in the int erior of a continent

,

thirty-six leagues distant from the coast,and more than

forty-two leagues from every o ther act ive volcano . Thisremarkable phenomenon was sung in hexame ter versesby the Jesuit Father Raphae l Landivar

,a nat ive ofGua

t imala. It is ment ioned by the Abbé Clav ig ero in the

ancient h istory of his country ; and ye t , t ill Humbo ldtvisit ed and de scribed it , it remained unknown to the

mineralogists and naturalists Of Europe,though it to ok

place no t more than fifty years before,and within six

days’ journey Of the capital of Mexico .

A vast plain ext ended from the hills ofAg uasarco to

near the villages of Teipa and Pe tat lan,bo th equally

celebrat ed for the ir fine plantat ions of co t ton . Thisplain was at the mo st no t over t wo thousand Six hun

dred fee t above the leve l of the sea. In the m iddle

o f a tract of ground in which porphyry, with a bas e

of g riinst ein predominat ed, basalt ic cone s appeared, thesummit s of which were crowned with evergreen oaks

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2 90 THE OVENS OF JORULLO .

top ofA g uasarco , assert ed that flames were seen to issueforth for an extent of more than half a square league

,

that frag ment s of burning rocks were thrown up to pro

dig ious height s, and that through a thick cloud of ashes,

illumined by the vo lcanic fire , the softened surfac e of

the earth was seen to swell like an agitated sea. The

rivers of Cuitamb a and San Pedro precipitated thems elves int o the burning chasms . The decompo sit ion of

the water contribut ed t o invigorat e the flames,wh ich

were dist ingu ishable at Pascuaro,though it was situate d

on ext ensive table -land,four thousand Six hundred

fee t e levat ed above the plains of Jorullo . Erupt ions ofmud

,and especially of strata of clay enve loping balls of

decompo sed basalts in concentrical layers,appeared to

indicate that subt erraneous wat er had no small share inproducing this extraordinary revo lut ion . Thousands of

small cones,from Six t o nine feet in height

,called by the

Indians ovens,issued forth from the Malpays. Each

small cone was a funnel,from which a th ick vapour

ascended t o the he igh t of forty or fifty fee t . In manyof them a subt erraneous no ise was heard

,which appeared

to announce the proximity of a fluid in ebullit ion .

In the midst of the ovens six large masses e levatedfrom thirt een hundred t o sevent een hundred fee t eachabove the old leve l of the plains

,sprung up from a

chasm. The mo st elevat ed of these eno rmous masses

was the great Vo lcano of Jorullo . It was cont inual lyburning

,and had thrown U p from the north Side an im

mense quant ity of scorified and basalt ic lavas containingfragments ofprimit ive ro cks. These great erupt ions ofthe central vo lcano cont inued t ill the month ofFebruary

,

1 760. In the fo llowing years they became gradually less

REAPPEARANCE OF THE R IVE RS 2 9 ]

frequent . The Indians,fright ened at the horrible no ises

of the new vo lcano,abandoned at first all the villages

situated within seven or eight leagues of the plain of JOrullo . They became by degre es, however, accustomed tothis t errific spectacle ; and having returned to ‘

their co t

tages,they advanced towards th e mountains of Angua

Sarco and Santa Ines,to admire the streams of fire dis

charged from an infinity of great and small vo lcanic

apertures. The roofs of the houses of Quere taro werethen covered with ashes at a dis tance ofmore than forty

e ight league s in a straight line from the scene of th e ex

plo sion. Al though the subterraneous fire appeared toHumboldt far from vio lent

,and the Malpays and the

g reat vo lcano began to b e covered with vege tables,he

found the ambient air heat ed t o such a degree by the ao

t ions of the small ovens,that t he thermome ter

,at a great

distance from the surface,and in the shade

,rose as high

as This fact appeared t o prove,that there was no

exaggerat ion in the accounts of several o ld Indians,who

affirmed,that for many years aft er th e first erupt ion

,the

plains of Jo rullo,even at a great distance from the scene

of the explosion,were uninhabitable

,from the excessive

heat wh ich prevailed in them .

Humbo ldt was shown, near the Cerro de Santa Ines,the rivers of Cuit amb a and San Pedro . These streamsdisappeared in the nigh t of the 2 9th Sept ember

,1 759 ;

b ut,at a distance of Six thousand fiv e hundred fe e t far

ther west,in the tract which was the theatre of the con

v ulsion,he saw two rivers burst ing through the argilla

c eous vault of the ovens,of the appearance of m ineral

waters,in which the thermome t er ro se t o 1 2 6° The In

dians cont inued to give them the names ofSan Pedro and

2 92 ANATHAMA MARANATHA.

Cuitamb a,because in several parts of the Malpays great

masses ofwaterwere st ill heard to run from east to west .

In the Opinion of the Indians,these extraordinary

transformat ions,the surface of the earth raised up and

burst by the volcanic fire , and the mountains of scoriaand ashes heaped together

,were the work of the monks

,

the great est,no doubt

,which they have ever produced in

the two hemispheres ! In the co t tage which HumboldtOccupied in the plains of Jorullo

,his Indian host related

t o him,that

,in 1 759

,Capuchin missionaries came t o

preach at the plantat ion of San Pedro,and no t having

me t with a favourable reception (perhaps no t having g o tso good a dinner as they expected), they poured out the

most horrible and unheard of imprecat ions against thethen beaut iful and fert ile plain

,and prophesied that in

the first place the plantat ion would b e swallowed up byflames rising out of the earth

,and that afterwards the

ambient air would coo l to such a degree,that the neigh

b ouring mountains would for ever remain covered withsnow and ice . The former of these maledict ions havingalready produced such fatal effects

,the Indians cont em

plat ed in the increasing coo lness of the vo lcano,the

Sinist er presage of a perpe tual wint er.

Aft er visit ing the vo lcano of Jorullo,and descending

,

on the 1 9th of September,two hundred and fifty fee t into

the burning crater of the central cone,Humbo ldt re

turned to the capital. The arrangement of his bo tanicaland geological co llect ions

,and the regulat ion and caleu

lat ion of his barome tric and trigonome tric measurements,de tained him and Bonpland there unt il the beginning ofJanuary

,1 804 . It would have been difficult to have

found anywhere,least of all in the dolce fo r M onte of

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2 94 THE LEGEND OF QUETZALCOATL .

the effects of famine,and there are many beggars , who

ask alms from the rich in the street s,houses

,and marke t

place,as is done by the mendicant s in Spain

,and o ther

Civilized countries.When the pyramid of Cho lula was in its prime

,it s

summit was covered with an altar dedicated to Quet zalcoatl

,the God of the Air. He was a wh ite and bearded

man,like the Bo ch ica

,of whom we have Spoken in our

descript ion of the falls of Tequendema. He was highpriest of Tula

,legislator and chief of a religious sect

,

which inflict ed on themselves the most crue l penances .He introduced the custom of piercing the lips and ears

,

and lacerat ing the rest of the body with the prickles ofthe agave leaves

,or the thorns of the cactus ; and of

put ting reeds int o the wounds,in order that the blood

might be seen t o trickle more copiously.

The re ign of Quetzalcoat l,strange t o say, was the

go lden ag e of the people of Anahuac. Men and animalslived in peace : the earth brought forth without culturethe fruitfullest of harve st s

,and the airwas filled with in

numerable birds,of whom it was difficult t o say, wh ich

was mo st admired— the beauty of the ir plumage,or the

swee tness of the ir song. Such a blessed epoch couldno t

,and did no t last long. The great Spirit Tezcat lipoca

,

offered Quetzalcoat l a rare beverage which rendered himimmortal

,and inspired him with a tast e for travelling.

He start ed Off at once for the distant country of Tlapallan. The inhabitant s of Cho lula

,through who se t erri

t ory he passed,offering him the re ins of government , he

remained among them twenty years. He taught them to

cast me tals ; ordered fasts of e igh t days ; regulat ed theint ercal at ions of the ir year ; preached peace to them,

and

THE CREDULITY OF MONTEZUMA 2 95

wo uld permit no o ther offerings t o the Divinity than thefirst fruit s of the harvest . From Cho lula he proceededt o the mouth of the river Goasaco alco

,where he disap

peared,declaring however, that he would re turn soon, to

govern the Cholulans again, and renew the ir happiness.The unhappy Mont ezuma thought he recogn ised thepo steri ty of this saint in the so ldiers of Cort ez ! “ We

know by our bo oks,

” said he in his first interview withthe Spanish General

,that myse lf and tho se who inhabit

this country are no t nat ive s,b ut strangers who came from

a great distance . We know also that the chief who ledour ancesto rs hither

,re turned fo r a certain t ime t o his

primit ive country,and thence came back to seek tho se

who were e stablished here . He found them married toth e women of this land

,and living in cit ies wh ich they

had built . Our ancesto rs hearkened no t to the ir ancientfather

,and he returned alone . We have always be lieved

that his de scendants would one day come to take po ssession of this country. Since you arrive from that regionwhere the sun rises

,and

,as you assure me

, you havelong known us

,I canno t doubt

,b ut that the king who

sends you, is our natural mas ter.

” So far Co rt ez in hisfirst le t ter. How far he and his so ldiers re sembled Que tzalcoat l

,the Mexican Prince of Peace

,the readers of

Mexican histo ry must judge for themselves.

Cholula in its glory was one of

The Delphian vales,the Palestines

,

The Me ccas of the mind.

”

It was the ho ly city of the ancient Mexicans,who re

sorted thither from the mo st distant parts of the empire.

2 96 GLORY To QUETZALCOATL.

Its stree ts were picturesque with the long train of the irprocessions

,its winds were j ubilant with the ir barbaric

music. With no ise and pomp they marched to the greatpyramid

,whose summit was crowned with perpe tual

flame,that ro se from the t emple ofQue tzalcoat l . Climb

ing the steps that led from t errace to terrace they reachedthe shrine

,and worshipped the image of the g od. It

was a monstrous ido l of stone,ho lding in one hand a

Sh ield covered with hieroglyphics,and in the o ther a

j ewe led sceptre . Upon its head was a mitre with plumes ;its neck was encircled with a collar of go ld

,while from

its ears hung pendant s of turquo ise .

“ Glory t o Que tzalcoatl ! the mighty God of the Air !

”

But t o re turn from the Past to the Pre sent,from Tra

dit ion t o Fact . The perpendicular height of the pyramidwhen Humbo ldt and Bonpland saw it

,was one hundred

and seventy-seven fee t ; the horizontal breadth of its basewas one thousand four hundred fee t . It had four sides

,

facing the cardinal po ints,and as many t erraces ; alto

ge ther it covered a space of forty-fiv e thousand squarefee t . They had a magnificent view from its summit

,

se e ing at one glance four mountains, Popocat epe t l, Iztac

cihuat l,the peak of Orizaba

,and the Sierra de Tlascala

,

famous for its tempests. Three of the se mountains werehigher than Mont Blanc

,two were burning vo lcano es .

The Pyramid of Cho lula was built of unbaked bricks,

alternat ing with layers of clay. Humboldt was assuredby the Indians that the inside was hollow. During theabode of Cort ez at Mexico

,the ir ancestors

,they said

,

concealed in the body of the pyramid a considerablenumber of warriors

,for the purpo se of falling suddenly

on the Spaniards. The mat erial of which the pyramid

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2 98 Ie CCHIUATL AND POPOCATEPETL.

upon them as they sto od there,Silent and degraded

,the

last of the ir race ! “ Glo ry t o Que tzalcoat l !” no longerrent the air; it was drowsy with

“the blessed mut ter of

the mass,

”and

Good,strong , thick, stupifying incense -smoke .

Quetzalcoat l had passed away,b ut his altar stil l remained.

A myst erious dread,a relig ious awe pervaded the ir souls

as they gazed upon that immense pile,covered with

shrubbery and perpetual verdure .

The pyramid of Cho lula having led the travellers alit t le beyond Iz taccihuat l and Popo cat epet l

,they turned

back and visit ed the se volcano es . Before pro ceeding t oXalapa

,Humbo ldt de t ermined the ir geographical po si

t ion by his observat ions,and measured the ir he ight .

Iztaccihuat l he fo und to b e fifteen thousand seven hundre d fee t above the sea

,and Popocatepe t l sevent een thou

sand seven hundred,which was two thousand fee t higher

than the mo st elevated summit of the o ld world. Heascended t o the summi t of the lat ter mountain. It wasan ever-burning vo lcano

,but for several centuries it had

thrown Up no thing from its crater b ut smoke and ashes.Speaking of a report that prevailed in Mexico

,that

Diego Ordaz pene trat ed int o the crater of Popocat epe t l,

for the purpose of procuring sulphur for the Spaniards

t o make powder with , Humbo ldt go ssips thus about thecircumstance

,and the mountain it self.

“ When the unit ed army of the Spaniards and Tlas

caltecs,in the month of October

,151 9

,marched from

Cho lula t o Tenochtitlan,across the Cordillera ofAhualco ,

wh ich unite s the Sierra Nevada to the vo lcanic summit

THE STOR Y OF DIE GO ORDAz. 2 99

of Popocatepe t l ; the army suffered bo th from the co ld,

and the extreme impetuo sity of the winds,which con

stant ly prevail on the table -land. Writ ing of this marchto the Emperor

,Cortez expresses h imse lf in the fo ll ow

ing manner :‘See ing smoke issue from a very e levat ed

mountain,and wishing t o make to your royal exce llency

a minute report of whatever th is country contains of

wonderful,I cho se from among my _

companions in arms,

ten of the mo st courageous,and I ordered them to ascend

to the summit,and to discover the secret of the smoke

,

and t o tell me whence and where it issued .

’

Bernal Diaz afltirms that Diego Ordaz was of thatexpedit ion

,and that this captain at tained the very brink

of the crater. He may have happened to boast of it

afterwards,for it is relat ed by o ther historians

,that the

Emperor gave him permission to place a vo lcano on his

arms . Lopez de Gomara,who compo sed his history

from the accounts of the Conquistadores and religiousm issionaries

,doe s no t name Ordaz as the chief of the

expedit ion ; b ut he vaguely assert s that two Spaniardsmeasured with the eye the Size of the crat er. Cortez

,

however,expressly says : That his people ascended very

high ; that they saw much smoke issue out , b ut that noneof them could reach the vo lcano

,on accoun t of the enor

mous quant ity of snow with which it was covered,the

rigour of the co ld,and the clouds of ashe s that enveloped

the travellers . ’ A terrible no ise which they heard on

approaching the summi t de t ermined them t o turn im

mediate ly back. We see from the account of Cort ez,

that the expedit ion of Ordaz had no view of extrac tingsulphur from the vo lcano

,and that ne ither he nor hrs

compan ions saw the crater in 1519.

‘They brought

00 ANCIENT ASCENT OF POPOCATEPETL .

back,

’ says Cortez,

‘only snow and pieces of ice

,the ap

pearance ofwh ich astonished us very much,because this

country is under the 2 0° of lat itude , in the paralle l of the

island Espano la, and consequently,

according t o the

opinion of the pilo ts,ought to b e very warm.

’

“ Thre e years lat er, however, after two unsuccessfulat tempt s

,the Spaniards succeeded in see ing the crat er of

Popocatepe t l . It seemed to them three -fourths of a

league in circumference , and they found on the brink of

the precipice a small quant ity of sulphur,which had

been deposit ed there by the vapours . Cortez relatesthat he is in no want of sulphur for the manufacture of

powder,because a Spaniard drew some from a mountain

which perpetually smoke s, by descending, t ied to a rOpe ,t o the depth offrom seventy or e ighty fathoms . ’

A document preserved in the family of the Montano s,

and wh ich Cardinal Lorenzana affirms he once had inhis hands

,proves that the Spaniard of whom Cort ez

speaks,was Francisco Monta

'

ri o . Did that intrepid man

really enter into the crat er of Popocat epet l ; or did heextract the sulphur, as several persons in Mexico sup

pose,from a lat eral crevice of the volcano ? M . Alzate

,

with very lit t le foundat ion affirms,that Diego Ordaz ex

tract ed sulphur from the crat er of the old vo lcano of

Tuct li,t o the east of the lake of Chalco

,near the Indian

village ofTuliahualco . The makers of contraband powder no doubt procure sulphur there b ut Cortez expresslydesignat es Popocat epe t l by the phrase

,

‘the mountain

which constant ly smokes.’ B e this as it may, it iscertainthat aft er the rebuilding of the city of Tenocht it lan

,the

so ldiers of the army of Cortez ascended the summit ofPopo catepetl

,where nobody has since been.

”

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THE PYRAMID OF PAPANTLA.

faced with a wall,like the pyramids of Cholula and

Teo t ihuacan ; the only mat erials employed were immensestones ofa porphyritical shape . Mortar was dist inguishable in the seams. The edifice

,however

,was no t so

remarkable for its Size as for its symmetry, the po lish of

the stones,and the great regularity of the ir cut . The

base of the pyramid was an exact square,each Side be ing

e ighty-two fee t in length . The perpendicular he igh tappeared no t t o b e more than from fifty t o sixty fe e t .This monument

,like all the Mexican t emples

,was com

po sed of several t erraces . Six were st ill dist inguishable,

and a seventh appeared to b e concealed by the vege tat ionwith wh ich the side s Of the pyramid were covered. Agreat stair offifty-seven steps conducted to the truncatedt op of the pyramid

,where the human victims were sacri

ficed. On each side of the great stair was a small stair.

The facing of the t erraces was adorned with hierog lyphies

,in wh ich serpents and cro codiles carved in relief

were discernible . Each t errace contained a great numberof square niches symmetrically distributed. In the firststo ry were twenty-four on each side

,in the second

twenty,and in the th ird Sixteen. The n irmb er of the se

niches in the body of the pyramid was three hundredand sixty-six

,and there were twe lve in the stair towards

the east . The Abbé Marquez suppo sed that this numberof three hundred and seventy-e igh t niches had someallusion t o a calendar of the Mexicans ; and he evenbelieved that in each of them one of the twenty figureswas repeated

,which

,in the hieroglyphical language of

the To ltecs,served as a symbo l for marking the days

of the common year, and the intercalated days at the

end of the cycles.

LAST DAYS IN MEXICO . 3 03

The route from Xalapa t o Pero te was thrice travelledover by Humboldt and Bonpland

,and each t ime sub

jec t ed to barome tric measurement s, for the purpo ses ofa po st road

,which was afterwards constructed in that

locality,according t o Humbo ldt ’s plans.

The remainder of the ir stay in the New World wasde st itute of incident

,and may b e summ ed up briefly.

From Xalapa they pro ceeded t o Vera Cruz,where the

yellow fever was raging. They stopped here a few

days when a Spanish frigate sailing for Havana,they

t o ok passage in her,quit t ing the shore s ofMexico on the

7 th of March . They remained at Havana two monthsat tending to the packing and Shipping of the ir variousco llect ions

,and then set sail for Philade lph ia

,which

they reached after a stormy passage of thirty-two days .While in Philadelph ia

,at a public library

,Humbo ldt

rece ived intelligence which deligh t ed him. It was in a

scient ific publicat ion,and to th is effect : “ Arrival of M .

de Humbo ldt ’s manuscript s at his bro ther’s house inParis

,by way of Spain.

” He could hardly help shouting for joy.

From Ph iladelph ia they pro ce eded to Wash ingt on,

where Humbo ldt was introduced to Jefferson.

They left the New World on the 9th ofJune,1 804 .

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CHAPTER I.

BOOKS.

ONE pleasant August day, fifty-five years ag o , In aquiet chamber in Paris

,sat a pale and thoughtful woman.

The chamberwas decidedly French,the furniture dat ing

back,it may b e , t o the days ofLouis Qua torze ye t there

was some th ing in its atmo sphere no t quite in ke eping.

Perhaps it was the bo oks and pictures,bo th of which

were German,or it migh t have be en the lady herself

,

who was also German. She was no t beautiful her

figure was a lit t le crooked,b ut the contour of her head

wasfine,and her eyes were remarkably brilliant . Indeed

her eyes were to o brillian t,large and lustrous

,as is often

the case with those who are,o r have been

,ill . That this

lady was ill,could b e seen at a glance . Be ing a wife and

mo ther She had known all the pains and pleasures ofwoman. She knew what it was to give birth t o ch ildren

,

and to have her children die . A few months before Shehad given birth to a daugh t er

,her fifth child

,who soon

died. It was this that made her pale and thoughtful.On the couch beside her lay a book

,wh ich she had j ust

been reading,a German book

,the work of Go e the

,or

Sch ill er. Beside her was a bundl e of le t t ers,one with a

foreig n post mark . It was directed to her husband,

308 FRAU CAROLINE IN PAR IS .

William V on Humbo ldt . The lady was Frau Caro line,

and the le t t er was from Alexander. It was dated inMarch

,at Havana

,and announced his speedy return

from the New World. Two or three months had passedSince it was rece ived in Rome

,and yet there were no

t idings of him. None,at least

,that they wished to

believe . There was at one t ime an ugly report that hehad died of the yellow fever

,bu t it lacked confirmat ion

,

they thought . So Frau Caroline,who had been spend

ing a few weeks at We imar,wi th her friend Sch iller

,

had come up to Paris t o see if she could no t learn something definite concerning the long-absent Alexander.

While She was sit t ing there with his le t ter before her,

that pleasant August day, there came a tap at the door,

and a no t e was handed her by a messenger. It was

from the Secre tary of the Nat ional Inst it ute,announcing

the arrival of the trave ller in the Garonne . He was

then at Bordeaux,and would Short ly b e in Paris. Her

heart was ligh tened of one load ; her pale cheek kindled,and snatching a pen, she wro te the good news t o her

husband.

In a few days Alexander h imself appeared.

From t ime t o t ime during his fiv e years’ absence,

rumours of his trave ls were no ised abroad,and he was

much talked about,no t only by scient ific men

,who

naturally felt a de ep int erest in him and his pursuit s,b ut

by the world at large . Great changes had been wroughtsince he left ; bat t les had been fought , before which thefamous fields of ant iquity must “ pale the ir ineffectualfires empires had risen and fallen

,or were to t tering to

the ir fall, ye t he was no t forgo t ten . The crash of empires

,

the thunder of bat t les had no t drowned the “ st ill small

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3 10 WILLIAM’S TRAVELS.

There was b ut one way to reach the world,and that was

by writ ing.

Such,we may conce ive , were the thoughts of t he tra

v ellers as they surveyed their collect ions andjournals. In

the meant ime there were some arrears to b e se t t led be forethey could fully resume the ir old life of civilizat ion and

refinement . There were half-sundered t ies to b e renewed ;le t ters to b e writ t en ; friends to b e seen ; homes to b evisited ; and for one at least

,a debt of love to b e paid .

Before Alexander could begin the great work he mustsee his bro therWilliam

,who was then at Albano . He

le arned from Frau Caro line,t o whom his re turn had been

a cordial of health,all that had taken place Since his de

parture . When he start ed for the New World he le ftWilliam in Paris

,b ut the le t ters wh ich he wro te him

during his j ourney in Spain,led the lat t er to undertake

a journey thither. He left Paris in July or August,

1 799, accompanied by Frau Caro line and his family,and

proceeded to Garonne and the Pyrene es,crossing over

into Spain at St . Jean de Luz. In the autumn he

reached Biscay. He was delight ed with the Basquenat ion

,who se strange language opened a new field for

his philo logical studies . From Vit toria he travelledto Madrid : thence to Cadiz

,Seville

,Valencia

,and Bar

celona. The journey ended in the plains and mountainsof Catalonia.

In 1 802 he was made a Chamberlain by the King ofPrussia

,and appo inted privy counsellor of legat ion

,and

re sident -ambassador at the court of Rome,an office

which he st ill filled. In literature he had no t donemuch,beyond planning great works, many ofwh ich werenever executed. He was then

,or as Frau Caro line

GAY-LUSSAC

doubt less said to Alexander, in August , 1 804 ,“ He is

now translating Agamemnon .

”

The fact ofWilliam’s be ing hard at work on his b e

loved rEschylus, and that Frau Caroline int ended to re

main in Paris unt il the commencement of the fo llowingyear

,de terminedAlexander to remain there until he had

regulat ed his co llect ions and arranged his journals forpublicat ion . He renewed his int imacy w ith his formerscientific associates

,e specially with his friend

,Gay

-Lussac

,who had just dist inguished himse lf as an aeronaut

,

by making two ascensions from the Conservatory ofArt s,

one with M. Bio t,on the 2 4 th of Aug ust , and one alone

,

on the 15th of September. The obj ect of these as eensions was to examine whe ther the magne t ic power ex

perienced any appreciable diminut ion as we leave the surface of the earth . Saussure

, who made experiment s onthe Col du Geant

,at eleven thousand fee t above the leve l

of the sea,thought he could perce ive a very sensible de

crease of magne t ic virtue : some mronauts even assertedthat it vanished at a cert ain he ight . Loaded with a cargoof galvan ic apparatus

,barome ters

,thermome t ers

,hyg ro

met ers,and elect rome ters

,besides a small menagery of

frogs,insect s

,and birds

,Bio t andGay-Lussac ro se from t he

Conservatory amid the plaudits of all Paris . The lowerSide of the clouds through which they passed had a bluisht int

,similar t o that which they exhibit onthe surface ofthe

earth,but as they ro se above them

,they saw that they

were full of small eminences and undulat ions,like a vast

fie ld of snow ploughed and drifted by the wind. Theycommenced the ir experiment s at the he igh t of six thousand fiv e hundred fee t , and cont inued them to the heightoffifteen thousand seven hundred fee t

,and the result of

3 1 2 HUMROLDT QUITS PAR IS .

their observat ions was that the magne t ic property expe

rienced no appreciable diminut ion.

This first trip no t be ing considered sat isfactory in somerespects

,Gay

-Lussac made the second alone,and ascended

to the he ight of four mil es and a quarter. He st ill sawclouds above him

,at a great he ight

,but none below. The

atmosphere had a dull misty appearance . He sufferedint ensely from the co ld during his experinrents. Hishands were benumbed ; he breathed with difficul ty ; hispulse was much quickened

,and his throat was so parched

that he could scarcely swallow a morsel of bread. The

result of his experiment s was the same as befo renamely

,that the magne t ic quality does no t diminish as

we proceed from the surface of the earth .

Humbo ldt,t o whom great he ights were by this t ime no

nove lty,was deeply int eres ted in these researches ofGay

Lussac,and afterwards j o ined him in them . His only

lit erary labour at this t ime was an essay on theGeo logyof America

,published in the “ Journal of Natural His.

t ory.

”

In the Spring of 1 805 he accompanied Frau Caro line,

who in the meant ime had had another child,a lit t le Gustavus

,to Albano . The reader will b e good eno ugh to

imagine the mee t ing of the bro thers, who were bo th men

of strong feelings,though they did no t always Show

them,and loved and respected each o ther as two such

bro thers Should . Be sure they had much to talk of,b e

fore they se t t led into the quite rout ine of life,William

of his studies, and Alexander of his travels. He hadremembered his bro ther’s tastes in the distant regions of

the New World,and had co llected for him,

in missionsand Cloisters, and wherever he could, a great number of

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3 1 4 No MAN’S LIFE EVER WR ITTEN.

ments,in which he was assist ed by Humbo ldt and V on

Buch,the lat t er examining the magne t ic qualit ies of the

serpent ine rocks ofVe suvius . In the autumn Humboldtdeparted for Berlin

,where he remained nearly two years .

Though he wro te large ly during this year,he seems to

have published lit tle,except an

“ Essay on Bo tanicalGeography

,

”and a paper on magne t ism .

From this t ime for twenty years and more , his lifewas as dest itute of incident as can well b e imagined ; eXcept in a bibliographical po int ofview it is nearly a blankt o his biographers . Ye t this blank covers the mo stpro lific period of his genius

,for in it he wro te all his

great works,except “ Ko smos .” From 1805 t o 1 8 2 9

from his th irty-sixth t o his Sixtre th year,no t much is

known of Humboldt . We know where he lived duringthat t ime ; this year he was in Berlin , w e can say, and

that year in Paris b ut this is lit t le . To b e sure lo calityis some thing

,for it helps stat ist ical readers to facts

,which

are never to b e de spised ; b ut an au thent ic leaf from the

book ofhis life,a momentary gleam of thought or feeling

would b e worth centuries ofmere lo cality .

And here w e are reminded of a thought which hasoften come home t o us with striking force

,when reading

the biograph ies of great men . It is th is : No man’s lifewas ever writ ten ! If a biographer is skilful

,like Boswell

for instance,he gives us a life -like picture of his hero

the colour of his eyes and hair,his voice

,his manner of

speaking,his gestures : his lit t le peculiarit ies of dress

,

the snuff on his shirt frills,or

,po ssibly

,the stains of

his last night ’s wine ; or, as in the case of Po or Go ldy,

the awkward patch on the breast of his coat . St ill,we

are no t sat isfied. Delightedw e may b e , b ut sat isfied we

LIVE S OF AUTHORS NOT PICTURE SQUE . 3 1 5

are no t . We fee l all the while that th is is no t the man,

it is b ut his out line,his frame

,his shell . What we wan t

to g e t at is the man himself,and unfortunat e ly that is

j ust what we never do g e t at . It is b ut lit tle t o knowthat his head is covered with go lden curls

,or that ched

with the snows of ag e , when we know no th ing of the

brain with in it — no thing of the thought s that struggle

there like mad demons,or sle ep serenely like ange ls .

Give us an insight into the man : Open his secre t do orsand le t us see his heart

,whe ther it b e noble or base .

Do es his blo od run rich with love,or bo il and see the with

hat e ? Or do es it lie like a stagnant po o l in a dead marsh,

loathsome,horrible ? We can never know.

Grant ing,however

,that the inner life of a man is

h idden from us,there is st ill his o ut er life t o b e narrated

,

and it is with this that mo st biographers o ccupy themselves . It is no t

,or should no t “

b e,difficult t o write the

life of a so ldier,for the biographer’s work is ready done

to his hands . What can b e want bet t er than

The spui t—st irring drum,

the e ar-piercing fife ,The royal b anner, and all quality,Pride

, pomp, and circums tance of g lorious w ar ?

The biograph ies of actors,and o ther adventurers

,are

exce llent reading. But au thors,whose days and years

are proverbially barren of incident,and whose profession

keeps them from mingling act ive ly with the world— howShall the ir lives b e made int eresting ? The mo st thatcan b e done for an author

,in a picturesque po int of View,

is to describe him with pens,ink

,and paper before him .

From these,by the subt le alchemy of his genius

,bo oks

are made— poems,novels

,histories

,b ut how is a mystery

,

3 16 HUMHOLDT’S SCIENTIFIC LIFE .

o ften t o the author himself. A man at a table writing,

o r,as Miss

,who doat s on his books

,fancies

,a pale and

spiritual genius in his study at nigh t,his brain labouring

with though t,which his fingers are no t swift enough to

jo t down— le t the picture b e as romant ic as possible,the

world will never th ink it equal to a bat t le -field,although

it re it erate s complacent ly,

The pen is mig ht ier than the sword.

As‘

with the author,so with the man of science

,or rath er

worse with him,for his l ife

,while it is similar t o the

author’s,is generally less int erest ing

,which make s the

writ ing of his biography more diflicult . Fortunat ely,

however,Humbo ldt was more than a mere man of

science,and his life in the main was a st irring one .

There were int ervals of comparat ive quie t in it,chasms

of scient ific and lit erary labours,yawning

,as it were

,

be tween epochs of trave l and adventure ; b ut these oncebridged over

,all is well. We Shal l bridge over

,in this

chapter,Humbo ldt ’s scient ific life in Paris.

We left him at Berlin in the autumn of 1 805. Therewas no reason for his quit ting Albano where he was sohappily situat ed

,except that he ne eded more so litude

than he could find there . He was,doubtless

,t oo

‘

hap

pily Situat ed t o work as he wished . He remained at

Berlin two years,writ ing

,and pursuing his scientific

researches. He cont inued his magnet ic observat ions, andthe result of his experiments was

,that mountain chains

and even act ive volcanoe s exercise no percept ible force

on the magne t ic power,b ut that it deviat es gradually

with its distance from the equato r.

He wro t e largely at this t ime,working up different

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3 1 8 BERTHOLLET.

Paris,giving to each the portion for which his taste s and

studies had fit ted him. No city in the world was everso rich in men of science

,as Paris was then

,and all these

men were Humbo ldt ’s personal friends . He was ac

quaint ed with most of them before he started on his

travels : when he re turned,opulent in knowledge and

experience,his acquaintance was sought by the rest .

Among his friends at this time,and for years aft erwards

,

in fact t ill the clo se of their lives,for Humbo ldt never

lo st a friend,except by death

,we may ment ion Bio t ,

Gay-Lussac

,Latreille

,Cuvier

,Laplace

,Arago

,and Ber

tho lle t . Arago and Gay-Lussac were the youngest of

the band,the former be ing in his twenty-second year

,the

lat ter in his twenty-ninth . The o ldest were Laplace and

Bertho lle t,bo th of whom were within a few months of

fifty-nine . Cuvierwas born in the same yearwith Hum

boldt,and like him was thirty-e ight .

Claude Louis Bertho lle t was born at Talloire,in

Savoy,on the 9th of December

,1 74 8 . Rece iving his

early educat ion at Chambery,he ent ered the university

ofTurin,where he obtained a diploma as doctor ofmedi

cine . Arme d with this formidable weapon he came toParis

,and was fortunat e enough to b e appo inted physi

cian to the Duke of Orleans . While ho lding this situat ion he devo t ed himself to the study of chemist ry

,and

published his “ Essays,which made him favo urably

known in the world, of le t t ers. The influence of the

Duke procured for him,some years lat er

,the office of

government commissary,and superint endent of dye ing

pro ce sses . This led him t o writ e a work on the theoryand practice of dye ing. He was soon after engaged inano ther kind of dying

,or rather trying to help the

CUVIER . 3 1 9.

French people towards the mat erial for it . When the

Revo lut ion had invo lved the country in war,saltprtre ,

which at first was plent iful enough,finally became scarce

,

owing t o the difficult ies of importat ion . To make upthe deficiency Bertho lle t trave lled over France

,and

showed its sanguinary cz’

toyens how t o extract and purifythe salt . Under his t each ing any man who desired it

,

migh t have had a private powder-manufacto ry ofhis own .

In addit ion t o his lit t le lessons in the art of ex t empo

riz ing gunpowder,B ertho lle t was engaged

,like many

o ther m en of science at the t ime,in teach ing the French

the art of smelt ing iron, and convert ing it int o st eel .The swords of the cz

’

toyens were probably a lit t le dint edwith hacking each o ther

,so they wanted new ones .

In 1 792 w e find Bertholle t one of the Commissionersof the Mint

,and two years lat er a member of the Com

mission of Agriculture and Art s,and Professor of Che

mis try in the Po lyt echnic and Normal Schools. In 1 7 96

the Directory,who began t o think Of re turn ing t o civili

zat ion,sent him t o Italy to select works of art and

science for the capital . Mee t ing General Bonapartethere

,he jo ined the expedit ion t o Egypt

,and helped t o

form the Ins t itute of Cairo . On his re turn t o FranceNapo leon

,then first consul

,made him a senat or

,and

grand officer of the Legion ofHonour,and Short ly aft er

wards created him a count .George Leopo ld Christ ian Frederic Dagobert Cuvier

,

the mo st celebrated anatomist ofmodern t imes,was born

at Montbeliard,on the 2 3d of August

,1 7 69

,twenty-two

days before Humbo ldt . From his earlie st ch ildho od hegave indicat ions of great talent . He learned t o drawfrom th e works of Buffon

,a copy of wh ich

,illustrated

HIS EARLY CAREER .

with plat es,fell into his hands in his twelfth year. Lat in

and Greek were among his first studies ; he learned them

as by intuit ion, and German with equal facility. Healso made h imse lf master of most of the modern language s. He had a passion for all kinds of reading

,

especially for history, the driest details of which he mas

t ered,and remembered without an effort .

Proficient at the ag e of fourt een in all the branches ofstudy taugh t in the schoo l of Montbe liard

,he was sent

to the Caro line Academy, at Stut t g ard, where he re

mained four years. His favourite study was the scienceofgovernment

,which was one of the fiv e different facul

t ies in which lessons were given at this academy. Hisgreat m ental endowment s were at once recognised by theprofessors

,and by none more warmly than M . Abel

,the

professor ofNatural History,who rekindled in the mind

of the young student his early taste for that science .

When the Revo lut ion broke out,Cuvier was residing

in Normandy. Here he me t the naturalist,Jessier

,who

discovered his scient ific at tainment s,and put him in

communication with the savans of Paris. He repairedth ither in 1 7 95

,when the fury of the Revo lut ion had

subsided,and by the int ere st of Jessier and Me llin was

appo int ed a member of the Commission of Arts,and

soon after a professor of the Schoo l of the Pantheon .

For the use of this schoo l he compo sed a t reatise on the

natural history of animal s,wh ich served as the basis of

all subsequent works on zoological classificat ion. From

the Schoo l of the Pantheon he passed t o the Museum of

Natural History,where he filled the chair ofComparat ive

Anatomy. When Bonapart e re turned from Egypt,in

1 800,he was secre tary to the Nat ional Institute . The

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3 2 2 ARAGO.

mathemat ics and geome try,he resigned the po rtfo lio of

his office t o Lucien Bonapart e . He was then created asenator

,then vice -chance llor

,and at length Chamberlain

of the conservat ive senat e .

Of his various scient ific writ ings,especially of his

immortal work,the Trade de illécam

'

que Céleste, we shallno t speak here ; ne ither shall we pursue him throughhis subsequent career. An anecdo te of his last days

,

and w e have done with Pierre Simon Laplace .

You have made many splendid discoverie s,mar

quis,

” said a friend to him as he lay o n his death-b ed.

“ What we know is a lit tle mat t er,

”the dying philo

Sopher murmured,

“ what we do no t know is immense .

”

Of Dominique Franco is Jean Arago , the ce lebrat edastronomer, and equally ce lebrat ed friend ofHumbo ldt ,no Ske tch is necessary here

,as mo st readers are familiar

with his biography. It will b e sufficient t o say that he

was at this t ime engaged in measuring the arc of the

meridian,a famous and dangerous epoch in his life . Of

Bio t,andGay

-Lussac — the ir balloon ascensions,and mag

ne t ic experiment s,we have already Spoken .

Among these men,and o thers of le ss no te

,minor

lights in the constellat ion of science,Humbo ldt took his

place,as a St ar of the first magni tude . He was undoubt

edly surpassed by some of th em in part icular departments

of study,b ut in general knowledge

,a knowledge of all

branches of science , and all lit eratures,he had no SUpe

rior,if indeed an equal . There was no sense o f in

feriority on his part ; he was a king among h is peers.Once fairly se t t led in Paris, he sat down and mapped

out his great work . Had a bo ok of travels been his obj ect,

it would no t have been difficult for him to have writ ten

DIVISION OF LABOUR . 3 2 3

it within a reasonable t ime many a trav ellerwould havedone so

,wh ile Humbo ldt was th inking about it . A book

of trave ls,however

,was no t his obj ect

,at any rate no t

his so le obj ect,it was b ut a small port ion of the task

which he contemplat ed. He would do himself j ust ice as

a traveller by describing the scenes through which hehad passed ; the o cean over which he had sailed ; thefo re sts in which he had wandered : the rivers he had

explored ; the mountains he had ascended ;!

the ruins hehad seen ; b ut he would also do himself jus t ice as a man

of science . He would give the geography,the geo logy

,

the bo tany,in Short

,the natural h istory of the New

World ; no t in a general way, from the vague report s ofo thers

,b ut from his own conscientious observat ions and

researches. Clearly this was a Herculean task.

He divided his mat erial into six port ions . First,the

narrat ive ofhis j ourney ; then its zoo logy and anatomy ;th en its polit ical aspect . These were fo llowed by itsastronomy and magne t ism

,its geo logy

,and its bo tany.

Knowing that he could no t,without assistance

,write

the mul t itude of books that such a treatment of his

travels implied,he parcelled the different port ions around

among his friends . Arago and Gay-Lussac were to assisthim in chemistry and me t eoro logy Latre ille and Cuvierin anatomy : Laplace in mathemat ics : Vauquelin and

Klapro th in mineralogy ; and Bonpland and Kunth,

(no t our o ld friend,and his boyish tutor

,Christ ian

,but

Charles Sigismund Kunth , Pro fessor of Bo tany in the

University of Berlin) in bo tany . For his own part hewould superintend the ir labours, and write the narrat iveof his journey . And now to work

,Messieurs !

To work they went .

3 2 4 WORHS P UBLISHE D IN 18 08 .

As Humboldt laid out his wo rks with great regulari ty,

the reader may suppo se that the same regularity at tendedtheir publicat ion : b ut it was no t so No t all tho se that

relat ed to,and completed one branch of Science

,appeared

at one t ime : they were published as they were writ t en.

It could no t well have been o therwise when so manyhands were at work .

To know the years in which Humboldt ’s bo oks werepublished

,is to know the nature of his employment at

that t ime . With this clue before us we shall trace himduring his life in Paris . He came thither

,the reader

will remember,in the autumn of 1 807 . 1 808 was a busy

year with him . It w itnessed the publicat ion of two edi

t ions of his “ Aspect s of Nature,

”one in German

,the

o ther in French ; of a work on lat itude and longitude,in

Lat in ; of a work on e lectric fish,in German

,and of the

first vo lume ofhis work on the equinoct ial plant s. Thislast publicat ion

,an immense fo lio

,with pages two fee t

,or

thereabout s,in length

,was the first of a series of works

of the same size and kind . They were mo st ly writ ten inLat in

,some by Humboldt

,o thers by Bonpland and

Kunth .

In the preface to the first vo lume of Equinoct ialPlant s

,

” wh ich preface,by the way, was writ t en before

Humboldt Visited his bro therWilliam at Albano, (it is

dated at Paris,March 1

,1 805) he speaks of the labours

t o which Bonpland and himself were devo t ed duringthe ir fiv e years’ trave ls

,and says that bo tanical researches

were tho se with which they occupied themse lves mostassiduously. A great part of the co untries through whichthey passed had never been visited by botanist s . Don

Jose Celest ino Mut is,director of the bo tanical expedi

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3 2 6 WORKS PUBLISHED IN 1 8 39—10.

The second vo lume of the “ Eq rinoctial Plants waspublished in 1 809.

This,and the two fo llowing years

,found Humbo ldt

hard at work. He had no t ye t decided, it would seem,upon writ ing a regular narrat ive of his travels

,or

,

deciding,had postponed it for a few years longer

,unt il

he could se e his way more clear before him. He wouldfirst work up some of his ligh t er materials. His port

“

fo lio was full of ske t ches ; his j ournals were overflowingwith astronomical observations . He entrust ed the lat tert o Oltmans

,a young geome trician ofBerlin

,who revised

them and made all the calculat ions anew,employing the

lunar tables of Berg,and correct ing them at the same

t ime by the passage of the mo on over the meridian .

The Inst itut e of France recognised the seven hundredpo sit ions calculat ed in this manner as the greatest massof mat erials for astronomical ge ography then exist ing

,

and awarded to Oltmans,in 1 809

,the prize for astro

nomy. His work,

“ A Co llect ion of Astronomical Observat ions

,Trigonome tric Operat ions

,and Barome tric

Measuremen ts,

”was published in 1 8 10

,in two quarto

vo lumes. Humbo ldt ’s own publicat ion th is year wasthe “ Picturesque At las . This was ano ther of his greatfo lios

,and undoubtedly th e mo st at tract ive one t o general

readers . It is no t scient ific,like the Equino ct ial Plants,

”

and his o ther bo tanical works in fo lio,but descript ive

and hist orical— a sort of Ske tch-book of the NewWorld .

It is illustrated by sixty-nine engravings,executed by

the best art ists in Paris,Rome

,and Berl in— such men as

Gmelin,Wachsmann

,Pine lli

,and Massard

,the e lder.

Many of these engravings were made from Humbo ldt ’sown Ske t ches

,which were taken on the spo ts represent ed.

IIUMBOLDT THE AUTHOR . 3 2 7

The popularity of the fo lio “ Picturesque At las in

duced Humbo ldt t o issue a less expensive edit ion in '

1 2 mo . The t itle of the fo lio “ Picture sque At las”was

dropped,and its sub-t itle

,

“ Views of the Cordilleras,and

Monument s of the Nat ive People of America,

”sub st i

tut ed inst ead . It’

soon became a favourite bo ok.

If the reader were t o imagine Humboldt at this t ime,

he wo uld doub tless picture him as a man absorbed inhis pursuits

,and inat tent ive t o everything e lse ; his

mind pre -o ccupied,his memory burdened

,his days and

nigh ts devo ted t o thought . He would picture him in

his study,with quire s ofwhit e

,

paper before him,a pen

in his hand,and the floor strewn with pages of blo t ted

manuscript . Or,in the alcoves of some great l ibrary

,

taking down ponderous fo lio s or quarto s t o set tle somekno t ty po int . This

,we believe

,is the usual beau ideal

of a scho lar,and in many cases it happens t o b e the t rue

one . For Humboldt it will no t answer. It is true thathe read deeply in the public libraries ofPari s

,and wro t e

unweariedly in his private study,turning quires and

reams of paper into manuscript . The manuscript wasno t blo t ted

,however

,for his handwrit ing was singularly

clean,neat

,and lady-like in its de licacy ; nor was his

memory burdened,or his mind pre -o ccupied. He pos

sessed himself t oo thoroughly t o b e oppressed by hiswork ; his nature was large enough to rise above it , gigant ic as it was . He would as so on have gone into so cie tywith ink on his fingers

,as t o have bet rayed h imself as a

scho lar by any of the cheap signs of scho larship . Withthe scholar’s love of so litude

,he had a woman’s love of

socie ty. He loved it,no t because it flat tered his vani ty

,

fo r he had no vanity ; b ut because his nature was emi

3 2 8 HUMBOLDT IN THE SALONS .

uently a social one,and because it revived and refre shed

him in his labours,and sharpened his insight int o life

and man . Like his friend Go ethe,he was a man of

the world,in the noblest sense of that much-abused

t erm . He loved t o mee t and converse with the dist in

g uished men and women who filled the salons of Paris.Even its frivo lous characters

,the light -headed and light

heeled crowd,were no t despised by him . He amused

h imself at the ir expense o ccasionally,b ut it was in

such a pleasant manner that they could no t b e angry .

He had a ve in of genial humour in him,and

,when

the occasion demanded it,a bit ing wit . The worst

that could b e said of him was,that he was a lit t le

sarcast ic .“ In the salons of Me t t ernich

,

” says Varnhagen V on

Ense,who me t him at Paris

,in 1 8 10;

“ in the salons of

Me t ternich (at that t ime Austrian ambassador near the

Court of St . Cloud), I saw Humboldt only as a brilliant

and admired meteor, so much so,that I hardly found

t ime t o present myself to him ,and t o whisper in his car

a few of tho se names wh ich gave me a right to a per

sonal acquaintance with him . Rarely has a man engaged

in such a degree the esteem of all,the admirat ion of

most oppo site part ies,and the zeal of all in power to

serve him . Napo leon do es no t love him . He knowsHumbo ldt as a shrewd thinker

,who se way of thinking

,

and who se opinion can no t b e bent ; but the Emperor

and his Court , and the high authorit ies have never deniedthe impression which they rece ived by the presence of

th is bo ld trave ller, by the power of knowledge , and the

light which seems t o stream from it in every direct ion.

The learned of all nat ions are proud of the ir high asso

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3 30 POe ICAL ESSAY ON NEw SPAIN.

To ob tain,as he did

,during his year s life in Mexico

,

the material necessary fo r such a work,did no t im

ply much idleness e ither on his part,or that of Borr

pland. For they worked in concert , Bonpland taking thebo tanical and agricultural port ions

,and Humbo ldt those

that related to geography and geo logy. He also drew upa minute map of the who le country

,or rather a series of

maps,in most cases from his own surveys and measure

ments . He de t ermined the po sit ion of the capital,and

of mo st of the principal cit ies and t owns ; the he igh t

above the sea of the difl°

erent table lands,mountains

,and

vo lcano es : the configurat ion of lakes and the windingsof rivers : and above all

,the exact situat ion of the hun

dreds ofmines,with wh ich Nature has blessed

,o r cursed

,

that rich b ut unfort unat e country .

Humbo ldt was led to this undertaking by the Directorof the Royal Schoo l of Mining

,who had long been co l

lee t ing fact s regarding the posit ion of the Mexican mines,

and the districts int o which they were divided. He wasdesirous of having a de tailed map , on which the mo stno ted mine s should b e marked

,constructed for the use

of the Tribunal of Mines. Such a labor was necessary,

he thought,bo th for the administrat ion of the country

,

and for those who wished to know its resources. The

city of Guanaxuato,for instance

,was no t on mo st of the

maps published in Europe,although it contained seventy

thousand inhabitant s,and some of the richest mines in

Mexico . Ne ither were Bo lano s,Somb re te

,Batopilas and

Zimapan ment ioned. The po sit ion of the Real de Cat orcein the int endancy of San Louis Po tosi was no t indicat ed

,

although it yielded annuallyThe “ Po lit ical Essay on the Kingdom ofNew Spain

PROJE CTED JOURNEY To THIBET. 3 3 1

was dedicated to the King of Spain . How his Catho licMaj esty rece ived the work

,which

,on the who le flatte r

ing to his government of Mexico,was st ill t ruth-t e lling

when it came t o speak ofits defects,w e are no t t o ld . It

was eagerly read in France,and immediat ely translat ed

into English,the English ve rsion appearing Simulta

neously in Lo ndon and New York. The English and

American public were anxious t o see what Humbo ldthad to say concerning Mexico ; familiar with his reputat ion as a traveller and a naturalist

,they were curious t o

see him in the Character of a po lit ical economist . Thathe sat isfied the ir expectations the reviews of the day t es

In the autumn of 1 8 10William V on Humbo ldt,who

,

since we left him at Albano,had been appo int ed by the

King of Prussia Councillor of State in the Ministry of

Home Affairs,and Ch ief of the Sect ion ofReligion and

Public Instruct ion,went as Ext raordinary Ambassador

t o the Co urt of Vienna. There,as at Rome and Paris

,

he was surrounded with authors,art is ts

,and stat esmen

,

such men as Met tern ich and Schlegel,and Korner

,the

youthful Theodore Korner,who was soon to lay down

his lyre,and take up his sword. But a great er celebrity

so on appeared. It was his bro ther Alexander,who had

left Paris aft er the publicat ion of the first port ions ofhisAmerican trave ls

,to take leave of his family before h

start ed on ano ther great journey . The Minis ter Romanzow had propo sed

’

to him to accompany a Russian mission acro ss Kashg hor to Thibe t , and, delighted with th e

idea,h e had at once accep t ed . He could now Visit the

mountains of India,and compare them with the Co rdil

leras of America.

3 3 2 WR ITING HIS PE RSONAL NARRATIVE .

But it was no t to b e,for France and Russia were at

war. The ill wind that had so Oft en crossed his pathwhen a scheme of trave l was on foo t

,blew him back t o

Paris. Disappo int ed,but no t disheartened

,he resumed

his labours. They were no t much ligh tened by the bookshe had published

,for his great book

,the personal narra

t ive ofhis travels, was s till to b e writ ten . In addit ion to

the labourwhich this implied,he assumed ano ther

,the task

of learning Persian. Considering his proj ected j ourney t oAsia as mere ly postponed

,no t abandoned

,he se t about

fit t ing himse lf for it . It was his intent ion to pro ceed toIndia

,by the way of Teheran or Herat

,at his own

expense .

He re turned t o Paris on the breaking out of the warin 1 8 1 2

,and for two years the public knew no th ing of

him . He forso ok the salons,and was se ldom seen in the

chambers ofhis scient ific asso ciate s . Even his o ld friendBonpland

,to whom Napoleon had grant ed a pension

,

and whom Jo sephine , whose heart he had won by a co l

lect ion of flow er-seeds from the We st Indies,had made

int endant of Malmaison,saw b ut lit t le of him. He was

busy with his t ravels,finishing from memory and imag i

nat ion his wonderful picture of the tropics. How he

must have enjoyed reading his j ournals,writ ten on the

Spur of the moment years befo re ; th is page on the deckof the Pizarro , with the sea around him

,that on the

crater ofTenerifl’

e,with the heavens above him

,and that

in Caracas,dear dangerous Caracas

,wh ich an earthquake

had just t umbled in ruins ! It was as good as a secondj ourney t o the t ropics . It was e ight years since his re turnt o Europe

,and during all that t ime he had bro oded over

his task . He had writ t en much,as the re aderhas seen

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3 3 4 EXTRACT FROM PREFACE .

rienced in my travels,enjoyment s wh ich have amply

compensat ed fo r the privations inseparable from a laborious and often agitat ed life . These enjoyment s

,wh ich I

endeavoured to impart to my readers in my ‘Remarksupon the Steppes

,

’and in the ‘Essay on the Physio g

nomy of Plan ts,

’ were no t the only fruit s I reaped froman undertaking formed with the design of cont ribut ingto the progress of natural ph ilo sophy . I had long prepared myself for the observat ions which were the princi

pal obj ec t of my journey to the t orrid zone . I was prov ided with instrument s of easy and convenient use

,con

structed by the ablest makers,and I enjoyed the special

pro tect ion of a government which,far from present ing

obstacles to my invest igat ions,constant ly honoured me

with every mark of regard and confidence . I was aidedby a courageous and enlight ened friend

,and it was sin

g ularly propit ious t o the success of our part icipatedlabour

,that the zeal and equanimity of that friend nev er

failed,amidst the fatigues and dangers t o which we were

some t imes expo sed.

“ Under the se favo urable circumstance s,traversing re

gions which for ages have remained almo st unknown tb

mo st of the nat ions ofEurope,I might add even to Spain

,

M . Bonpland and myself co llect ed a considerable num

b er of mat erials,the publicat ion of which may throw

some light on the h istory of nat ions,and advance the

study of nature .

“ I had in v iew a two -fo ld purpo se in the trave ls ofwh ich I now publish the historical narrat ive . I wishedt o make known the countrie s I had visit ed ; and to col~

lect such facts as are fit ted t o e lucidate a science ofwhich

we as ye t possess scarcely the outline , and which has

DEFECTS OF MODERN TRAVELS. 3 3 5

be en vaguely denominated Natural History of the

World,Theory of the Earth

,or Physical Geography.

The last of these two obj ects seemed t o me the most important . I was passionate ly devo t ed to bo tany and cer

tain parts of zoo logy, and I flat t ered myse lf that o ur

invest igat ions might add some new Species t o tho sealready known

,bo th in the animal and vege table king

doms ; b ut preferring the connect ion of facts which havebeen long observed, to the knowledge of insulat ed facts

,

although new,the discovery of an unknown genus

seemed to me far less intere st ing than an observat ion on

th e geographical re lat ions of the vege table world,on the

migrat ions of the social plant s,and the limit of the

heigh t which the ir different tribes attain on the flanks ofthe Cordilleras .

“ When I began to read the numerous narrat ives of

t ravels, which compo se so int erest ing a part of mo dernliterature

,I regre t ted that trave llers

,the most enligh t ened

in the insulated branches ofnatural h istory,were seldom

po ssessed of sufficient varie ty of knowledge to availthemselves of every advantage arising from the ir po sit ion . It appeared to me

,that the importance of the

results hithert o obtained did no t ke ep pace with the

immense progress wh ich at the end of the e ighte enthcentury

,had been made in several departments of Science

,

part icularly geo logy,the h ist ory of the modificat ions o f

the atmo sphere,and the physio logy of animals and

plant s . I saw with regre t (and all scient ific men haveshared this fee ling), that wh ilst the number of accurateinstrument s was daily increasing

,we were still ignorant

of the he igh t of many mountains and e levat ed plains ;of the periodical oscillat ions of the aerial ocean ; of the

3 6 SEA VOYAGE S VERSUS LAND JOURNEYS.

limit of perpe tual snow with in the po lar circle and on

the borders of the torrid zone ; of the variable int ensityof the magne t ic forces

,and of many o ther phenomena

equally important .Marit ime expedit ions and circumnavigatory voyages

have conferred j ust celebrity on the names of the naturalists and astronomers who have been appo inted byvarious government s to share the dangers of tho se undertakings ; but though these eminent men have given usprecise no t ions of the ext ernal configurat ion of countries

,

of the natural h istory of the o cean,and of the product ions

o f islands and coast s,it must b e admi tted that marit ime

expedit ions are less fit t ed t o advance the progre ss of

geo logy and o ther parts of physical science,than t ravels

into the int erior of a cont inent . The advancement of thenatural sciences has been subordinate to that ofgeographyand naut ical astronomy. During a voyage of severalyears

,the land b ut se ldom present s it self t o the ob ser

vat ion of the mariner ; and when, after lengthened expect ation

,it is descried

,he o ft en finds it stripped of its mo st

beau tiful product ions . Some t imes,beyond a barren coast

,

h e perce ive s a ridge of mountains covered with verdure ,b ut its distance forbids examinat ion

,and the view serves

only t o excite regre t .“ Journeys by land are at tended with considerable dith

culties in the conveyance of instrument s and co llect ions,

b ut these difliculties are compensat ed by advantages

wh ich it Is unnecessary t o enumerat e . It is no t bysailing along a coast that we can discover the direct ionof chains ofmountains

,and their geo logical const itut ion,

the climat e of each zone,and its influence on the forms

and habits of organized beings. In proport ion to the

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3 3 8 How HE WROTE HIS JOURNAL.

Sical const itut ion of the air in the equ ino ct ial regions, &CI had left Europe with the firm int ent ion of no t writ ingwhat is usually called the hist orical narrat ive of a j ourney

,

b ut t o publish the fruit of my inquirie s in works merelydescript ive ; and I had arranged the facts

,no t in the

o rder in wh ich they successive ly pre sent ed themselves,

b ut according t o the relat ion they bore t o each o ther.

Amidst the o verwhelming maj esty of Nature,and the

stupendous obj ect s she present s at every step,the trave ller

is lit t le disposed to record in his j ournal mat t ers whichrelat e only t o himse lf

,and the ordinary de tails of

I composed a very brief it inerary during the co urseofmy excursions on the rivers of South America, and inmy long j ourneys by land . I regularly described (andalmo st always on the spo t) the visits I made to the summit sof vo lcano es

,or mountains remarkable for the ir he ight ;

but the entries in my j ournal were interrupt ed wheneverI resided in a town

,or when o ther o ccupat ions pre vent ed

me from cont inuing a work which I considered as havingonly a secondary interest . Whenever I wro te in myj ournal

,I had no o ther mo t ive than the preservat ion of

some of those fugit ive ideas which present themse lve s t oa naturalist

,who se life is almo st who lly passed in the

Open air. I wished t o make a t emporary collect ion of suchfact s as I had no t then le isure to class

,and no te down the

first impressions,whe ther agreeable o r painful

,wh ich I

rece ived from nature o r from man . Far from thinkingat the t ime that tho se pages thus hurriedly writ t en wouldform the bas is of an extensive work t o b e offered to thepublic

,it appeared to me

,that my journal

,though it might

furnish certain data useful to science,would present very

WHAT A HISTOR ICAL NARRATIVE SHOULD RE . 3 3 9

fe w of tho se incident s,the recital ofwh ich const itute s the

principal charm ofan it inerary .

The difficult ies I have experienced Since my re turn.

in the composit ion of a considerable number of treat ises,

for the purpose '

of making known certain classes of

phenomena,insensibly overcame my repugnance to writ e

the narrat ive ofmy journey. In undertaking this task,

I have been guided by the advice of many e st imablepersons

,who honour me with the ir friendship . I also

perce ived that such a preference is given t o this sort ofcomposit ion

,that scient ific men

,after having presented

in an iso lated form the account of the ir researches on theproduct ions

,the manners

,and the po lit ical stat e of the

countrie s through which thev have passed, imagine thatthey have no t fulfilled the ir engagements with the public

,

till they have writ t en the ir it inerary.

An historical narrat ive embrace s two very dist inctobj ect s ; the greater or the le ss important events connectedwith the purpose of the trave ller

,and the observat ions he

he has made during his journey. The unity of compo sit ion also

,which dist inguishe s good works from those on

an ill-construct ed plan,can b e strict ly observed only

when the trave ller describes what has passed under hisown eye ; and when his principal at t ent ion has been fixedless on scientific observat ions than on the manners of

different people and t he great phenomena of nature .

Now,the mo st faithful picture of manners is that which

best displays the relat ions of men t owards each o ther.

The charact er of savage or civilized life is port rayed e itherin the obstacles a trave llermee t s with

,or in the sensat ions

he fe els. It is the t raveller himself whom we continuallydesire to see in contact wi th the obj ects which surround

3 4 0 GREAT VARIETY OF HIS WORK.

him ; and his narrat ion interests us the more , when a lo calt int is diffused over the descript ion of a country and its

inhabitants . Such is the source of the intere st excitedby the history of those early navigat ors

,who

,impelled

by intrepidity rather than by science,strugg led against

the element s in the ir search for the discovery of a new

world. Such is the irresistible charm at tached to the fateof that ent erprising trave ller (Mungo Park), who , full ofenthusiasm and energy

,pene trat ed alone into the centre

ofAfrica,to discover amidst barbarous nat ions the traces

ofancient civilizat ion .

In proport ion as travels have been undertaken bypersons who se views have been direct ed t o researchesinto descript ive natural history

,geography

,or polit ical

economy,it ineraries have part ly lo st that unity of com

posit ion,and that Simplicity wh ich characterized tho se of

former ages . It is new become scarcely po ssible to con

nee t so many different mat erials with the de tail of o therevent s ; and that part of a trave ller

’s narrat ive which wemay call dramat ic gives way t o dissertat ions merelyde script ive . The numerous class of readers who preferagreeable amusement to so lid instruct ion

,have no t gained

by the exchange ; and I am afraid that the t emptat ionwill no t b e great to fo llow the course of trave llers who are

encumbered with scient ific inst ruments and co llect ions.To give great er varie ty t o my work

,I have often

interrupt ed the h istorical narrat ive by descript ions . Ifirst represent phenomena in the order in which theyappeared ; and I afterwards consider them in the who leof the ir individual relat ions . This mode has be en suc

c essfully fo llowed in the journey of M . de Saussure,

who se most valuable work has contribut ed more than

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3 4 2 AMER ICA THE FIELD FOR A NATURALIST.

to b e the domain of wild animals . The savages of

America,who have been the obj ects of so many sys

t emat ic reveries,and on whom M. Vo lney has lat e ly

published some accurat e and inte lligent observat ionsinspire less int erest since celebrated navigators havemade known t o us the inhabitant s of the South Seaislands

,in who se charact er we find a striking mixture of

perversity and meekness. The St ate of half-civilizat ionexisting among tho se islanders gives a peculiar charm t o

the descript ion of their manners . A king,fo llowed by

a numerous suit e,presents the fruits ofhis orchard ; or a

funeral is performed amidst the shade of the lofty forest .Such pictures

,no doubt

,have more at tract ion than tho se

which pourtray the so lemn gravity of the inhabitant ofthe banks of the Missouri o r the Maranon .

“America offers an ample fie ld for the labours of thenaturalist . On no o ther part of the globe is he calledupon more powerfully by nature t o raise himself togeneral ideas on the cause of phenomena and the ir mu

t ual connect ion. To say no thing of that luxurianceof vegetat ion

,that e t ernal Spring of organic life

,tho se

climat es varying by stages as w e climb the flanks of theCordilleras

,and tho se maj est ic rivers which a ce lebrated

writ er (Chat eaubriand) has described with such gracefulaccuracy

,the resources which the New World affords

for the study of geo logy and natural philosophy in

general have b een long since acknowledged. Happy thetrave ller who may cherish the hope that he has availedh imse lf of the advantages of his po sit ion

,and that he

has added some new facts t o the mass of those previouslyacquired !

“ Since I left America, one of those great revo lut ions,

SPANISH REVOLUTIONS IN AMER ICA. 3 4 3

which at cert ain periods agitat e the human race,has

broken out in the Spanish co lonies,and seems t o prepare

new dest inies for a population of fourt e en millions of inhab itants

,spreading from the sou thern t o the northern hemi

Sphere,from the Shores of the Rio de la Plata and Chile to

the remo t est part of Mexico . Deep resentment s,excit ed

by co lonial legi slat ion,and fost ered by mistrustful po licy

,

have stained with bloo d regions which had enj oyed,for

the space of nearly thre e centurie s,what I will no t cal l

happine ss b ut int errupt ed peace . At Quito several ofthe mo st virtuous and enlight ened cit izens have perished

,

v ict ims of devo t ion t o the ir country . While I am givingthe descript ion of regions

,the remembrance of wh ich is

so dear t o me,I cont inually ligh t on places which recall

to my m ind the lo ss of a friend;“ When w e reflect on the great po lit ical agitations of

the New World,w e observe that the Spanish Americans

are by no means in so favourable a po sit ion as the inhab itants of the United States the lat t er having beenprepared for independence by the long enj oymen t of

const itut ional liberty. Int ernal dissensions are chiefly t ob e dreaded in regions where civilizat ion is b ut Slight lyroo ted

,and where

,from the influence of climate

,fo rests

may soon regain the ir empire over cleared lands if the ircul ture b e abandoned. It may also b e feared that

,during

a long series ofyears,no foreign t ravelle rwill b e enabled

t o traverse all the countrie s which I have Visi ted . Thiscircumstance may perhaps add t o the interest of a workwh ich pourt rays the stat e of the greaterpart of the Spanishco lonies at the beginning of the n ine t eenth century . Ieven venture t o indulge the hope that this work w ill b ethought worthy of at t ent ion when passions Shall b e

4 4 WORKS PUBLISHED IN 1 8 15

hushed into peace,and when

,under the influence of a

new so cial order,tho se count rie s Shall have made rapid

progress in public welfare . If then some pages of mybook are snat ched from oblivion

,the inhabitant of the

banks of the Orinoco and the Atabapo will behold withdelight popul ous cit ie s enriched by commerce

,and fert ile

fields cult ivat ed by the hands of free men,on tho se very

spo ts where,at the t ime of my travels

,I found only im

penetrable forest s and inundat ed lands.Such was the plan that Humbo ldt propo sed t o himselfwhen he sat down t o writ e the historical relat ion of his

travels,and he succeeded perfect ly. He produced the

finest book of travels ever writ t en. As pictures queas the mo st perfect masters of descript ion, no writer

,

living,or dead

,ever approached him in varied and pro

found knowledge— in what may b e called the philo sophyofnature . He is nature ’s own ph ilo sopher. Nearlyfifty years have e lapsed since the publicat ion of his

Voyage ;” men and manners have changed

,and taste

with them ; what was a mere groping after knowledgethe n

,is a grasping of it now : similar books have been

writ ten,and exce llent ones

,too : ye t he st ill holds his

ground with all classes of readers . Nay, he has gainedground

,for his book was never so popular as at pre

sent .

From 1 8 14 to 1 8 19,when the second vo lume of the

Voyage” was published,Humbo ldt cont inued his

lit erary labours,wri t ing a number of works

,mo stly

scien t ific. In 1 8 15,he pub lished the first vo lume of the

“ New Genera and Species of Plant s . It was a greatfo lio

,Sim ilar to the “ Equinoct ial Plant s.

” Like that itwas writ ten in

,Lat in

,and chiefly by Kunth

,t o whom he

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3 46 THE SOCIET Y OF ARCUE IL .

Gay-Lussac

,Thenard

,Decandolle

,Co l let

,Desco t ils

,Malus

,

A . B . Bertho lle t,and Humbo ldt . They me t once a fort

night at the house of Bertho lle t,and spent the day t o

ge ther,giving each o ther the re sult s of the ir studie s and

experiment s,reading the scien t ific papers that they had

compo sed since the ir last mee t ing,o r in pleasant ramble s

about the ne ighbourho od . Most of these men weremembers of the Ins t itut e of France

,and the papers that

they read at Arcue il,were delivered before that august

body,and aft erwards published in the Memo irs of the

socie ty . To this work,wh ich ext ended t o several

vo lumes,Humbo ldt was a constant contributor. In con

junct ion with Bio t,he wro t e the opening paper of the

first vo lume— (publish ed in 1807 ) — a treat ise on magne t ic

observat ions,t o the second (published in 1 809) he con

tribut ed a curious paper, on the respirat ion offishes,the

result of a great number of experiment s,made by him

self and Provencal .It is a happy thing for a busy man who se days arepassed in the no ise and dust of cit ies

,to have a pleasant

ne ighbourhood within reach,

“a city of refuge

,

”as it

were,t o wh ich he can re treat now and then

,and mee t a

few friends, and . refresh his jaded spirit . Such was

Arcueil t o the busy Humboldt , who spent many deligh tful days in its quie t shades. The friends that he me t

there were the mo st congenial that he could have cho sen,the world over ; each dist inguished for some pursuit withwh ich he sympathized, and all unit ed in the int erests of

science . It was a pleasure t o him t o read his papers t o

them,and what is no t always the case in these mat t ers,

a pleasure t o listen to the irs in turn . They met,as we

have said, at the house of Bertholle t ; b ut , as the house

WILLIAM V ON HUMB OLDT AT PAR IS. 3 4 7

of Laplace was near by,the gardens of the two savans

adj o ining each o ther,they were as Oft en at Laplace ’s as

at Bertho lle t ’s . They could no t but profit by the con

v ersations of the o ld mathemat ician , for he was pro

foundly versed in all the science s ; be sides, he had seenmuch of the world

,and was full of anecdo t e s of bygone

t imes and men . He could t e ll them of D’Alemb ert

,

Didero t,and the Encyc lop edaists,

— the master-spirit s ofthe e ight eenth century. If the conversat ion turned

,as

was likely,on Descart es o r Newton

,their port rait s hung

in his study,as did also tho se of Euler and poor o ld

blind Gal ileo . If they wished t o walk he accompaniedthem . Arm-in-arm

,discussing what was uppermo st in

the ir minds,they wandered around the ne ighbourhood

,

now in the fie lds and meadows,oralong the banks of the

Bievre ; and now by the ruins of the aqueduct built bythe Emperor Julian

,in the olden t im e

,t o convey water to

his palace in Pari s . There was no end of pleasantrambles at Arcue il .In addit ion t o the best literary and scient ific socie ty

in Paris,Humbo ldt me t from time t o t ime

,many of his

German friends . Among o thers who were present therein 1 8 14 was A . W . Schlegel

,and his bro th erWilliam .

Napo leon had fallen,the Bourbons were re stored

,and

the different Powers sen t the ir ambassadors t o cong ratu

late them . William came as the ambassador of Prussia.

He had ascended several rounds of the polit ical laddersince he left Albano , as Alexander h imse lf might havedone

,had he wi shed. So on after the lat t er se t t led in

Paris,in 1 807 , and again in 1 809

,b e filled a po lit ical

mission there,near the person of Frederick William

,the

Prince of Prussia. When the conferences were over at

3 4 8 BONPLAND STARTS FOR BRAZIL .

Paris,the Prince Regent of England inv ite l the assem

bled crowned heads and the ir court s to visit England .

Alexander accompanied the Prussian embassy to Lon

don,where he remained some weeks.

About th is t ime,on the 2 9th ofMay, 1 8 14 , his old

friend,Bonpland

,suffered a Severe lo ss in the death of

the Empress Jo seph ine . He was by her b ed when she

died. When Napoleon abdicated he was adv ised byBonpland to re t ire to Mexico

,and await there the course

of event s ; b ut the great disturber of nat ions was st illconfident of his star. He could no t foresee its fatal

se t t ing on the bloody field of Wat erloo . Bonplandmigh t have remained at Malmaison

,under the new dy

nasty ; he was even so licit ed t o do so by Prince Eugene,

but h e refused. It was no place for him,since the death

of his beloved mistress . He remained with Humbo ldtt ill the clo se of 18 1 6

,when he sailed from Havre to Bra

zil,carrying with him a co llect ion of useful plants and

European fruit tree s . As soon as he arrived at Bueno sAyres the Brazilian government offered him the post ofPro fessor of Natural -Hist ory

,b ut some intrigue or Slan

der,what was never known

,changed the ir feelings t o

wards him,and h e t endered his resignat ion . He was

no t allowed t o Show his co llect ions,which would have

conferred a great er benefit on the country than on him

se lf ; he was even refused a place t o lecture In . Dis

pirited by such ill t reatment , b ut as eager as in his youtht o explore new lands

,and to discover new plant s and

flowers,he started on an expedit ion into the in terio r.

Such was the t enor of his le t t ers t o Humbo ldt .

In August or September,1 8 1 8

,Humbo ldt made his

third visit to England,where his bro therWilliam was

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3 50 HUMBOLDT AND THE MILLINER’S CARD

On the l oth of September she writes Lady Clarke,

from the chat eau of Lafaye t t e,at La Grange

,and among

o ther feminine tat t le says,

“ The general has propo sedinvit ing Humbo ldt and Dénon t o j o in us. If they come

,

Europe could scarcely present such ano ther circle of

talent and ce lebrity .

”

A month later at Paris she again ment ions Humboldt,

this t ime in her diary.

Humbo ldt had called,and

,as usual

,had writ ten his

scrap in the porter’s lodge . The poor port er ! had heknown the value of this autograph he would have pilfered it ; and what renders it more curious, it is writ tenon the back of a milliner’s card !”

Where could Humbo ldt have g o t that milliner’s card

,

pray ? Had he been buying a new bonne t for some ofhislady acquaintances ? Orwas he thinking of studying thebo tany of art ificial flowers ? If the lat t er he must havefound her Ladyship a rare specimen.

Ano ther extract from the diary : no date : about the30th of October.

“ Humbo ldt has been again to day,and again ‘

we

were out . How very mort ifying ! His visit s are none

the less ‘angels’ visit s’ because they are no t

‘few or

far between and certainly,so far as my acquaint

ance go es with the angelic cho ir,

‘celui-la vau t bienles autre s . ’ He left a precious lit t le billet in the porte r’slodge

,where he wro t e it : ‘Alexandre Humbo ldt to u

j ours assez malheureux de ne pas trouver Lady Mor

7 )

g an.

Ano ther amusing extract from the diary : some t imetowards the end of November.

mursday.

— Iwas sit t ing this morning for my picture

HER LADYSHIP srrs TO BERTHON . 3 5 1

t o Berthon,when the fro tteur of the ho t el

,in the absence

of my servant,threw Open the do or

,and announced in

one word,

‘Lordvillanspence !’and ent er the charming

William Spencer, the po e t -laureat e of the arist o cracy of

London . What an agreeable surprise ! He alwaysbrings a ban-ton London atmo sphere abou t him . Berthonwas charmed with the cordiality of our meet ing

,which

,

he though t,brigh t ened up my count enance— which had

h itherto expressed no th ing b u t bore . He made Spencersit down— p er far efi

‘etto— whence I could

'

see him,and

kept poking my head with his mahl st ick t ill,I am sure

,

my p ose gave me the air of an illustrat ion of the p eta’

t

courier de g dames. I t ook the Opportunity of askingSpencer for a Copy of his beautiful verses of ‘Apo logyto Lady Anne Hamilton ’

for staying to o late at her

house,spell-bound by the eye s of the lovely Susan Beck

ford (aft erwards the Duchess of Hamilton). He pretended to have fb rg o t t en them . I said that was an affec

tation unworthy of him ; and I repeated the first versemyself

‘Too late I stayed— forg ive the crime

,

For who could count the hours ?

For lig h t ly falls the foo t of t ime

That only treads on flow ers,

’

& c .

Berthon,affect ing t o b e charmed with the me tre

,said

,

‘Mais t raduisez moi cela,Miladi.’ I began

,

‘J’ai rest étrop tard l’autre so ir,

’b ut Spencer and I bo th burst out

laughing,so that we could no t proceed . Berthon looked

confused.

‘Oh !’ said Spencer

,in beaut iful French

,

‘it

is only nonsense worthy of Vo iture ; or the HOte l Rambouillet .’ ‘Vraiment ! ’ said Berthon

,who had

,most

3 5 2 HUMBOLDT’S LETTER .

likely,no t heard of e ither one or the o ther

,

‘At tent io n,

MiladiSo he went on with his paint ing

,and we fell into dis°

course,in English

,on the cancan of May Fair, and into

fashionable frivo lit ie s,and Miss Berry ’s last mot— J No

friendship can cross the north of Oxford Stree t ’ —whena le t t er was delivered to me

,on the outside ofwhich was

writ t en,

‘Alexandre V on Humbo ldt .

’The dirty lit tle

spo t called the world disappeared into its own mists,and

the universe,of wh ich Humbo ldt is at this moment the

high-priest,seemed t o replace the puppet -show with

which we had been playing.

“ Spencerbegged the cover,and read out the le t ter

,that

my p ose migh t no t b e disturbed ; and Berthon said, lo oking at the picture through his hand

,

‘C ’

est un grandhomme

,M. Humbo ldt IJ’

ai ambit ion de faire son po rtrait,

e t de le me t tre al’exposition du Louvre avec le portraitde Miladi .’

“ I promised t o invite Spencer to the first Wednesday

evening I expect ed Humbo ldt . This is Humboldt ’s

From M Humboldt to LadyM’org an.

Thursday.

The pleasing remembrance ofSir Charle s and LadyMorgan adds t o the deep regre t I fe lt at not having ent

joyed the ir int erest ing conversat ion at MadameMy health is almo st ent irely re established

,and I shall

hast en to present myse lf at Lady Mo rgan ’s residence to

offer what is her due on so

°

many claims,the homag e of

my sentiments of admiration and devo ted respect

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3 54 CHAT ABOUT THE CONGRE SS OF VIENNA.

text to a mo st curious and interest ing conversation,in

which eve ry one bore a part,and were well qualified to

do so,as they knew all the chief actors

,and

,above all

,

the principal actresses at the Congress of Viennawhere Madame de Krudener was the pythoness

,and the

Duchesses de Biron and de Brag azia were the secre to racles of Met ternich

,who won his spurs in the ir

boudo irs.“ Lady Cast lereagh (with whom,

by-the -bye , some t wo

or three years ag o , I lived for three days every weekfor she used to come t o Lord Ab ercorn’

s whilst I was

there eve ry Saturday,and stopped t ill Monday), who

was‘so innocent

,dear chuck

,

’of the knowledge of all

po lit ics,that even that Meph istopheles of diplomacy

,

Talleyrand,gave her up in despair

,though he tried his

hand t o turn her to account whilst she was at the Con

gre ss.Oh

,

’ said Dénon,

‘Madame Krudener engro ssed all

influences . I remember her at the Congress,and lat er

at Paris,when her salons were crowded with devo t ee s

and crowned heads . She was the greatest actre ss I eversaw— t oo melo -dramat ic for a Clairon o r a Mars

,b ut

quit e good enough for an audience of kings and emperors ; for royalty has loved the drama from Caesar t oBonapart e .

’

‘How was she dressed ? ’ I asked— always a woman’sfirst idea.

‘We ll,in a flowing robe of whit e cashmere

,or some

soft fabri c,b ut draped artistig uement, the fo lds gathered

round her waist by a silver girdle,ales tresses dore

’

es flow

ing in profusion over a neck of alabast er. She had the

air of having been flung on a crimson ve lve t sofa piled

KINGS AND EMPEROR S PRAYING . 3 55

with cush ions— the sort of background a paint er wouldhave cho sen for h er. Always two or thre e crownedheads in at tendance — Alexander on one side

,dressed t o

effect in black and diamonds ; the King of Prussia,

nowise remarkable except by contrast,on the o ther. On

a low sto o l at the fe e t of the prophe t ess,sat her disciple

,

Bergasse,and her h igh priest

,Jung St illing.

’

‘Ecout ez donc said Madame de Houchien,nudging

‘est -il artiste

,no t re Dénon ? Quelle groupe

At t endez,at t endez said Dénon .

‘In the midstof a so lemn silence sh e rose

,and ext ending her arms

,

exclaimed,with a strange and pene trat ing tone

,

Down on his knees went the Emperor of all the Russias,

fo llowed by everybody present,kings

,aides-de -camp

,

and vale t s included.

’

‘And this,

’ said Segur,st art ing up

,

‘was the grand

son of my great Catherine ! ’

‘You may we ll say your great Catherine ,’ said

Dénon ,

‘What must th e Prince de Lign e have thoughton the o ccasion ? He was present .

’

Madame de Krudener must have had great tal ent,

’

said Madame de Ho uch ien .

‘Pas le mo ins du monde,

’ said Dénon.

‘She had

art,the genius of mediocrity .

’

Yes,

’ ventured I,

‘she had re lig i on for her aid ; b u t

she fought with the arms of St . Therese,who legislat ed

for popes,and made princes do her bidding. Once you

g e t into the Spiritual, you have no thing to g o by b ut

faith ; and Madame de Krudener had the great est faithin Jung Stilling

,as the Emperor Alexander had in

her.

’

“ Here Humboldt was announced . I never hear his

3 56 HUMBOLDT AND HER LADYSHIP.

name rising with invo luntary deference . Hispresence recal

’

s all that is most sublime in the capabilityof human nature . His g igant ic labours, cont ras t ed withthe pleasant familiarity of his conversat ion

,indicat e the

universality of the highe st order of mind. He is likethe e lephant

,who can with equal ease tear down an oak

or pick up a pin ! With m e,he always ‘picks up the

pin,’and we fell into p erszflag e as usual. His frequent

visit s t o my salon,and his great kindne ss t o us

,have no t

diminished the awe and reverence with wh ich I first me t

him . He is reckoned very sarcast ic,and given t o myst i

fication. Dénon put me en g arde against th is habit,on

which I answered,

‘Jalousie du mét ier.

’ And so I

soon aft er took my leave,somewhat wearied

,b ut highly

deligh ted by the contrast of the two socie t ies,

‘Les

hommes de la ve ille e t les hommes de l’aven ir.

’I am

glad,however

,I was born soon enough t o live among the

former.

”

As we have given a specimen of one kind of lightwrit ing

,the reader may like t o see ano ther. It dif

fers from the prat t le of her ladyship,b ut is equally

amusing in its way. It is from one of “the pit iless

judges ” of “ beaut iful Albion .

” Everybody remembersthe brilliant opening of Judge Jeffrey

’s charge

,in the

Edinburgh Review,in the famous case of The Excur

sion This will never do ; and how signally his lordship ’s verdict has be en reversed. Here is a similar case

,

from some unknown j udge,sit t ing in the court of the

Quart erly . It is t o this that Humboldt playfully refersin his no t e

,though he was mistaken in the number which

contained the art icle . It appeared in the Quarterly forJanuary

,1 8 16

,and was called forth by a translat ion of

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3 5 8 No R use ncron OF PERSONS .

xxvi . p. 3 2 5) we animadv ert ed on his quo t ing a factfrom a j ournal in which it did no t exist

,and which he

now admits to b e the case . We know no thing of thatunfriendly criticism,

ofwhich he complains. M . de Humbo ldt may rest assured that we deprecat e alike all biasof friendship or host ility t owards the p erson ofan autho r ;b ut he may also rest assured that we shall use all po ssiblefreedom with his works

,ne ither lavishly bestowing unde

served praise,nor wantonly scat t ering malicious and

unj ust ifiable censure : we are dispo sed indeed t o thinkhighly of M . de Humbo ldt ’s acquirement s ; we admirehis zeal and unwearied industry in co llect ing informat ion

,

and his liberality in distribut ing it,but at the same t ime

we have a duty t o perform which will ne ither permit oursenses t o b e ravished

,nor our judgement swayed

‘bythe wh ist ling of a name .

’

“ It wo uld b e great injust ice,and a Vio lat ion of the

truth,

” his honour cont inues,cunningly blowing ho t and

co ld at the same time ,“no t t o allow t o M . de Humbo ldt

an extraordinary Share of talent ; his literary acquirements appear indeed to b e more various than generallyfall to the lo t of man . To int ellectual powers of the

highest order,he adds an arden t and enthusiast ic mind

,

full of energy and act ivity in t he pursuit of knowledge .

In the true spirit of ent erprise and research we doubt ifhe has any superior ; and it ' seems t o b e equally exert edon all o ccasions ; the ardour of pursuit

,the mental

energy,and the bodily act ivity are as much in earnest in

rummag ing the shelves of a library, as in clambering upthe sides of a vo lcanic mountain. He is well read in all

the modern discoveries of astronomical,geo logical

,and

physio logical science,b ut his book affords no evidence

TOO MUCH CANVASS AND TOO LI’

ITLE BALLAST. 3 5 9

that he is well grounded in chemistry and mineralogy,

o r in the principles and de tails of the several department sofnatural history

,with the except ion ofbo tany

,in which

he had an able assistant in M . Bonpland.

“ M . de Humbo ldt however,” his honour concludes,aft er giving a ske t ch of the trave ller’s journey as far as

it was contained in the vo lume before him,or rather the

volumes,for the first vo lume o f the French edit ion was

expanded int o two in the translat ion ;“ M . de Humbo ldt

however,

”his honour concludes

,

“ has one go od qualityfor a travel ler ; he is no ego t ist ; he never offends bythrus ting forward his own explo its

,his own adventure s

,

and his own ‘hair-breadth escapes all the parade whichhe displays is in adorn ing science

,in whose cause he is

always e loquent ; perhaps he may t oo frequent ly throwhis cloak of wisdom over subj ect s that age s ag o had

descended t o the vulgar,and though tlessly expend his

powers on familiar obj ect s that are generally understood .

In a word we are persuaded that he aims at t o o muchfor any one man t o accomplish ; or, t o make use of a

naut ical phrase, (we have been dealing in naut ical mat

ters) he spreads too much canvass,and carries t oo lit t le

ballast .”

This curio sity of lit erature is a fair sample of scoresof o thers which might b e se lect ed from the Quarterly at

that t ime . Its propriet o rs paid the ir contributo rs liberally

,and certain prejudices respect ed

,left them free t o

slash as they pleased ; the harder the be t ter, it made thething sell It is instruct ive t o turn over its back vo lumes

,

and see its treatment of many of the now famous namesof the century ; especially the po e t ical names . It t rampled on the divine genius of Shelley : called dear old

3 60 AFR ICAN PAINTINGS.

Leigh Hunt a cockney,and was supposed t o have killed

Johnny Keat s.” Far from killing Humboldt,its

absurd at tempt t o Slash his “ Voyage ”only amused him .

The very extracts that the scribbler quo t ed,proved his

own incompe tency and malice . To think of Humbo ldtknowing no thing of mineralogy !The o rigin of the difficulty be tween the traveller

and the reviewer,for there was a difficulty

,is t o b e

found in the preceding vo lume of the Quarterly,in

the number for July,1 8 15 . It was th is passage wh ich

o ccurs in a review of Campbell’s “ Travels in SouthAfrica

‘Having heard,

’ says Mr. Campbell,

‘of some paint

ings in Salak oo to ’s h

'

!use,

-

we went aft er breakfast toview them. We found them very rough

,representat ions

of the came l-leopard,rhino cero s

,e lephant

,lion

,t iger

,

and ste in buck,which Salakoo to ’

s wife had drawn on

the clay wall,with wh it e and blac k paint ; however,

they were as we ll done as we expected,and may lead

t o some th ing bet ter.

’

“ If any credit were due t o the authority of M . Humbo ldt

,they have already ‘someth ing be t ter.

’ ‘Mr.

Tr'

uter re lat es,

’ says the traveller,

‘that in the southern

extremity of Africa,among the B e tjuanas, he saw chil

dren busy in tracing on a rock,with some Sharp instru

ment,charact ers which bore the most perfect resemblance

t o the P and M of the Roman alphabe t,no twithstanding

which,these rude tribes were perfectly ignorant ofwrit

ing .

’ NC such passage,nor any allusion t o such a cir

cumstance o ccurs in the only j ournal which Mr. Triit er

wro t e ; we take it upon ourse lve s t o assert this po sit iv elv having examined the orig inal manuscrip t with

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3 62 WORKS PUBLISHED FROM 1 8 1 9 To 18 2 9.

Humboldt,who was ho lding a Congress ofhis own To

th is few were admit t ed save himself,and the King of

Prussia. It re lated t o his o ld scheme of trave lling inAsia. The king promised to defray the expenses of hispreparat ions

,and t o allow him twe lve thousand thalers a

year during the journey,wh ich he purposed to commence

at once . His plans,however

,were thwart ed

,as they

usually were in such cases,so he re turned t o Paris.

The next t en years of his life were prodigal in books.In 1 8 19 he publish ed the second vo lume of his V oy

ag e t o the Equinoct ial Regions,

and Mimosas and

o ther Leguminous Plant s of the New Cont inent .” In

1 8 2 0 appeared a second paper “ On the Mountains ofIndia

,

”and the fourth vo lume of “ The New Genera and

Species of Plants .” The fifth vo lume of “ The New

Genera” was published in the ensuing year ; the Sixth in1 8 2 3 . To the lat t er year belongs his “ Geo logical Essayon the bearing of the Rocks of bo th Hemisphere s . In

1 8 2 4: he published a work “ On the Structure and Operation of Vo lcano es

,

”and in 1 8 2 5 the seventh vo lume of

The New Genera,

”the third vo lume of his “ Voyage

to the Equinoct ial Reg ions,”and “ A Numerical Est i

mat e of the Populat ion of the New Cont inent . In

1 8 2 6 and’2 7 he published “ The Temp erature of the Sur

face of the Sea in different parts of the Torrid Zone,

”

“ The Principal Causes of the difference of the Temperature of the Globe

,

”and “ A Po lit ical Essay on the

Island of Cuba.

”The draft of this lat ter work is

'

t o b e

found in the th ird vo lume of The Voyage to the Equinoc tial Reg ions.

” He has expanded the chapter in

which it o ccurred, and enriched it with a Map , and 3.

Supplement , devo ted to the Internal Resources and Com

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS . 3 63

merce of the Ant illes and Co lumbia. Three works ap

peared in 1 8 2 8 and’2 9 ;

“ Remarks on the Go itre in theTropics

,

” “ On the Systems of Numbers,”and “ A Re

vision of the Gramines published in the New Ger era

and Species ofPlants .”

A parag raph has suffice d to give the name and dateof these works ; to crit icise them would require at least achapter. We shall no t write that formidable chapter

,

b ut,lest the reader Should find our resume as meagre as

an auct ioneer’s catalogue,we shall devo te a few pages to

the subj ect . As we have already Spoken of “ The

Aspects ofNature,

”and the “ Voyage to the Equinoct ial

Regions,

”we shall confine ourse lves t o some of Hum

b oldt’s less popular

,b ut more abstruse books. Discard

ing an embarras du richesse,in the shape of literary and

scient ific reviews,we shall le t Humbo ldt hims elf describe

them,believing that he understood the characte r of his

wri tings as we ll,if no t be t t er

,than any of his crit ics.

We follow his own classificat ion in the introduct ion to

the “ Voyage to the Equinoct ial Regions.”

I . Astronomical observations,trig onome trica l op erations,

and barometrical measurements made during the course of a

journey to the equinoctia l reg ions of the New Continent,

from 1 799 to 1 804 . This work,t o which are added his

torical researches on the po sit ion of several po int s important t o navigators

,contains

,first

,the original ob ser

v at ions which I made from the twelfth degre e of southern to the forty-first degree of northern lat itude ; the

transit of the sun and stars over the meridian distancesof the moon from the sun and the stars ; o ccultat ions ofthe satellites ; eclipses of the sun and moon ; transits of

3 64s

EQUINOCTIAL PLANTS .

Mercury over the disc of the sun ; azimuths ; circummeridian al titudes of the moon

,t o de termine the ,

lo ngitude by the differences of declinat ion ; researches on therelat ive intensity of the ligh t of the austral stars ; g eodesical measures

,&c . Secondly

,a treat ise on the astro

nomical refract ions in the to rrid zone,considered as the

effect of the decrement of caloric in the strata of the

air ; th irdly, the barome tric measurement of the Cordillera of the Andes

,of Mexico

,of the province ofVene

zaela,of the kingdom of Quito

,and of New Granada ;

fo llowed by geo logical observat ions,and containing the

indicat ion of four hundred and fifty-three he ights,caleu

lated according t o the me thod of M. Laplace,and the

new coe fficient of M . Raymond ; fourthly, a table of

near seven hundred geographical posit ions on the New

Continent ; two hundred and thirty-fiv e of which havebeen determined by my own observat ions

,according to

the thre e co -ordinat es of longitude,lat itude

,and he igh t .

“ II. Equinoctialp lan ts collected in Mexico,in the island

of Cuba, in the p rovinces of Caracas, Cumana, and Barcelona

,on the Andes of New Grenad a

, Quito , and Peru, andon the banks of the Rio JVeg ro, the Orinoco, and the River

Amazon . M . Bonpland has in this work given figure sof more than forty new genera of plants of the torridzone

,classe d according t o the ir nat ural families. The

methodical descript ions of the species are bo th in Frenchand in Lat in

,and are accompanied by observat ions on

the medicinal propert ies of the plants, the ir use in the

arts,and the climate of the countries in wh ich they are

found.

III. Mb nog rap hy of the Melastoma,Rheacia

,and other

g enera of this order of p lants, comprising upwards of a

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66 ZOOLOGY AND ANATOMY.

the gramineous plants,and l ichens. These regions fo rm

the natural divisions of the vege table empire ; and as

perpe tual snow is found in each climat e at a de t erminateheight

,so

,in like manner

,the febrifuge species of the

quinquina (cinchona) have the ir fixed limit s,which I

have marked in the bo tanical chart belonging to this

e ssay.

“ V. Observations on Z oolog y and Comp arativeAnatomy.

I have comprised in this work the h istory of the condo r;experiment s on the e lectrical act ion of the gymno tus ; atreat ise on the larynx of the crocodiles

,the quadrumani

,

and birds of the tropics ; the de script ion of several newSpecie s of rept iles

,fishes

,birds

,monkeys

,and o ther

mammalia b ut lit tle known . M. Cuvier has enrichedthis work with a very comprehensive treat ise on the

axo lo t l of the lake of Mexico,and on the genera of the

Pro te i. That naturalist .has also recognised two new

species of mastodons and an elephant among the fo ssilbones of quadrupeds which we brought from North and

South America. For the descript ion of the insect s co llec ted by M . Bonpland we are indebted to M . Latreille

,

who se labours have so much contribut ed t o the progressof entomo logy in our t ime s. The second vo lume of thiswork contains figures of the Mexican

,Peruvian

,and

A turian skulls,wh ich we have depo sited in the Museum

of Natural History at Paris,and respect ing which

Blumenbach has published observat ions in the ‘B ecasquinta Craniorum div ersarum gent ium .

’

“ VI. Political essay on the king dom ofNew Sp ain, , with

a p hysica l and g eog rap hical Atlas, founded on as tronomical

observations and trig onometrical and barometrical measure

ments. This work,based on numerous official memo irs,

E SSAY ON NEW SPAIN . 3 67

present s,in six divisions

,considerat ims on the extent

and natural appearance of Mexico,on the populat ion

,

on the manners of the inhabitants,the ir ancient civiliza

t ion,and the po lit ical division of the ir t erritory. It

embraces also the agriculture,the mineral rich es

,the

manufactures,the commerce

,the finances

,and the mili

tary defence of that vast count ry . In treat ing these different subj ects I have endeavoured t o consider them

under a general po int of‘ View I have drawn a parallelno t only be tween New Spain

,the o ther Spanish co lonies

,

and the Unit ed States of North America,bu t also

between New Spain and the po ssessions of the English inAsia ; I have compared the agriculture of the countriesSituated in the t orrid zone wi th that of the t emperateclimat es ; and I have examined the quant ity of co lonialproduce necessary t o Europe in the pre sent stat e of civilization . In tracing the geo logical descript ion of the

richest mining district s in Mexico,I have

,in short

,

given a statement of the mineral produce,the pOpula

t ion,the imports and exports of the whole of Spanish

America. I have examined several quest ions which,for

want of precise data,had no t hitherto been t reat ed with

the at tent ion they demand,such as the influx and reflux

of me tals,the ir progre ssive accumulat ion in Europe and

Asia,and the quant ity of go ld and silver which

,since

the discovery of America down to o ur own t imes,the

Old World has rece ived from the New . The g eo g raphi

cal introduct ion at the beginning of this work con tains

the analysis of the mat erials which have been employed

in the const ruct ion of the Mexican At las .“ VII. Views of the Cordilleras

,and mo r umen ts of the

indig enious nations of the New Continent This work is

3 68 VIEWS OF THE CORDILLERAS .

int ended t o represent a few of the grand scenes which

nature present s in the lofty chain of the Andes,and at

th e same t ime t o throw some ligh t on the ancient civili

zation of the Americans,through the study of the ir

monumen t s of arch itecture,their hieroglyphics

,the ir

religious rites,and the ir astro logical reveries . I have

g iven in this work a descript ion of the teocalli,or Mexi

can pyramids and have compared the ir structure with

that of the t emple of Be lus . I have described the ara

b esques wh ich cover the ruins ofMit la,the ido ls in

basal t ornament ed with the calantica of the heads of Isis ;and also a considerable number of symbo lical paint ings

,

represent ing the serpent woman (the Mexican Ev e,) the

deluge of COxcox,and the first migrat ions of the nat ives

of the Aztec race . I have endeavoured to prove thestriking analo g ies exist ing be tween the calendar of the

To lte cs and the catasterisms of the ir zodiac,and the divi

sion of t ime of the people of Tartary and Thibe t,as

we ll as the Mexican tradit ions on the four regenerat ionsof the globe

,the p ralayas of the Hindoo s

,and the four

age s of He siod . In th is work Ihave also included (inaddit ion t o the hieroglyph ical paint ings I brought toEurope

,) fragments of all the Azt ec manuscripts,col

lec t ed in Rome,V ele tri

,Vienna

,and Dre sden

,and one

ofwhich reminds us,by its lineary symbols

,of the kouas

of the Chinese . Toge ther with the rude monument s ofthe aborigines of America

,this v orume contains pic tu

resque views of the mountainous countries which thosepeople inhabited ; for example , the cataract of Tequen

dama, Ch imborazo , the vo lcano of Jorullo,and Cay

ambe,the pyramidal summit of which

,covered with

e ternal ice,is situated direct ly under the equino ctial line

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3 70 BIBLIOGRAPHY.

careful examinat ion by one of the first bo tanists o f t heag e , Prof. Wildenow,

are comput ed to amount to fourteeno r fifteen hundred

,b ut also the int erest ing observat ions

made by M . Bonpland on plant s hithert o imperfect ly described. The plat es of this work are all engraved ac

cording t o the method fo llowed by M . Lab illardiere,in the

Sp ecimen Plantarum Novoe Hollandioe,a work remark

able for profound research and clearness of arrangement .”

The publicat ion of these immense works is an epochin the history ofbibliography . To give some idea of the

amount of money that was expended upon themWe willgive a list of the prices at wh ich they were published.

Many of them,w e Sho uld premise

,part icularly the fo lio s

,

were brought out as separat e pamphle ts,or in numbers

,

on different kinds of paper,and at different prices. We

shall enumerat e the lat ter only,as we write for general

rather than bibliograph ical readers.Voyage to the Equinoct ial Regions. There are two

edit ions of this work,one in quarto

,in three vo lumes

,

ano ther in o ctavo,in th irte en vo lumes. The forme r was

published at one hundred and fifty-eight francs

, (largepaper copies two hundred and fifty-tw o francs

,) the lat t er

at nine ty francs. The six At lases which accompany thework co st two hundred and Sixt een francs .The Picture sque Atlas . Published in fo lio

,at fiv e

hundred and four francs, (large paper copies, fiv e hun

dred and seventy-six francs,) and in o ctavo

,at twent c

fiv e francs.Po lit ical Essay on the Kingdom ofNew Spain . There

are three edit ions of this work ; one in quarto in two

volumes,with a fo lio At las

,published at two hundred

PRICES OF HUMBOLDT’S WORKS . 3 7 1

and fifty francs,and t wo in octavo

,in four and fiv e

vo lumes,published at thirty-six francs .

Observat ions on Zo o logy. Two quarto volume s.Published at thre e hundred and fifty francs

, (large papercopies

,four hundred and twenty francs .)

Astronomical Observat ions . Two quarto vo lumes .Published at one hundred and nine ty-two francs

, (largepaper Copies, three hundred and fifty

-t wo francs .)fi ninoc tial Plan ts . Two vo lumes

,fo lio . Publish ed

at fiv e hundred and ten francs, (large paper copies, e ighthundred and fifty francs .)Monography of Melastomes. Two volumes

,fo lio .

Published at e ight hundred and Sixty-four francs, (larg e

paper copie s,one thousand four hundred and fo rt J

francs.)Mimo sas and o ther Leguminous Plant s

,fo lio . PU b

lished at Six hundred and seventy-two francs, (large pa

’

e r

copies,e ight hundred and forty francs .)

Revision of Gramines in the New G enera. Two v o

lumes,fo lio . Published at one thousand nine hundred

and twenty francs.The New Genera and Specie s of Plant s . There are

two edit ions of this great work,one in quarto

,in thirty

six books or parts,and one in fo lio

,in seven vo lumes.

The former was published at one thousand two hundredand nine ty-six francs

,the lat t er at one thousand e ight

hundred francs . (Large paper copies, three thousand sixhundred francs

,six thousand four hundred and e igh ty

francs,and seven thousand two hundred francs .)

The cheapest copies of these works co st at publicat ion,

unless our arithme t ic is at fault,fiv e thousand

.

nine hundred and fifty

-fiv e francs,the dearest fourteen thousand

7 2 E RUPTION OF VE SUVIUS .

one hundred francs. Or,calling fiv e francs a dollar

,one

thousand one hundred and nine ty-one,and two thousand

e ight hundred and twenty do llars !If it t ook a small fo rtune t o buy the se bo oks

,it t ook a

large one t o make them . The exact amount is no t

known,b ut it is est imated at two hundred thousand

do llars . The French and Prussian Governments assistedin the ir publicat ion

,but the great er part of the cos t was

borne by Humboldt himself,and of course was lost .

For however successful such works are , scient ifically, theyare always failures in a mercant ile po int of view . The

labour and expense invo lved in the writ ing and publishing of these works g ive s us a grander idea ofHumbo ldt

,

-han we could obtain from any re lat ion of his travels.‘hey Show his int ense and unselfish devo t ion t o science

,

-a devo t ion of wh ich few men besides himself were0: oab le , and t o which no man ever sacrificed more— and

p , ice him among the literary benefactors of the world.

But t o re turn t o our narrat ive,from wh ich these biblio

g raph ical remarks have led us. Humboldt remained atParis unt il 1 8 2 2

,when he pro ceeded to Verona

,where

ano ther Congre ss was be ing he ld. There he me t the

King of Prussia,and after the Congress was ove r

,ac

companied him on a j o urney through Italy,stopping on

the way at Venice,Rome

,andNaple s. IVhile at Naples

,

Humbo ldt had several opportunit ies of visit ing Ve suvius,

which was in a very act ive stat e . A series of erupt ionssucceeded e ach o ther

,from the commencement of the

year t o the t ime of his visit t o Naples,which was in

October or No vember. He made three ascent s ofVe suvins

,part ly t o witness the erupt ion

,and repeat his

former barometric measurement s of the mountain, and

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3 7 4 HUMBOLDT AND GOETHE .

re turn to Paris for a while,and finish some of the works

that he had left there undone ; then he would come t o

Berlin . So back to Paris, his dear Paris, he went .He remained at Paris t ill the au tumn of 1 8 2 6

,when he

made a visit t o his bro ther at Tegel,t o announce his

speedy and permanent return t o Berlin. While stoppingin Berlin

,or on his way back t o Paris, he saw Go e the .

Of Go ethe ’s impressions of Humbo ldt at this t ime wehave a record in “ Ecke rman’s Conversat ions

,

” underthe date ofMonday

,1 1 th December. Hear the German

Bo swell.“ I found Goethe in an animat ed and happy mood .

‘AlexanderV on Humbo ldt has passed some hours with

me,this morning

,

’ said he,coming to me et me with

great vivacity ;‘What a man he is ! Long as I have

known him,he is cont inually astonish ing me anew. I

may say he has no t his equal in knowledge,in living

wisdom ; and such many-Sidedness I have found nowheree lse . Wherever you call upon him

, you find him at

home,everywhere ready to lavish upon you the int el

lectual treasure s he has amassed. He is like a fountainwith many pipes ; you need only t o g et a vessel t o ho ldunder it

,on any Side refre sh ing streams flow at a mere

touch . He is t o stay some days,and I shall feel

,

when he go es away,as if I had lived years during his

V isit .’

This is the way that a great man speaks of his equal .How unlike tho se lit t le fe llows

,the reviewers ! Clearly

Go e the would never have answered the requirements ofthe Quart erly.

In February 1 8 2 7,Humbo ldt removed from Paris . He

didno t proceed direct ly to Berlin,b ut jo ined his bro ther’s

IDEA OF KOSMOS . 3 75

son-in-law,Count Bulow

,who had just been appoint ed

ambassador t o England,on a journey t o London . Hum

b oldt’s stay in England was short

,for inMay w e find him

permanent ly se t tled in Berlin . He found his bro ther inBerlin

,for he had a residence there

,as we ll as at Tegel

,

and scores of his o ld friends,among o thers Augustus

Schlege l . The king rece ived him with open arms,and

conferred upon him the t it le of privy councillor. Hemight have be en Secre tary of Stat e

,if he had cho sen ;

indeed,there was no office t oo good for him

,b ut he loved

Science t oo we ll t o change it for Po lit ics . Neverenamoured of that artful

,b ut powerful godde ss

,who

,

what ever her fault s,is sure in t he end t o reward her

worshippers,he was less like ly t o b e w on by her blandish

ment s th en,than at any o ther period ofhis life . He had

a new and grand scheme on fo o t,

-'

one that h e had pon

dered over for years. He though t of it at Paris,in his

study among his books and manuscrip ts,and in the salons

of art and fashion ,among the wise and the fo olish . He

though t of it in Mexico,as he groped his way in the

darkne ss of the mines,or wandered among the ruins of

vanished nat ions. He though t of it in Peru,on the

rugged sides of Chimbo razo and Co t opaxi in the t erriblepass of Quindiu ; in the dense forests of the Orinocoand at Cumana among the earthquake s . He thought ofit on the deck ofthe Pizarro in the mids t of the Sea

,and on

the crat er ofTene riffe in the illimitable wilderness ofAir.

He tho ugh t of it everywh ere , by day and at nigh t,in his

waking moment s,and in his dreams . It was always

with him . It was the one thought of his though ts,his

first and last concept ion,the mo st maj est ic statue of his

house of life. It was Ko smo s .” “ Its undefined

3 76 LE CTURE S AT BERLIN.

image,

” he wro t e in 1 844,

“ has floated before my mindfor almost half a century .

”

All th e travels that he had undertaken,and all the

books that he had writ t en,relat ed t o this great work . It

was no t as a traveller that he had cro ssed the sea,and

explored unknown lands : nor ye t as a man of science :but as the t rave ller

,the man of science . He aimed at no

common fame . Indeed,he aimed at none . It was to a

nobler obj ect than “the bauble reputat ion”

that he de

vo ted his life ; it was a th irst for knowledge,a passion

for wisdom,no t in one thing

,or many things b ut in all

things. To b e a wise man was no t enough he would b ethe wisest of men . His wisdom was universal

,like the

Universe to wh ich it was direct ed,and which he under

stood,if ever man did

,or can understand it .

On the 3 rd ofNovember,1 8 2 7

,he commenced a series

of lectures on the Universe,at Berlin. The University

building in which they were delivered was crowded .

The king and royal family were there ; the court wasthere : the rich

,the noble

,the wise— in Short all the

int ellect of Berlin was there . A perfec t mast er of his

theme,he was clear

,e loquent , impassioned, inexhaust ible ,

and they were enchant ed. He sto od befo re them likeone inspired. It was a memorable t ime in Berlin

,and

indeed throughout Prussia for the fame of these lectures

was soon no ised all over the land . Scho lars came fromgreat distances to hear him,

and even common people,

the unle t tered mass,who only knew of him through the

newspapers . Everybody was anxious t o hear and see

Humbo ldt .The press was soon so great that he was forced to

repeat the earlier lectures,in a larger building. Alex

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3 7 8 OFFER OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT

tally-gifted man_

owes to his people ofbestowing on them,

and instruct ing them with the rich treasury of his knowledge and experience

,thereby raising them nearer him

self.”

Humbo ldt finished his course of Sixty-one lectures onthe 2 6th of April

,1 8 2 8 . The ir repu tat ion was now so

universal that he was Urged t o print them,for the sake

of those who had no t been able to hear him . He con

sent ed to do so,and began t o writ e them off from

memory,for he had Spoken without no te s

,b ut his at ten

t ion was distract ed by o ther things. He had been appliedto some months before

,while the course was in progress

,

by Count Cancrin,the Russian Minist er of Finance

,who

request ed him t o give his Opinion as to the eligibility ofaco inage of plat ina from the Ural

,and its re lat ive value

t o go ld and silver. The Spanish Government had alsoapplied t o him on the same subj ect

,and a propo sal had

been made by some privat e individuals t o the Congressof Vienna

,to introduce the new metal into circulat ion

,

support ed and recognised by government authority.

Humbo ldt doubt ed the e ligibility of the scheme,and

said so frankly,withou t forfe it ing the good opinion of

the Russian Government . Happening in the course of

his correspondence to expre ss a wish t o visit the Ural,

and t o compare its mountains with tho se of the New

World,the Empero r of Russia invit ed him to undertake

an expedit ion thither,and offered t o defray the who le ex

pense . More than this,he was instruct ed t o consider

the advantages wh ich the Imperial Government mightdraw from his researche s int o the mining capabilit ies ofthe country

,as of secondary importance

,and to devo te

himself entire ly to what he thought the advancement of

BONPLAND IN BRAZIL. 3 7 9

science . The offer was to o t empt ing to b e resisted. Hehad long dreamed of such a j ourney

,b u t his plans fo r it

had be en repeatedly thwart ed and po stponed . It had

seemed to him that it was never t o b e,b ut here when he

least expec ted it,when he had almo st ceased t o think of

it,was an opportunity such as might n ever o ccur again.

He at once accept ed the offer.

Besides the preparat ions which such a j ourneydemanded

,he was busy with o ther import ant matt ers

the books that he had in progress,some of wh ich were

then passing through the pre ss,and above all with the

unhappy case of his friend Bonpland. We left poorBonpland as far back as 1 8 1 7

,in Brazil

,on his way into

the int erior of that country. He ascended the Paranaunt il he reached the ancient mission of the Jesuit s

,which

was situat ed on the left bank of that river,at a lit t le dis

tance from Itapua. The po ssession ofthis region ofcountrywas then a subj ect of disput e be twe en Paraguay and the

Argent ine Confederat ion . Aware of th is fact,Bonpland

no t ified Dr. Francia,the Dictator of Paraguay

,of his

presence there,and explained t o him his int ention of

cult ivat ing tea,with the aid ofa small co lony of Indians

whom he had t aken int o his service . Francia wished tohave the monopo ly of t ea t o h imself

,so he pre t ended t o

t ake Bonpland for a Spy, and sent four hundred men

acro ss the Parana one dark night to fall upon him and

his Indians . The lit t le co lony was taken by surprise ; amassacre ensued

,many of the Indians were killed

,mo st

were wounded,and Bonpland himself rece ived a sabre

cut on the head . He repaid this inhuman assault b vdressing the wounds of the so ldiers . Two days after

wards (the massacre to ok place ou the night of the 3d

3 80 A PR ISONER AT SANTA MAR IA.

of December,1 8 2 1) he was sent in chains to the neigh

b ouring village of Santa Maria. Francia refused to see

him ; he was no t imprisoned, but a watch was kept uponhim

,and he was forbidden to re turn t o Assumpt ion . He

was allowed t o pract ise as a physician,so he whiled away

the months and years of his capt ivity,in making medi

cines,dist illing and compo sing liquors

,and in go ing

about t o minister t o the Sick and afflicted. He wore onlythe coarsest garment s

,and went barefo o ted.

It was a long t ime before int elligence of this outragereached Europe

,b ut it did at last

,while Humbo ldt was

residing in Paris,and he l eft no means untried to secure

the release of his friend and fellow-traveller. He interest ed the French Government in his behalf

,and Chat eau

briand,who was then Minist er of the Affairs ofStrangers

,

demanded his freedom from the tyrannical Francia. It

was no t grant ed. The Emperor ofBrazil made the samedemand with the like success. A t last

,however

,aft er a

capt ivity of nearly eight years,Bonpland was se t at

liberty . What influence was powerful enough t o com

pel Francia t o this tardy act ofjustice is no t known,b ut

it is said t o have been that ofBo livar. If so,he probably

owed his fre edom t o Humbo ldt . We know that Humbo ldt was at this t ime in correspondence with Bo livar

,

in reference to the int ernal improvement of his country,

and we canno t doubt that he urged the cause ofhis friendwith him

,as he had previously do ne with the French

and Brazilian Government s . It was Humboldt,we

believe,who rest ored Bonpland t o liberty.

Ostensibly se t free on the 1 2 th of May, 1 8 2 9, he t ookthe road t o the Missions

,b ut when he arrived at Itapua

there was no order there for his release . He remained at

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8 2 FRAU CAROLINE DYING .

then unknown in Europe . The narrat ive of his travelswhich lasted from 1 8 2 0 t o 1 8 2 5

,was published while the

preparat ions for the Asiat ic j ourney were in progress,

and was edited by Humbo ldt . Besides edit ing,or help

ing t o edit,this work

,

-

and at tending to the measurement sof t emperature

,which the king

,at his sugge st ion

,had

caused t o b e made in all the Prussian mines,the never

rest ing trave ller was o ccupied and tro ubled with the

afflict ions of his bro ther. William was indeed afflict ed,

for Frau Caro line,who had been in ill heal th for years

,

was Slowly dying . A t the close of Alexander’s lectures .

he had taken her t o Paris and London,in the hope that

a j ourney thither,and the use of the bath ofGast e in

,at

wh ich they were t o stop on the ir re turn,wo uld benefit

her ; b u t it was no t t o b e . They re turned t o Tege l inthe middle of Sept ember

,and She was worse than ever.

She failed rapidly,and towards the end of November

was in constant expectat ion of death . November,

December passed,and she st ill lived. All over the land

the Christmas ho lidays were ce lebrated. The candleswere ligh ted on the Chri stmas tree

,the present s were

plucked from the branches,and rich and poor

,young

and o ld rejo iced in the birth of the ble ssed Christ -Child.

But at Tege l all was sad. No Christmas tree , no gifts,no happy heart s. A ll was st illness and gloom

,— the

hush of themsick chamber

,the shadow of the coming

doom . The New Year came,and went

,and Frau Caro

line st ill lived. Alexander visit ed her on a Lord’s dayin January.

“ She was dying,

” he wro t e to a friend ;“opened her eye s and said t o her husband

,

‘Ano therhuman be ing is ended ! ’ She expect ed her death

,b ut in

vain ; She lived again and took an int erest in what was

ANOTHE R GRAVE AT TEGEL. 3 8 3

go ing on around her. She prayed much . So wro teAlexander on the 2 2 nd of January

,1 8 2 9. He was st ill

preparing for his journey : Frau Caro line was prepared

for hers . It was a short one .

One step to the White death-b ed,

And one t o the b ier ;And one to the charnel

,

And one— oh where ?

The dark arrow fled

Int o the noon !”

She departed on the 2 6th of March . There was

ano ther grave at Tegel.

CHAPTER H.

CENTRAL ASIA.

ON the 1 2 th of April,1 8 2 9

,Humbo ldt

,Ro se

,and

Ehrenberg depart ed from Berlin for St . Pe t ersburg.

They had arranged the different branches of science to

which each was t o devo t e himse lf. Ehrenberg was toat tend to the bo tany and zoology of the countries throughwhich they Should pass

,Ro se was t o analyse the minerals

,

and keep the t ravelling diary,while Humbo ldt undertook

the magne t ic observat ions,the results of geograph ical

astronomy,and the geo logy and natural h istory gene

rally . To show the respect in wh ich he held him,b e

fore he start ed,the King of Prussia appo inted Humbo ldt

an act ing privy councillor: It was the rank of a minist er

,and his t itle thenceforth was Excellency “ His

Excellency the Baron V on Humboldt .”

On the ir way from Berlin t o St . Pe t ersburg,the tra

v ellers passed through Konigsberg and Dorpat,Esthonia

and Livonia. AS the sea Shore in the neighbourhood ofKonigsberg abounded with amber

,it was almost a for

bidden ground t o the inhabitants . It was farmed out at

a high rat e,and“ carefully guarded

,so that the fishermen

could only put to sea at certain prescribed po ints of thecoast . The coast between Dantzic and Memel was le t

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3 86 KASAN.

On the 2 0th ofMay the party started forMo scow . Be

side s a courier,and the mining officer already ment ioned

,

they were furnished with a Russian cook,as in the sta

t ions beyond Moscow travellers were obliged to cook forthemse lves. The broad highway be tween St . Pe t ersburgand Mo scow was soon traversed

,and they halted for a

few days in the old capital ofMoscovy. After makingsome barome tric observat ions and examining the geo logyof the country

,they cont inued the ir j ourney over a

marshy level until they reached Nishu i Novgorod,on the

Vo lga. Here they me t with Count Po lier,the owner

of several large mining e stat es in the Ural,and as he

was on his way thither he j o ined the party. They embarked on the Volga on the last of May, and reachedKasan on the 4 th of June .

Originally the seat Of a Tartar Khanat e which was

overturned in 1 552,aft er-flourishing for three hundred

years,Kasan was st ill inhabited by Tartars

,e specially in

the suburbs. The t ravellers visit ed the t emple s of the seTartars t o see the ir form ofworship : the guides removedthe ir slippers as they ent ered

,b ut as the travellers wore

boo ts they were permit t ed t o keep them on.

The party remained at Kasan fiv e days,during which

they made several excursions in the neighbourho od.

The mo st int erest ing of these was t o the ruins of Bul

g ar, the capital of ancient Bulgaria. As they drew near

the modern village they were m e t by groups of men,

women,and ch ildren ; the who le populat ion came forth

to mee t them . At the head of these groups walked theo lde st inhabitant s

,who

,when they came t o Humboldt

,

offered him bread and salt as a token of reverence ,according to the Russian custom.

THE RUINS OF BULGAR . 3 8 7

Dismissing these go od people when the ir hospitab leceremony was over

,the trave llers proceeded t o the ruins

of the old capital . They found the walls of some buildings st ill standing

,two t owers

,and a number of t omb

stones bearing monumental inscript ions,in Turkish

,

Arabic,and Armenian . These inscript ions dat ed back

t o the year 62 3 of the Hegira (A . D. Silver and

copper co ins and copper rings and trinke t s were somet imes found in the rubbish of Bulgar. There wereseveral tombs among the ruins

,which were obj ect s of

venerat ion t o the faithful. They were the t ombs ofTart ar saint s

,who

,as the Tartars generally were any

thing b ut saint s,were undoubt edly

,in their t ime

,the

cream of Tart ars . The travellers found a Mo llah performing his devo t ions at one of these tombs . He repeat edhis form of prayer

,and bowed his body without being

disturbed by the ir pre sence . They offered him a seat inthe ir carriage

,which he accept ed

,as the ruins were some

distance from each o ther ; and he managed each t imethey stopped

,t o finish his devo t ions before they finished

the ir examinat ions , Devo tion was a good thing,so was

a comfortable ride . Re turning t o Kasan they witnessedthe Saban

,a Tartar fe st ival

,celebrat ed every year aft er

seed-time . The Tart ars wre st led with each o ther,and

ran fo o t races,and galloped the ir horses at full spe ed. It

was a scene of barbaric merriment .They left Kasan on the 9th

,and passed through a dis

tric t inhabi ted by theWo tjaks. This tribe was a branchof the family ofFinns ; they had embraced Christ ianity

,

and spoke the Russian language,al though they re tained

the customs of the ir ancestors . The women we re highcaps of birch -bark

,covered with blue clo th

,bedecked

3 8 8 JEKATHARINENBURG .

with fringes,and hung with Silver coins. On the 1 2 th

they reached the estat e of Count Po lier,at Werchne

Mulinsk,where they halted t o partake of his ho spitality.

From Werchne Mulinsk,they journeyed to Jekathari

nenburg , the Co unt accompanying them . Near Permthey fe ll in w ith a party of exiles on the way to Siberia.

This party consist ed of Sixty o r e igh ty women and girls,

and as they were no t fe t tered,they were probably b an

ished for trivial offences . The worst class of criminalswere always fe t t ered wh ile on the ir way t o Siberi a, be ingfastened by one hand t o a long rope . The party that thet ravellers overtook was e scorted by a band of armed andmount ed Bashkirs.The postmaster at Malmusch was a mineralogist

,with

a taste for anatomy,for around and within his house

were the te eth and bone s of an immense mammo th,

found on the banks of the Wjatka.

On the 1 4 th the t rave llers reached the outskirt s of theUral— a series of delicious vallies . When they left theNeva three weeks before

,it was crust ed with ice ; now

the grass was o ut,the plant s were in full blo om

,and the

ground was profusely covered with flowers. On the 15th

they arrived at Jekatharinenb urg .

Jekatharincnb urg was situat ed among the mountains onthe Asiat ic side of the Ural ridge . This ridge consistedofsev eral near]y paralle l lines

,whose highe st po int rose t o

the he ig ht of nearly fiv e thousand fee t . Its direct ion inthe meridian

,wh ich was in a line standing pe rpendicu

larly upon the equat or from the po le,reminded Humboldt

ofa similar situation in a chain ofthe Andes . The northern and central port ions of the Ural mountains containedg o ld and platina, and abounded in minerals ofall kinds.

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3 90 WHY NOT DIAMOND S IN THE URAL ?

the primit ive inhabitant s of the country. The Russians

erected on the summit a monumen t to his memory .

This region abounding in go ld and plat ina,reminded

Humbo ldt of the go ld and plat ina reg ions of Brazil .The lat t er produced diamonds ; why should no t theseproduce hem also ? They would

,if there was any t ruth

in his theory,that Nature was always true to herse lf ;

no t governed by accident or caprice,b ut by e ternal im

mutable laws,of which she was at once subj ect and

Sovere ign. He had already in his “ Essay on the Bearing of Ro cks

,

” directed at tent ion t o the singular analogyof mineralogical charact erist ics in different parts of theglobe

,as regards plat ina and go ld-sand . Thus at Cor

rego,in Brazil

,go ld

,plat ina

,and palladium were found

toge ther ; near Tejuco go ld and diamonds ; and plat inaand diamonds near the riverAbast e . This fact awakenedin him the strongest hope of discovering diamonds inthe Ural . When he arrived at any of the works b ecaused the go ld-sand to b e subj ect ed to microscOpic ob

servat ions : if go ld and plat ina were found in it,he

direct ed the workmen t o search carefully for diamonds .The se examinat ions revealed the exist ence of crystalsprevio usly unknown in the go ld-sands of the Ural

,such

crystals as in Brazil o ccurred in gold-sand with dia

monds.The travellers parted from Count Po lier at Kusch

winsk,on the l st of July. It was the ir intent ion to

have accompanied him to his e st at es on the Ko iva,in

the west ern declivity of the Ural,b u t as the direct path

was only pract icable on horseback,and ano ther route

would have caused them to lose t oo much t ime,they

abandoned the idea. The same day they proceeded to

THE FORESTS OF THE URAL . 3 9 1

the copper mines of Bo g oslowsk . The road led t hroughdense forests ofpine s

,larches

,and cedars ; here and there

were birches and poplars . The underwood of theseforests was formed ofwild ro ses in full bloom

,and luxu

riant j unipers whose dark green shade was relieved w iththe ligh t hue of the birches . The richness and beautyof the plants contrast ed strongly with the poverty of

the fauna . The t ravellers saw hares and squirre ls,and

“ such small de er,

”and now and then a bird No war

bling was heard in these forest s. They saw severalsmall hawks

,and one finch

,b ut no civilized birds

,so to

speak,such as swallows

,wagtails

,e tc . The exce ssive

vege tat ion of plant s abounding in sap , produced myriadsof gnats

,which were a great t orment to the trave llers.

To pro t ect themse lves against these gnat s the inhabitantsof the country wore over their face s ne t s ste eped in birchtar

,the smell of wh ich was offensive to the insec ts.

Some t imes they carried po ts on the ir backs,filled with

decayed wood ; or they burned the fung us of the birch,the smoke of which was no t inj urious to the eyes . As

the travellers were no t prepared t o me et the gnats,they

suffered severely fiom the ir at tacks : the ir only resourcewas t o drive rapidly through them . When they droveslowly

,or stopped

,they were bese t and stung by swarms

,

The ir horses were stung worse than themse lves : the poorbeasts were in agonie s. Along the road

,wh ich was be ing

mended at the time,were gro ups of peasants at work.

These peasant s had light ed fires as a means of defence

against the gnat s,and whenever they paused from the ir

labour they he ld the ir heads in the smoke,preferring t o

suffer that rather than the into lerable to rment of the in

sects .

3 9 2 MURSINSK.

Arriving at last at Bog oslowsk , the travellers pro ~

ceeded to visit the mines in its vicinity. The sceneryhere was magnificent . To the east was a bro ad unbrokenplain

,stre tching away like the sea : t o the west and no rth

,

forty or fifty miles distant,a range of magne t ic moun

tains . The peaks of these mountains,clad with snow

,

loomed over the dark forest s of pine and fir that coveredthe intervening heights .From Bo g oslowsk they returned to Jekatharinenb urg ,

stopping on the ir way at Mursinsk . This district wasrich in precious stones

,topaze s

,beryls

,ame thysts

,and

the like . Eighty-five verst s from Jekatharinenb urg ,near the granite ro cks on the right bank of the Tekowaja, emeralds were found in abundance . The presenceof emeralds in this ne ighbourhood was first de t ected bya peasant

,who was at tracted one day as he was cut t ing

wood by the ir lustrous Sparkling in the mica,where the

ground was Opened around the roo ts of a tree which hadbeen blown down by the wind . He co llect ed a quant ity

,

and t o ok them on sale to Jekatharinenb urg . They werete st ed

,fresh excavations were made

,and specimens were

sent to St . Pe t ersburg. These emeralds were remarkablefor the ir extraordinary size

,one in the mineralogical co l

lect ions ofSt . Pe t ersburg be ing no less than e ight inchesin leng th , and fiv e inches in diame t er.

The travellers arrived at Jekatharinenb urg on the 1 l th,after an absence of Sixt een days. They Spent a weekthere preparing and arranging the ir co llect ions

,and then

se t out for Tobo lsk,where they arrived on the 2 1 st .

Tobolsk had been originally laid down as the eas t ern

limit'

of their journey,b ut th e ir Speedy and easy pro

g ress through the northern Ural induced Humbo ldt to

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3 94 THE SIBERIAN PLAGUE .

and lakes . The so il in some place s was flat and level asthe sea

,in o thers it was covered with vege tation

It was impregnat ed with salt,and many of the . lakes

contained salt wat er. The road was bridged in longco urses over the marshy ground ; but as these courseswere out of repair

,the travelling was t edious.

The party reached Kainsk on the 2 9th . Here theylearned

,for the first t ime

,that the Siberian Plague was

raging in the ne ighbouring villages. The physicianwho gave them this int e lligence could afford them b ut

lit t le informat ion regarding the nature of the disease,

except that it broke o ut among the cat t le and soon ex

t ended t o men . It at tacked men in the uncove red partsof the body

,in the face

,neck

,or arms

,commencing

with an indurat ed swelling,which turned to black and

burning‘

suppurat ions,that ended in fever and death.

The origin of the disease was ascribed t o the st ings ofinsect s.AS it was impossible to reach the Altai region by any

o ther rout e,at least within the t ime they had allowed

themselve s,the trave llers reso lved t o cont inue the ir jour

ney, taking all po ssible precaut ions t o avo id contact withthe peasant s among whom the plague prevailed. Theyeven refrained from sle eping at the hal t ing places. Theyfound traces of the malady in all the villages. The daybefore the ir arrival six persons died at Karg anskaja,where fiv e hundred horses had already perished. It was

with considerable difliculty that they pro cured the meansof cont inuing the ir route . Every village had a ho spitalof it s own

,and smoky fire s of dry turf and dung were

kept cont inually burning,in order t o purify the air. As

the travellers drew near the Obi and left the steppe

BARNAUL. 3 95

behind them,the disease disappeared. t was never

known among the mountains .They cro ssed the Obi at B erg sk , and pro ceeding in asoutherly direc tion, reached Barnaul on the morning ofthe 2 d of August . In n ine days they had travelled onethousand miles .The city of Barnaul was the central po int of the

mining int erest s of the'

Altai . It was the seat of theauthorit ies of the who le region

,and the principal lo ca

t ion of its sme lt ing furnace s. The most important product of the Altai was silver

,the yie ld of which wa s

great er there than in any o ther part of the cont inent .Fo r fifty years before Humbo ldt ’s Visit it amount ed totwo hundred thousand do llars annually. The annualyield of the mine s during the same time was fiv e hundred thousand pounds of copper

,and e ight hundred

thousand pounds of lead. No twithstanding the quant ity of silver produced by the Altai

,the ore from

which it was obtained was very poor ; its average was

only four per cent , whil e the average of the Silverores of Mexico was from e igh t een to twenty-fiv e per

cent .

Though the working of the Altai mine s was morerecent than that of the Ural

,the former were undoubt

edly known from the earliest ant iquity,for the remains

of ancient mining Operat ions were plent iful among them .

These remains were generally ascribed t o the Tchudes ;b ut who the Tchudes were

,and at what period they

lived was a mystery which no one cared t o inquire into .

It was enough t o know that they had left the minesbehind them . The actual working of the mines of theAltai owed its existence t o Ak imfitsch Nitikas Demi

3 96 USTKAMENOGORSK.

doff,a son of the o ld blacksmith of Tula. With the

permission and assistance of the government ae formed,

in 1 7 2 8,the great smelt ing e stablishments ofKo lywansk

and Bjelaja, and in 1 7 3 9 laid the foundat ion of the t own

of Barnaul .Leaving Barnaul on the 4 th

,the travellers journeyed

southward acro ss the st eppe of Platowskaja to the upperdistricts of the Obi . They visited the porphyry worksof Ko lyv ansk , and the silver mines of Riddersk and the

Serpent Mountain. This mountain,which derived its

r ame from the great number of serpent s found upon itwhen it was discovered

,was an immense mass of ores

,

the mo st important of wh ich was silver. Two versts b eyond Riddersk there was a comical hill

,called Krug laja

Sopka,or the Round Mountain. The vege tat ion of this

hill,which was dest itut e of trees

,was so dense and lofty

that it prevent ed the trave llers from see ing each o ther,

when they were a few steps apart .

On the 1 3 th they reached U stkameno g orsk , a fortresson the frontiers of Chinese Mongo lia. Leaving their

baggage at this post,which was guarded by a company

of Co ssacks, who went through their military exercisesfor them

,they cont inued the ir journey to the go ld and

Silver mines of Syranowsk . Beyond Syranowsk theycame in sight of the ranges of Cho lsun and Katunja.

They saw at a distance of thirty miles the Stolbrowueha,

and st ill further t o the eastward the untrodden summitof Bjelucha, or as it was called by the Calmucks

,God’s

Mountain,the highest peak of the Altai . In this region

,

near the source of the Berel,in the valley ofRachman

owka,the travellers saw some remarkable ho t springs.

A few fee t distant from one of these springs was one of

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3 98 THE MONGOLIAN STATION .

caps. He invited the travellers by signs to enter the

t ent . It was carpe ted,and Oppo site the door sto od seve

ral chest s,co vered with carpe t s and pillows. He seat ed

h imself on one of these ext empore couches,and placed

Humbo ldt by his Side ; the re st of the party sat on the

o ther chests,or on the ground. The int erpre t er they

had brough t Spoke only Mongo lian,but as the Chinese

commander understo od that language the y were ableto converse with him. He offered them t ea

,which was

declined,and then inquired into the obj ect of the ir jour

ney. Humboldt t o ld him it was to inspect the mines,and

quest ioned him in turn . He t old the traveller that hecame direct from Pekin

,on horseback

,in four months ;

that he had no t been long on that stat ion ; and that he

would b e sent to ano ther in three years,that be ing the

length of military service at any one stat ion in China.

Proceeding to the Mongo lian post,they found the com

mander in his tent at the end of an avenue ofpoles,upon

wh ich hung fresh pieces of meat . He was dressed likehis comrade on the o ther side

,but was considerably o lder

,

and very dirty,as were also his t ent and at tendant s. As

he did no t understand Mongo lian,or pre t ended

‘

no t to,

the conversat ion was carried on with difficulty . Humboldt present ed him with a piece of ve lve t

,which he

accept ed thankfully and offered t ea,which was declined.

He led the party to a t emple on the bank of the Irstysch .

It was a small square wo oden building,with a door

opening on the river. In the int erior was an altar,and

on the wall over the altar,a Buddist idol . Be twe en the

door and the river in a kind of walled court,there was

ano theraltar with burning coals on it .Returning to the ir own tent

,the party were visited by

VISIT FROM THE FIRST COMMANDER . 3 99

the first commander,who was accompanied by his two

companions and a band of so ldiers . They rece ived himseat ed

,while the common Mongo lians crowded around

the door and looked on . The ceremonies of visitat ionover

,he and his at tendant s light ed the ir pipes

,and

smoked vigorously,urg ing the trave llers t o do the sam e .

He tried some t obacco which they offered him,and

re lish ed it highly,b ut see ing that they did not jo in him

in his fumigat ion,he put up his pipe , as his good bre ed

ing would no t permit him t o smoke alone . Humbo ldt

offered him a piece of blue clo th,which he declined t o

acce pt , though evident ly with great reluctance . It was

pushed t owards him,and push ed back

,b ut very gent ly

,

several t imes . IVhen he had done all that Chinese po li teness required ofhim under the circumstances

,b e accept ed

it,and the twinkle of his eye showed the sat isfact ion that

he fe lt . He inquired what he could offer in exchange,and

the int erpre ter,who had rece ived his instruct ions before

hand,t o ld him that he co uld offer Humbo ldt no thing

that he would value so much as some Chinese books,

which he had seen in his tent . They were immediat elybrought

,and the same ceremony was again gone through

with : he pushed - them towards Humbo ldt,and Hum

boldt pushed them gent ly back. When e t ique t t e wassat isfied he accepted them . They proved to b e a famoushistorical nove l San-k ue -tchai

,containing the history

of the thre e kingdoms int o wh ich China was divided,

afte r the Han dynasty. Humbo ldt told the commanderthat he int ended to g ive the books t o his bro ther

,who

was studying the Chinese language,and the commander

desired him to inscribe his name,Chin-foo

,upon them

He did so,and presented him with the pencil with

400 FEASTING THE IR VISITERS.

which he wro te . It was placed on the blue clo th,and

borne away by his at tendants.Made ira

,biscuits

,and sugar were handed round to

the guests . Chin-fo o took a small piece of sugar,and

drank one glass of wine . His at t endan ts w ere no t so

moderate ; they drank several glasses, to ssing themdown at a single draught

,and devoured quant ities of

srig ar, put t ing away the ir pipes for that purpose . Sugar

was then handed round among the Mongo ls, who by thist ime had entered the tent

,and stood like ch ildren

,ho ld

ing out the ir hands wistfully . After a t ime Chin -foo

t ook his leave . The Mongo ls,full of curiosity

,crowded

around the Europeans,and t ouched them . They were

much struck with one of the party who was corpulent,

put t ing the ir hands round his stomach,and feeling him

with th eir fingers . The trave llers pushed them away,

b ut they t ook it good-humouredly, and as a mat ter ofcourse .

There were e ighty men in these two stat ions,all

dressed like the ir leaders,though their robes were of

different co lours,and were confined at the waist by a

girdle . They were ragged,dirty

,and mo st ly without

a rms . The weapo ns of tho se who were armed werebows and arrows. They seemed t o .Set lit t le store bythem

,for they offered t o sel l them to the trave llers

,t o

ge ther with the ir pipes and chopst icks,and the rest of

the ce lest ial knick-nack s. About the t ent s were a few

camels,a flock of goats

,and some Sheep with enormous

fat tails.The trave llers re turned to U stkameno g orsk , by the

way of the Irstysch . The rout e was full of interest toHumboldt

,for on the lone ly shores of the river he saw

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402 DIAMONDS IN THE URAL.

mineralogical ideas ofHumbold t,so he examined all the

works for go ld-washing in the vicini ty of Bissersk . On

the 5th of July he reached the last of these works,

about twenty-fiv e verst s from Bissersk,and ent ered it

with M . Schmidt,a young mineralogist from Freyberg.

In the sands which were brough t t o him,amongst a

quant ity of iron crystals and quartz,lay the first dia

mond of the Ural ! It had been found the day beforeby Paul Popoff

,a b oy of fourt een

,employed in the

works. As a reward had been promised t o those whoShould discover any valuable st ones, the b oy hast enedwith his prize to the ove rseer. The overseer taking itfor a t opaz

,placed it among the o ther minerals for the

Count ’s inspect ion . Its transparency was perfect,and

the Count at once recognised it as a diamond. With in

thre e days afterwards a second was found by ano ther

b oy ; and a few days after his departure from the works

the Count rece ived a third,larger than the two o thers

put t oge ther.

As M . Schmidt had all the necessary instruments toexamine the three crystals

,and verify the discovery

,the

Count ordered him to take their specific gravity. The

first two gems we ighed t oge ther the exact mediumbe tween the extreme s assigned by m ineralo g ist s, as thespecific gravity of the diamonds ; there are and

The abso lut e we ight of the first was or a lit tleover half a carat .Count Po lier sent one of these diamonds t o Humbo ldt

by M . Schmidt; request ing him no t t o make the discov ery public unt il the party Should re turn t o St . Pe t ersburg

,as he had no t ye t present ed one to the Emperor.

Before his departure from St . Pe t ersburg,Humbo ldt was

OBENBER G . 403

confident of finding diamonds in the Ural,and jestingly

de clared to the Empress that he would no t re turn witho ut Russian diamonds . When the party re turned t o St .

Pe t ersburg in November,the Emperor alone had seen

the Count’s diamonds. Humbo ldt was the first who

Showed one t o the Empre ss .Count Po lier made a circums t antial report Of his dis

cov ery to the Minist er of F inance,and commenced a

le t ter on the subj ect t o Arago and the “ Annals ofChemistry

,

”b ut died before he could fin ish it . The b oy

who discovered the first diamond was more fortunat e,for

his liberty was g iven him ,and a sum ofmoney besides .

From Miask Humbo ldt and his party proce eded southward to the head wat ers of the U ri . They passed a

number of Villages belonging t o the Bashkirs,but no t

then peopled by them,for th is tribe

,leading a nomadic

life in summer,o ccupied the ir houses only in the winter.

Fo llowing the course of the southern Ural,the t ravellers

came to Orsk,at the j unct ion of the Or. This district

was rich in quarries of gre en jasper,and the river Jaik

,

in its Vicinity,pre sent ed some curious geo logical pheno

mena. The road from Orsk to Orenb erg be ing the mo stdangerous one on the who le front ier

,the authori t ies fur

nished Humbo ldt with a guard of Co ssacks as a defenceagainst the Khirg ises.

On the 2 1 st the party reached Orenb erg . It was th e

capital of the district,the chief fort ress on the line

,and

the centre of a vast caravan trade t o all parts of CentralAsia. The Go vernor-General being absent

,the party

were entertained by Major-General Gens . General Genswas deeply versed in the geography of Asia

,for which

he had co llected many import ant mate rials,part ly from

4 04 THE MOUNTAIN OF STORMS

the caravans that traversed that country,and partly from

his own t ravels. He t o ld Humbo ldt of a lofty mountainsituated to the north-east of the great Balkasch lake .

This mountain had once been a vo lcano,and caravans in

passing it were frequent ly disturbed by the storms wh ichit o ccasioned . The inhabitant s of the region in which itstood endeavoured t o propitiat e it by sacrifices of Sheep .

General Gens had no t seen this singular mountain,b ut

he knew a Tartar who had Visit ed it,or pre t ended to

have done so . It reminded Humbo ldt of the vo lcano esment ioned in the Chinese bo oks

,as lying far from the

o cean,the exist ence of which had divided the Opinions

of geo logists. He made it the subj ect of his invest igat ions

,and subsequent ly obtained more accurate imforma

t ion concerning it from the Russian po lice -director of

Semipolatinsk .

As Humbo ldt had seen but lit tle of the Tartars thatinhabit ed the regions along his route

,General Gens sent

a me ssenger to the neare st sultan of the Khirg ises, andreque st ed him t o come with his people into the ne ighb ourhood ofOrenb erg , and give the trave llers a specimenof the ir games and Sports. A large number ofKhirg isesso on made the ir appearance

,and raised the ir t ent s a few

versts from the city. Then the sultan came,and paid his

respect s t o Gens and Humboldt .They drove out t o the encampment

,surrounded by a

band of Khirg ises, who rode around the carriage at fullgallop

,rest ing with the ir hands on the back s of the ir

horses,with the ir fee t in the air. The sultan introduc e l

the t ravellers to his wive s who were seat ed in a row in

his tent,and the Sports began . The first was horse

racing. The jockeys drove off to the distance of seven

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406 THE GOLDEN LAKE .

by the winner in three minut es. The first prize was aSilver ruble

,the rest were pieces of co t ton 010th

,and

smaller present s. When the sports were over,the tra

v ellers re turned t o the city,and prepared for the ir

departure the next day.

From Orenb erg they descended the Ural to Uralsk,

the chief city of the Uralian Co ssacks,where they re

mained a day t o witness the autumnal fishing. Thenturning t o the north-east acro ss the moun tain steppe of

Ob schtschei Syrt,they pro ceeded t o Busuluk

,and from

thence westwardly t o the Vo lga at Samara. This regionabounded with sulphur springs and waters impregnat edwith salt and asphal tes ; in many places large quant it iesof sulphur were obtained from the earth . They descended the Vo lga

,passing a number of German co lonies

on its banks,and came t o Dubowka. From this place

they made an excursion t o the great sal t lake of Elton,

or Altan Nor,the Go lden Lake

,as it was called by the

Co ssacks. It was situated in the st eppe,se venty miles

t o the eastward of the Vo lga,and was ce lebrat ed for its

ext ensive salt manufact ories. In this lake the travellersfound large quant it ies of insect s and birds

,wh ich had

fallen into the wat er,and were pre served . From these

salt ed specimens Ehrenberg made a good collect ion of

thefauna of the region .

A t Sarepta,further down the river

,they visited a

co lony of Morav ian bre thren,who had established them

selves there in 1 765,since which t ime they had carried on

a considerable traffic,ch iefly of the ir own manufactures

,

with the Co ssacks.The lower district s of the Vo lga

,were quit e thickly

se t t led by the Kalmucks ; the travellers frequent ly passed

A KALMUCK TEMPLE . 407

the ir houses,and some times me t the people with the ir

herds Of horses,Sheep

,and came ls . In the course of

their j ourney they came to a Kalmuck t emple . Beforeits entrance stood a number of upright st icks

,like a

clump of spears adorned with flags,or pennons . These

pennons,which were long stripes of co tt on clo th

,were

covered with Kalmuck prayers,writ ten in the language of

Thibe t,which was always used by the prie st s in the ir re li

g ious rit es, though unint elligible to the irflo ck. The simpleKalmucks admired it

,j ust as the simple Catho lics admire

Lat in . It was a divine language,consecrate d by the use

of ages . Ne ither the priests nor the Kalmucks readthese prayers

, (the lat t er indeed could no t they werefastened t o the long st icks already ment ioned

,in order

that the wind might wave them t o and fro . The flut ter

ing of these writ t en supplicat ions was considered as

effectual as the repeat ing of them . _ If the g od t o whomthey were addressed had eye s

,and mo st of the gods of

Asia were supposed to b e rather liberally supplied in themat ter of Vision

,he could see them

,wh ich would answer

his purpose j ust as well as if he heard them . It was a

capital te st of his divinity,and it saved so much time !

The travellers ent ered the t emple,and watched the

Kalmucks at the ir worship .

Glaring picture s ofgro te sque ido ls,hung on the walls,

and g ilded images sto od on the altar,before which were

several basins containing fru it,wat er

,dried flesh

,cheese

,

and o ther offerings. Be twe en the door and the altarwere six priests

,sit t ing face t o face on the floor

,the

inferior priests nearest the door,the Lama beside the

altar. They were Singing and playing on a varie ty of

instruments . It was difficult to t ell which was worst

408 ASTRACHAN .

the ir chant or the ir music ; bo th were execrable,harsh

,

discordant,noisy— a diabo lical uproar. At last the

Lama aro se,the music ceased

,and the priests came and

talked with them .

The trave llers came in Sight of Astrachan on the

afternoon of the 1 2 th of October. They found a steamboat await ing them at the ferry by the o rder of the

Governor-General Ossipoff, and at once crossed over tothe city

,where they were rece ived by the firing of can

non,and an immense crowd of spectators. They were

conv eyed by four-horse carriage s t o the spacious apartment s allo t t ed them

,and the next day Humboldt was

wait ed upon by the digni t ie s of the city,and the deput ies

of t he various nat io ns represent ed in the population of

Astrachan . The Governor-General present ed them t o

the trave ller in the order ofrank. First came the burgomaster of the city and the e lders of the mercant ile profession

,bringing the tokens ofhomage

,in the shape of a

large pound cake,ornament ed with grape s

,plums

,pears

,

apples,and salt . Then came the nobles

,and the office rs

of the garrison,and last the deput ie s of the Armenians

,

Persians,Hindoo s

,and Tartars

,a mo te ly but pict uresque

assemblage .

The travellers remained at Astrachan n ine days,

studying its diversified populat ion,and Visit ing its bazars

and t emples . In one of these t emples they saw a falcir,who sat crouching on the floor ; his ch in res ted upon hisknee s

,be tween wh ich streamed his long white beard

,

that reached down to his fee t . He had been Sit t ing thusfor fift e en years

,with no clo thing b ut a she ep skin

,

which was thrown lo ose ly about him . He had fo rgo thimse lf to marble .

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11 4 PALACES AT POTSDAM.

palace was two or three miles from Berlin,o ut side the

Brandenburg gat e . It was built by the King on his

marriage with the Princess Sophia Charlo t te . The g ar

dens in which it st o od were pre t t ily laid out,diversified

with the windings of the Spree,and several small lakes

filled with carp . These carp were trained t o come at thesound of a be ll

,and pOp the ir nose s out of the water

for crumbs.At Po tsdam there were four royal palaces

,the most

no ted of which was the ce lebrated Sans Souci,built by

Frederic the Great,in 1 74 5—4 7 . It stood on a terrace on

the right of a broad avenue,which ran through the

g rounds . The grounds and gardens were laid ou t in thest iff formal French style of the last century ; here em

bowered alleys and cut hedges,there statues of fawns

and wood nymphs,and there fountains spout ing foam in

marble basins . Vines,o lives

,and orange s g rew in ho t

houses. At the end of the t errace on wh ich the palacewas built were the graves of the great Frederic’s favourit e dogs

,and of one of his horse s that had borne him

through many bat t les . Old Fritz loved this spo t,and

just before his death he used to b e brought to it in a greatarm -chair

,to bask in the sun

,w i th his dogs around him .

In the gardens of Sans Souci stood the Charlo t tenhof

palace , built by Frederic William IV.

,when he was

crown prince . It was in the style of a Pompeian dwe lling , e legant and tasteful

,with beaut iful fountains

,and

an ant ique altar,and a number of statue s and bronzes

from Pompeii and Hercu laneum . This Was the King’sfavourit e residence while at Po tsdam

,and here Hum

bo ldt generally re sided when he visited him— severalrooms be ing se t apart for his exclusive use .

HUMBOLDT AND AGAssrz . 4 1 5

The commencement of 1 8 30 found Humboldt and

his compamons,Rose and Ehrenberg

,at work on the ir

Asiat ic j ourney,b ut some years e lapsed before it was

ready for publicat ion . Humbo ldt ’s port ion was readyfirst

,which could hardly have been expected

,a consider

able port ion of his time be ing taken up with his officialduties . He sought the advice and assistance of his scientific friends

,as was his custom when undert aking his

great works . This obliged him t o reside a while inParis. He was also sent thither by the King

,with a

diplomat ic mission,to ackn owledge Louis Phil ippe and

the new regime. This was in September,1 8 30. In

February,1 8 3 1

,he fill ed ano ther mission there

,while

his bro ther William,who had re t ired from polit ics

short ly before the death of his wife,was decorated with

the o rder of the Black Eagle at home,and admit t ed into

the Council ofState .

It was at this t ime that Humbo ldt first me t Agassiz,

then a po or student,now the ce lebrat ed Professor I

was only twen ty-four years of ag e ,” says Agassiz

,in his

touching tribute to the memo ry of Humbo ldt,

“ I wasonly twenty-four years of ag e when in Pari s, whither Ihad gone with means given t o me by a friend

,b ut was

as last abo ut to resign my studies from want ofability tomeet my expenses . Profe ssor Mitsch erlich was then on

a VISIt to Paris,and I had seen him in the morn ing

,

when he had asked me what was the cause of my depre ssed fe elings

,and I t o ld him that I had to g o , for I

had no thing left .

T he next morning as I was seated at

breakfast,in front of the yard of the ho t e l where I lived

,

I saw the servant of Humboldt approach . He handedme a no te

,saying there was no answer

,and disappeared .

4 1 6 HUMBOLDT’S LIBERALITY.

I opened the no te,and I see it now before me as dis

t inctly as if I held the paper in my hand. It saidMy friend

,I hear that you int end leaving Paris in

consequence of some embarrassment s. That shall no tb e . I wish you to remain here as long as the obj ect forwhich you came is no t accomplished. I inclo se you acheck for fifty pounds. It is a loan which you mayrepay when you can .

’

“ Some years afterwards,when I could have repaid him,

I wro t e,asking for the privilege ofremaining for ever in

his debt,knowing that this request wo uld b e more con

sonant to his fee lings than the recovery of the money,and I am now in his debt . What he has done for me Iknow he has done for many o thers - in Sil ence and un

known to the world.

“ It is a circumstance worth l no ticing , cont inue s Professor Agassiz

,

“that above all the great powers Prus

! ia has more dist inguished scient ific and lit erary menamong her diplomat ists than any o ther S tate . And so

Humbo ldt was actually a diplomat ist in Paris ; thoughhe was placed in that po sit ion

,no t from cho ice

,b ut in

consequence of the benevo lence of the King,who wanted

to give him an opportunity ofbe ing in Paris as often and

as long as he cho se .

“ But from that t ime there were two men in him,the

diplomat ist,living in the H6t e l des Princes

,and the natu

ralist who roomed in the Rue de la Harpe,in a mode st

apartment in the second story,where his scient ific friends

had access t o him every day before seven . Aft er that

he was frequent ly se en working in the library of the

Inst itut e unt il the t ime when the Grand Se igneur madehis appearance at the court

,or in the salons ofParis.

”

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4 1 8 HUMBOLDT’S THE ORY OF VOLCANOES.

the atmo sphere which surrounds the hardened and oxydized crus t of our plane t . On this theory he explainedthe st ill act ive and the ext inct crat ers

,the direct ion of

the mountain-ridges,and the format ions of the so il ; he

deciphered the traces of former t erre strial revolut ions,

the ir relat ive ag e , and the physical powers which haveinfluenced and st ill influence the form of the earth

’s surface . Thus the masses of lava which pour from the

crat ers were to him the pe trified streams of formerlygushing Springs of the int erior of the earth ; from the

connect ion and similarity of effect s he t raced the causesand condit ions of the format ion of ro cks and superin

cumbent strata,of the chemical result s ofvo lcanic crup

t ions,of e levat ions and depressions of the earth

’s surface . By the strictest inve stigat ion of all o ccurring newappearances

,and by penetrat ing combinat ion of analo

gous,observed facts

,he explained numerous physical

and geo logical problems,who se exact so lut ion had

hitherto been deemed impo ssible . Humbo ldt thinks that

the volcanic act ivity of our earth,compared to former

age s,is considerably decreased ; it can no longer bring

forth new e levat ions or heat in the north,b ut can only

produce small crat e rs,and an agitat ion of the earth

’ssurface . Before the advent ofman into t errestrial nature

,

a t ropical,animal

,and vege table world flourished every

where on the vo lcanically-heated earth ; now,on the

co o led plane t,the pe trified surface only rece ive s warmth

from the sun,the t ropical luxuriance died out t owards the

north,and only flourishes where the sun can exercise its

perpendicular influence over the tropics.In tho se remo t e age s of the bo iling centre of our earthball the ho t fluid and the gases it generat ed often and on

CORRE CTION OF GEOGRAPHICAL E RRORS . 4 1 9

many po ints burst through the firm crust with tremendous force

,made cleft s and depressions in it into which

the mo lt en masses Of me tal,basal t

,and o ther mat t er

flowed,which were pe trified

,and now lie in the thus

formed mountain ridges. Thus arose the Cordilleras ofthe Andes

,the Himalaya mo untains

,and thus was pe tri

fied the waving surface of the broken so il into tho se h illsand valleys which transform our plains int o picture squelandscapes . From these causes Humbo ldt explained thepeculiarit ies of the Asiat ic soil. It was in consequenceof the volcanic power wh ich raised mountains and cont ineuts

,and swelled up the earth -crust bubbling like a

gigant ic vault,that these ho llow vaults sank down in

the course of age s,and thus Humboldt e stablished that

the depression of the surface of the o ld world,where the

leve l of the Caspian Sea,like that of the Sea of Ural

,

lies two hundred or three hundred feet be low the levelof the o cean

,and where the depression of the firm so il

ext ends as far as Orenb erg , Saratow, and south-east, pro

bably as far as the so -called central plain,is no thing b ut

a crater land like that of the mo on,where the large

po ints,above one hundred miles broad

,called Hipparch

,

Archimedes,and Pto lemy

,form a basin format ion such

as exists also nearer home ; for instance , in Bohemia.

’

Before Humbo ldt ’s j ourney int o the int erior of Asia,

there existed many erroneous no t ions of the geography,

the connexion of the mountain-chains,and the produc

t ions of the so il of tho se districts,but an ent ire ly new

view of the country was acquired through this bo ld and

pene trat ing trave ller,who made a large number of inde

pendent lat it ude measurements,and who obtained vari ed

informat ion on trave lling routes and local circumstances

4 2 0 CLIMATOLOGY OF ASIA.

from travelled Tartars,Bulgarians

,and Taschk ents

,as

we ll as from the Russian officers. The inner,central

part of Asia was no t,as had been suppo sed

,an immense

agglomerat ion of mountains,nor an unint errupted table

land,for Humbo ldt established that th is part of the

world was crossed from east to we st by four mountainsystems (by the Al tai, which ends westward in the Kirgh iz district

,by the Himme lsberg

,by Kuenlun

,and by

the Himalaya), which have exercised authent icat ed influence on the historical m igrat ions of nations. And

thus Humbo ldt discovered a vo lcanic t errit ory in the

centre of Asia,which is one thousand t o one thousand

four hundred mile s distant from the o cean,and which

present s a surface of two thousand fiv e hundred g eographical miles .The second vo lume of the “ Asiat ic Fragment s” con

tains,besides the descript ion of the twe lve rout es

,Ob ser

v ations on the Temperature and the Hygrome tric Condit ion of the Atmosphere in some port ions of Asia

,and

Invest igations into the Causes of the Deflect ion of the

Iso thermic Lines”— name1y,the imag inary lines wh ich

unite all po int s on the earth of equal mean t emperature .

In th is vo lume w e have impo rt ant contribut ions t o a climat ic knowledge of that country

,and in it are indicated

also the causes which produce the deflect ion of the iso

thermic lines from the paralle l circles. These results,

based on numerous astronomic and magnet ic measurement s

,throw an ent irely new light on this branch of

science,and are again clo sely connect ed with the re sults

of the former American journey,as Humbo ldt had there

also construed the t errestrial laws from similar phenomena in the o ld and new world.

”

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4 2 2 HUMBOLDT AND GOETHE .

t o arrange the collected results,to calculate them

,and to

publish the mean result s.”

After the publicat ion ofthe “Asiat ic Fragment s,Hum

bo ldt returned t o Berlin,stopping on his way at We imar

t o see Goe the .

“ I owe some hours of a frank friendlyconversat ion with your bro ther

,

” Go ethe wro te to William V on Humbo ldt on the l st of December

,1 8 3 1

,

“ for

whom I can find no expressive t it le . For although hisView of accepting and operat ing on geo logical obj ects isquite impossible for my cerebral organs

,I have seen with

real interest and admirat ion how that of which I canno tconvince myself

,is with him clearly deduced

,and enters

into combinat ion with the stupendous mass of his knowledge

,where it is then digest ed by his mo st est imable

charact er.

” A few months more,and Goethe was dead.

The next Six or seven years of Humbo ldt ’s life weredevo id of incident . His t ime was principally spent at

Berlin with the King,and at Tege l with his bro therWil

liam . Indeed all the t ime that he could spare from his

official dut ies was devo t ed to William . The death of

Frau Caro line brought them more clo sely toge ther ; theblow that robbed William of his wife gave him back hisbro ther. No t that there had ever been a Shadow of

e strangement be tween them,but in the ir case

,as in thou

sands of o thers,death seemed t o reveal them more fully

to each o ther. The ir heart s were cement ed by sorrow .

Besides th is there was ano ther bond be tween them— the

growing consciousne ss that William’s health was de

clining . The blow that struck down Frau Caro lineseemed t o have wounded him also

,for from the day of

her death he was changed. His nerve s were Shat tered ;he stooped and to t tered in his gait

,and his who le body

LAST ILLNE SS OF WILLIAM V ON HUMBOLDT. 4 2 3

trembled. It was evident that one of “the German Dio

scuri,

”as the bro thers were called

,was on his way t o the

Silent Land. One by one the friends of his youth wentbefore him . First Niebuhr and Ste in ; then Go ethe and

Gen tz,and then Hege l and Schle iermacher. Then it was

his turn . It was his custom to Visit his wife ’s grave on

the anniversary of her birthday, and it co st him at last

his life ; for on one of these so lemn fest ivals of his soulhe caugh t a severe co ld

,which hastened his death .

Three days before he died Alexander wro t e concerninghim to the ir mutual friend

,Varnhagen V on Ense . Here

is his lett er.

BERLIN,6 o

’clock a .m .

,5 th Ap ril, 1 8 35 .

You,my dear Varnhagen, who do not fear pain

,but

consider it reflec tiv ely in the depth of the feelings, you

must rece ive a few words of love which the two bro thersfee l for you in this mournful time . The disso lut ion hasnot taken place yet . I left him at e leven o

’clo ck lastnigh t

,and now hasten thither again . Ye sterday was a

le ss painful day : he was in a half soporific condition, hadmuch and no t very rest less Sleep ; and at each awaking

,

words of love and conso lat ion,and the clearness of his

great intellect,which comprehends everything

,and ex

amines its own condit ion . His vo ice was very weak,hoarse

,and sharp

,like a child’s

,therefore the physician

applied leeche s to the larynx. He is perfect ly conscious .‘Think often of me

,

’he said

,the day before yesterday,

‘b ut always che erfully. I have been very happy ; t o -day

also was a happy day for me , for love is the greatest

happine ss . I shall soon b e with your mo ther,and com

prehend the laws of the higher world .

’ I have no hope .

4 2 4 HIS DEATH .

I did no t think my old eyes could Shed so many t earsIt has now lasted e ight days .

A. V. HUMBOLDT.

Three days passed,— three long and dreary days of

suffering and sorfow

,and all was over. He died in his

bro ther’s arms.“ I had t he misfort une to lo se my bro ther the day b efore yest erday

,

” Humboldt wro t e to Arago,

“and am

in the most profound grief. In great distress we think ofthose dearest t o us

,and I fe e l a sligh t conso lat ion in

writ ing to you . We saw him dying for six days. Hisweakness had painfully increased during the last week ; acont inued t rembling had shown it self in all his limbs.but his mind had re tained all its nat ive vigor. He laboured ceasele ssly

,and leaves two almo st finished works ;

one on the languages of the Indian arch ipelago,derived

from the Sanscri t ; the o ther, on the origin and ph ilo sophyof languages in general . These works will b e published.

My bro ther has left his manu scripts,his commenced

works,and his valuable co llect ion ofbooks

,to the public

library. He died of an inflammat ion of the lungs,

watching,with painful sagacity

,the prbg ress of the dis

ease . His was a high inte llect,and his soul was full of

e levat ion and nobility. I feel very iso lat ed.

”

William V on Humboldt was buried on Palm Sunday.

At eleven o’clock the procession started from the cast le .

First came the hearse covered with crape and drawn by fourhorses

,fo llowed by Alexander andWilliam ’s children

and grand-children then a number of noble personagesfrom Berlin

,Prince William

,the King’s bro ther

,seve

ral generals and statesmen,and a long train of scholars

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4 2 6 HUMB OLDT IN THE LECTURE-ROOM.

dressed in a long brown coat . This man was the studi

osas p hilolog ioe, Alexander V on Humbo ldt,who came

,as

he said,to g o through again what he had neglecte d in his

youth . When we me t him in the lecture -room we re

spec tfully made way for him ; for though we had no re

spect for anybody,e specially profe ssors

,Humboldt was

an except ion,for he knew ‘

a hellish deal .’ To his own

honour,the German studen t st ill respect s this quality.

During the lecture Humbo ldt sat on the fourth or fifthbench near the window

,where he drew a piece of paper

from a port folio in his pocket,and took not es . In go ing

home he liked t o accompany Ro'

okh,so as in conversa

t ion t o build some logical bridge or o ther from the o ld

world t o the new,aft er his ingenious fashion . There was

then in the class a man who has since dist inguished himself in po lit ical literature

,b ut whom we had nicknamed

‘Mosherosh,

’that is Calves’-he ad

,on account of his

stupid appearance . ASMosherosh generally came in lat e,

it was the fash ion t o rece ive him with a magnificentround of stamping. One day, Humbo ldt t oo came late ,and just at the usual t ime of Mosherosh

,and without

looking up we gave the regular ro und,while Humbo ldt

,

blushing and embarrassed,made his way t o his place . In

a moment the mistake was seen,and a go od-natured

laugh succeeded. Humbo ldt also at t ended the eveninglecture s of Rit ter on universal geography

,and le t the

weather b e as b ad as it might,the gray-haired man never

‘

failed. If for a rari ty he chanced no t to come,w e said

among ourse lve s in student s’ jargon,

‘Alexander cut sthe co llege t od ay

,because he

’s gone to King’s t o

tea.

’ Once,on occasion of discussing an important

problem of physical geography,Rit t er quo t ed him,

and

PROPOSED HISTORY OF COLUMBUS. 4 2 7

everybody looked up at him . Humbo ldt bowed to us,

with his usual good-nature,wh ich put the youngsters

int o the happiest humour. We felt ourse lves e levated bythe presence of this great thinker and mo st laboriousstudent . We seemed to b e jo ined with him in the pursuit of great scien t ific ends .”

Humbo ldt ’s next work of consequence was “ A Oritical Examinat ion of the history of the Geography of the

New Cont inent,and of the Progress of Naut ical Astro

nomy in the 15th and 1 6th Cent urie s . It was wri t tenin French

,and was published in fiv e o ctavo vo lume s

,at

Paris,in 1 8 36- 3 9. He had once int ended to wri te a his

t ory of Co lumbus —a task for wh ich no one was so

well fit ted— and had employed the le isure ho urs of thirtyyears in collect ing materials for it b ut the mult iplicityof his labours

,in o ther direct ions

,prevent ed him from

comple t ing it . He was no t cont ent,however

,t o lose his

valuable materials,so he gave them t o the world in the

work just named. It is divided into four divisions.The first discusse s the causes wh ich prepared and led t o

the discovery of the New World. The second relat es toColumbus

,Amerigo Ve spucci

,and the dat es of several

important geographical discoveries . In the third he

t reats of the early maps of the New World,and of the

t ime when the name America was first commonly used ;the fourth is a history of the progress of naut ical

astronomy,and map

-making in the fifte enth and six

t eenth centuries . It is afine subject,and Humbo ldt has

handled it,as no one besides himself could have done bu t

it is no t equal to what we conceive his Life of Co lumbuswoul d have been, and we Shall always regre t that he

abandoned his first int ent ion.

4 2 8 GRAND CHANCELLOR OF THE ORDER OF MERIT.

In 1 840 Humbo ldt published an account of his

ascent of Chimborazo,and of the mean elevat ion of the

cont inent of America,beside s superintending the publi

cat ion of the works of his bro ther William. He wasalso a member of the academic commit t e e for the publicat ion of the works of Frederic the Great . In January

,

1 84 2,he accompanied the King of Prussia t o England

,

and was present with him at the bapt ism of the Princeof Wales . In May of the same year a new orderawaited him

,in connexion with the Order of Merit .

This o rder was founded by Frederic the Great as a military order

,only five non-military pe rsons

,of whom

Vo ltaire was one,being admit ted into it in his t ime .

Frederic William IV. inst itut ed a peace class of the

Order of Merit,and His Exce llency the Baron V on

Humbo ldt was cho sen Grand Chance llor.

Thirteen years had now passed since Humbo ldt hadmade his great Asiat ic journey

,and e leven years Since

his first book on the subj ect,the “ Asiatic Fragment s

,

”

appeared. During that t ime he had co llected a mult it ude of fresh mat erials from his correspondent s in Russia

,

and from the directors of the Observatory of St . Pe tersburg. So inst ead of preparing a second edit ion of the

Asiat ic Fragments,

” which was called for,the first

be ing out of print,he se t about an ent ire ly new work

,

wh ich should give the result of the latest discoveries.He was assist ed

,as usual

,by some of the mo st eminent

men of the t ime ; no t so much by his former scient ificco -lab ourers

,for the subj ect was beyond the pale of the ir

studies,as by a new and rising generat ion ofnaturalist s and

scho lars ; such men as Henrich Julius Klapro th,Stanis

laus Julien,and Eugene Burnouf. Burnouf invest igated

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4 30 PROFE SSOR LIEBER’S VISIT TO HUMBOLDT.

h imse lf,which is prepared entirely according to the

latest astronomic and alt itude measurement s . The cal

cul at ion of the astronomical observat ions made for thispurpo se

,in Siberia

,was the last work of Humbo ldt ’s

constant fe llow-worker,Oltmans

,who died soon after the

comple t ion of this t ask .

But le t us for a moment leave these great works, andglance at the ir author.

“ I visited Humbo ldt,

” said Professor Lieber,in his

e loquent address before the New York GeographicalSocie ty

,

“ I visit ed Humbo ldt at Po tsdam in the year1 844

,when he had reached

,therefore

,the ag e of seventy

fiv e ; for you know that he was born in that memorableyear

,1 769

,in which Cuvier was born

,andWellington

,

and Chaut eaub riand,and Napo leon

,and Canning

,and

Walter Sco t t,and Mackint o sh— j ust t en years after

Schil ler,j ust twenty aft er Go e the . Humboldt to ld me

at that t ime that he was engaged in a work which heintended to call Ko smo s ; that he was obliged chiefly t owrite at night

,for in the morning he studied and

arranged mat erials,and in the evening he was expected

to b e with the King from 9 o’clo ck to about 1 1 . After

his re turn from the King he was engaged in writ ing until1 or 2 o

’clock .

“ Humbo ldt,when in Berlin or Po tsdam

,was re tained

,

if we may use a professional t erm,t o j o in the evening

circle of the King for the indicated hours. It was all,I

believe,he was expect ed actually to perform in re turn

for the t it les,honours

,and revenue which he was enjoy

ing , except that the monarch some t ime s select ed him as

a companion on his journeys . Humboldt described tome the character of these royal evening reunions . Every

THE ROYAL RE UNIONS . 4 3 1

thing of int erest,as the day brought it to no t ice

,was

there discussed. The drawing of a beautiful live oak,

near Charleston,which a fair friend had made for me

,

was taken by Humbo ldt to that circle , where it at tractedso much at t ent ion that he begged m e t o leave it

,and he

to ld me that the vo lume describing our aqueduct,wh ich

my friend,the author

,now the President of our Co llege ,

had given me at the t ime of its publicat ion,and wh ich I

had then sent him ,had furnished the t opic of discussion

for an entire week. We co llect ed,he said

,all po ssible

works on ancient and modern aqueduct s,and compared,

disc ussed,and applied

,for many successive evenings. Is

there,then

,a royal road to knowledge after all

,when a

Humbo ldt can b e retained ?“ May I ext end your suppo sed permission of g iving

personal anecdo te s,provided they are of a suflicient ly

biograph ical charact er,such as Plut arch

,perhaps

,would

no t have disdained to record ? I desire to Show whatint erest he to ok in everything connected with progress.I have reason to be lieve that it was chiefly owing to himthat the King of Prussia offered m e

,no t long after my

visit,a chair to b e creat ed in the University of Berlin

,

exclusive ly dedicated t o the science and art of Punishment

,or t o Poenology. I had conversed with the

Monarch on the superiority of so litary confinement at

labour over all the o ther prison syst ems,when he con

cluded our int erview with these words : ‘I wish yo uwould convince Mr. V on Humbo ldt of your views. Heis rather Oppo sed t o them . I shall le t him know that youwill see him.

’

Humbo ldt and prison discipline sounded strange tomy ears. I went and found that he loved truth better“

4 3 2 HUMBOLDT’S INTE RE ST IN THE E R IE CANAL.

than his own Opinion or bias ; and my suggest ion thatso comprehensive a University as that ofBerlin

,our com

mon nat ive city,ought t o b e honoured with having the

first chair of poeno logy,for which it was h igh t ime to

carve out a dist inct branch,treat ing of the convict in all

his phases after the ac t of convict ion,was se ized upon at

once by his lib eral mind. He soon carried the Ministerof Just ice along with him

,and the offer to which I have

alluded was the consequence .

“ On the o ther hand,a friend

,who se name is perhaps

more interwoven with the history of our canal than thatof any o ther cit izen

,except Clinton

,informs me that he

had the pleasure of sit t ing by the side of Humbo ldt at aroyal dinner

,at Charlo t tenburg. During the who le t ime

they were engaged in conversing almo st exclus ive ly on

our great canal,and that greater one which ough t t o

unit e in everlast ing wedlock the sturdy At lant ic and

the teeming Pacific,having now yearned for one another

for centuries . Humbo ldt Spoke with a knowledge of

details and a sagacious discernment which were sur

prising t o my friend,we ll versed in all the details of

the se topics .“ Although it has been stated by high authority that

the works of Humboldt show t o every one who can

‘read between the lines’ an endeavour to presentNature in her t otality

,unconnected with Man

,I canno t

o therwise than stat e here that,on the contrary

,it has

ever appeared to me that this great man,studying

nature in her de tails,and becoming what Bacon calls

her int erpre ting priest,he e levates himse lf to tho se

he igh ts whence he can take a comprehensive View of

her in connexion with man and the movements of

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4 3 4 IIUMBOLDT AS A LINGUIST.

no descript ions or rather characterist ics,so true to living

reality as Humbo ldt ’s Views of Nature,whic l. he had

perused and enj oyed on the spo t .The power of co llocat ion and shrewdness of connex

io n,the knowledge of de tail and the absence of a desire

t o perce ive things according to a syst em,the thirst for a

knowledge of the Life of Nature and the constant wisht o make all of us share in the treasures of his knowledge— his lucid style

,wh ich may raise his Ko smo s t o a

German classic— the se seem t o me t o characterize Humbo ldt in his studies of Nature

,besides all that which he

has done as a professional naturalist .Humbo ldt ’s name and life may b e t ermed with strict

proprie ty of language,int ernat ional . He read and spoke

English and Italian ; he spoke and wro t e Spanishw ith ease and correctness

,and French almost as well as

German ; he lived for ent ire periods of many years inParis

,and count ed many French among his best friends

,

ye t no t at the expense of patrio t ism . In that veryspeech at Berlin

, which has been ment ioned, he dwellsw ith pleasure on the pene trat ing effect which the Ger

man mind has exercised on all the physical sciences noless than in the mental branches .

“ Humbo ldt was a dweller in kingly palaces ; a court ier,if you choo se , and the son of a court ier

,without a taint

of servile flat tery or of submission . He was rather the

honoured guest of royalty . He loved liberty,and con

sidered it a necessary element of our civilizat ion . Hewas a sincere friend of substant ial

,inst itut ional freedom.

His mind oft en trave lled t o th is country,and that he

loved America (some t imes with sadness) is sufficient lyShown

,were it no t o therwise well kDOWn

,by the sin

MY DEAR FRIEND,ARAGO . 3 5

gular love wh ich the Americans bore him . To me that

lit t le piece of news was inexpressibly t ouching whichsimply informed us that our Min ist er in Berlin

,with the

Americans now present at that city— a cluster of

mourners from afar— formed part of his funeral procession

,the only fore ign nation thus represen ted .

“ In his Simplicity and genial warmth he did whatmany a bo ld man would have hesitated to do . I waspresent as a young and dis tant list ener, wh en , at Rome ,immediat e ly aft er the Congress of Verona

,the King of

Prussia,Humbo ldt and Niebuhr conversed on the affairs

of the day, and when the last -ment ioned Spoke in. no

flat t ering t erms of the po lit ical Views and ant ecedents of

Arago,who

,it is we ll known

,was a very advanced

Republican of the Gallican Schoo l,an uncompromising

French Democrat . Frederick William III. simply ab o

minat ed republicanism, ye t when Niebuhr had finished

,

Humboldt said,with a swee tness wh ich I vividly remem

b er : ‘Still this monster is the deare s t friend I have inFrance .

’

“ Humbo ldt had all his bro ther’s Views of the ne cessityof the high est University education and of the widestpo ssible popular educat ion

,and he gave impulse t o

many a scient ific,h istorical

,or e thno lo g ical expedit ion,

fit ted out even by foreign governments,for he was con

sidered the counsellor of all .“ But I canno t dwe ll

,here

,any longer on his versatility

and manifo ld aptitude . It is proved by the literature

of almo st every branch . If we read Barth on CentralAfrica

,we find Humboldt ; if we read Say’s Po litical

Economy,we find his name ; if w e study the history of

the Nine teenth Century, we find his name in the diplo

4 3 6 HUMBOLDT COMMENCE S KOSMOS .

macy of Prussia and France ; if we read general literature

,we find his name in connexion with Schiller and

Madame de Stael ; if we lo ok at modern maps,we find

his iso thermal l ines ; if we consult Grimm’s dict ionary

of the German language,we find Humbo ldt as authority .

That period has arrived t o which Croesus alluded inthe memorable exclamat ion

,Oh

,So lon

,So lon. So lon !

and we are now allowed to say, that Humbo ldt was one ofthe mo st gift ed

,most fortunate

,and mos t favoured mor

tals— favoured even with comeliness,with a brow so

exquisit e ly formed that irrespect ive of its being the

symbo l of lofty thought,it is pleasant to look upon in his

busts as a mere beaut iful thing— favoured even in hisname

,so easily ut t ered by all nat ions which were des

t ined t o pronounce it .“ When we pray

,no t only for the kindly fruit s of the

earth,b ut also

,as we ought t o do

,for the kindly fruits

of the mind,le t us always grat efully remember that He

who give s all blessed things,has given to our ag e and to

all post erity,such a man as Humbo ldt .”

The publicat ion of the narrat ive of the expedit ion to

the Ural,by Ro se

,in 1 83 7—4 2

,and of Humboldt ’s

“ Central Asia in 1 84 3,gave the lat ter the le isure that

he needed to begin the long-delayed “ Ko smos .” To the

publicat ion of th is work,which was to embody the sub

stance of his lectures delivered at Berlin in 1 8 2 8— 2 9,

Humboldt had in some sort commit t ed himse lf,before

start ing on the Asiat ic journey. AS he rememberedonly the ou t line s of his lectures (there were sixty-one in

all,the reader will remember

,and they were de livered

without no t es), he was obliged t o g o over the who leground anew. He had begun t o do so

,we have

“

already

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4 3 8 STEPHENS THE TRAVELLER IN BERLIN.

the fifth and last in 1 858 . With the except ion of aj ourney t o Copenhagen in the former year

,and an occa

sional visit t o Paris (his last visit to the French capitalwas in October

,Humboldt spent this t ime

,the

last twilight of the mellow evening of his life,at Berlin

,

Po t sdam,and Tegel . The preface t o the first volume

of Ko smos” is dat ed from Po tsdam,and the preface to

the last edit ion of the “ Aspect s of Nature” from Berlin.

He was Visited at the former place in 1 84 7,by Stephens

,

the dist inguished American traveller,recent ly deceased.

“ Towards sunse t,on the first of July

,

” says Mr. Ste

phens,“the railroad cars from Hamburg brought me to

the gat e of Berlin. Entering the city the twiligh t of a

northern summer illuminat ed the stat ely houses,and the

broad avenue of Unt er den Linden . Leaving the broadportal of the Brandenburgh gate

,with the car ofVictory

on the t op , carried off as a trophy by Napo leon,and

after e ight years of capt ivity re stored t o its place— and

riding on to the o ther extremity of the avenue,I had

before me at one view the Schlo ss Platz,or Palace

Square,with the colo ssal palace

,and all the most magni

ficent buildings of the city,all enlarged and made more

grand by the mellow twilight,and exhibit ing an archi

t ec tural splendour hardly to b e me t with in any capitalEurope . Turning off on one side of the square

,at

nine o’clock

,I was ‘

taking mine ease ’ in the salon of the

Ho t el de Russie .

“ I had gone over in the Wash ington,the pione er of

the American mail st eamers t o Bremen,and was striking

over the cont inent for a passeo on the Rhine,and t o

intercept the st eamer at Southampton on ,her re turn to

New York. I had b ut one day for Berlin . There was

AT SANS soucr. 4 3 9

b ut one obj ect in it I had any special desire to see,and

that was— Humbo ldt . I might visit Berlin again,the

o ther monum ents of the ci ty would remain ; but hemigh t pass away.

Early in the morning I called upon Mr. Donaldson,

our ministe r,and t o my extreme regre t learned from him

that Baron Humbo ldt was with the king at Po tsdam,

thirty miles distant,in feeble health

,and unable t o

rece ive visito rs . Fortunat e ly I had o ccasion to callupon Baron V on B oenne

,formerly Prussian Minister to

this country,and incidentally ment ioning t o him my

disappo intment and regre t,h e st opped me abrup tly

,and

with friendly earnestness said,that I must no t leave

Berlin without see ing Baron Humboldt,at the same

t ime looking at his watch,cal ling up my servant

,t elling

him that th e cars for Po t sdam start ed at twelve ; andhas tily writing a line of introduct ion

,without allowing

me t ime for acknowledgments,he hurried me off t o my

carriage . A brisk ride brought me t o the depot j ust int ime for the cars ; three quarters of an hour carried ust o Po tsdam

,and almost before I had re covered from my

surprise I was at Baron Humbo ldt ’s residence .

“ It was in the royal pal ace,a state ly and historic pile

,

once the residence ofFrederick the Great,with his apart

ment s remaining in the same state in wh ich h e left them .

One wing was now o ccupied by Baron Humbo ldt,and it

seemed a just tribute and a rig ht reward— a propercrowning of his fame

,alike honourable to prince and

subj ect,that after years of travel

,of physical and int e l

lectual labour,he should

,in the evening of his days

,

re turn to the town in which he was born,to live in the

royal palace,the guest and friend of his king.

4 40 PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF HUMBOLDT

Ascending to the door of his apartments I was dis

appo inted anew by posit ive word from the servant inat tendance

,that the Baron would no t rece ive any visit ors

that day. With very lit t le hOpe of success, but dispo sed

t o try every chance,I left my let ter

,and card

,with an

int imat ion that I would call again at two o’clock .

“ On my return,the expression of the servant ’s face

as he Opened the door relieved me of all apprehension .

Showing me int o an adj o ining apartment,Baron Hum

boldt came t o mee t me with the flat t ering gree t ing thatno let ter of introduct ion was necessary.

I was ent ire ly mistaken in the idea I had formed ofhis personal appearance

,and was surprised at no t finding

him bowed down and bent by ag e . Nearly half a cen

t ury ag o , he had filled the first place in the world of

le t ters,sit t ing as it were

,upon a throne

,lighting up the

pathway of science to the philo sopher,and t each ing the

schoolboy at his desk . He was recorded in the annalsof a long generat ion . Indeed

,his re ign had been so

long,and his fame went back so far

,that unt il I saw

him bodily I had almost regarded him as a part of

history,and belong ing t o the past ; even then

,alone

,and

in the st illness of the palace,I could hardly keep from

looking at him as something monumental,rece iving the

tribute of posthumous fame .

He is now nearly e ighty,b ut has the appearance of

be ing some years younger. In stature he is rather underthan above the middle size

,with a frame

,probably in

youth,we ll fit t ed for the hardships ofhis arduous travels .

His head might serve as a study for a craniologist ; hisface is broad

,and his eye remarkable for its int e llect and

expression. He was dressed in a plain suit of black,

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4 4 2 HUMB OLDT’S INTEREST IN POLITICS .

the Rhine and the Danube,the Adriat ic and the North

Sea,with branches from t owns and manufacturing dis

tric ts,winding int o each o ther all over the country

,fur

nishing facilit ies for trave l and transportat ion t o the sea

board,such as had never been known before

,the greater

part of which,bo th as a mat t er of fe e ling

,and on the

score of int erest,must in the first instance turn to the

Unit ed Stat es .“ He inquired about Mr. Wheaton

,our lat e Minister

to that country,whe ther h e had arrived in the Unit ed

States before my departure,and what was t o b e his

future care er. He said that it was understood at Berlinthat he was t o b e appo int ed Minist er t o France

,and

expressed his surprise that the Un ited Stat es should b ewilling t o lo se the public services of one so long trainedin the schoo l of diplomacy,and so well acquainted withthe po lit ical inst it ut ions of Europe .

“ Although I had heard Baron Humboldt spoken of

as one of the privy council lors of the king,I did no t

expect t o find him,at his advanced ag e, and with his

great work Ko smo s t o o ccupy his mind,be stowing much

of his at tent ion on po lit ical relat ions ; b ut the po lit icalcondition Of Prussia

,and indeed of the world

,seemed t o

b e the subj ect which int erested him mo st . It was in factj ust at that moment an int erest ing po int in the h ist oryof Prussia. The long-called-for Die t

,which had be en

lo oked t o with great anxiety throughout all Germany,

had clo sed its session b ut two days before my arrival .For the first t ime in the h istory ofPrussia

,de legat es had

be en permit ted t o appear at the capital,and

,in the

hearing of the king,discuss the measures of his g cvern

ment . Great reforms had been p roposed. and bo ldly and

HUMBOLDT COMPLIIIENIS PRESCOTI‘

. 4 4 3

fearlessly debat ed . The debate s had been published,and the vo ice of a liberal party heard all over Germany .

Baron Humbo ldt himself is a liberal,a firm believer

in progress and improvement,known and recognised as

sympathizing with that great polit ical party which hasfor its lofty aim the great est go od to the great est num

b er,be t tering the condit ion of the masses

,and increasing

the sum of human happiness ; and wh ile throughout thecivilized world he has filled ‘

the measure of his fame ’ asa traveller and ph ilo sopher

,in Prussia he is regarded

besides as one of her soundest and best statesmen .

“ Out of Europe,Mexico seemed to b e the

'

countrywhich interested him most ; perhaps from its connexion

with those countries which had brought me t o his

acquaintance,or

,more probably

,because it was the

foundat ion of his own early fame . He spoke ofMr.

Presco t t ’s His to ry of the Conquest , and said that I might ,when the opportunity offered

,say t o that gent leman

,as

from h imself,that there was no historian of the ag e , in

England or Germany,equal t o him . 0

“ And he was keenly alive t o the present condit ion of

Mexico ; he was full of our Mexican war ; his eye s wereupon General Taylor and the American army. I waswell aware that , in the conduct of this war, General Taylor was drawing upon himself the eye s of all Europe ;and that

,what ever m igh t b e the differences of Opinion as

to its necessity or just ice,it was producing everywhere

,

in monarch ical and ant i -republican countries,a strong

irnpression of o ur ability and power for war— which inenlightened Europe

,even at this day, more than all

the fruits of peace,industry

,and extended commerce

,

more than the exhibit ion of twenty millions of people

4 4 4 HIS INTERE ST IN GENERAL TAYLOR .

abounding in all the comforts of life,raises as to the

rank of a ‘first -rat e power,

’and makes us ‘

re spected .

’

“ Baron Humbo ldt said that with one ofhis own mapsbefore them

,the king and his military council had fo l

lowed General Taylor from his encampment at CorpusChrist i

,to Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma

,through

the storming of Mont erey,and the bloody scene s of

Buena Vista. They had fought over all his bat t les,and

,

with his posit ions all marked on the map , were then

looking for further t idings. They had seen and appre

ciated all his difficult ies at Buena Vis ta. In Prussia waris a science

,and according t o the leading pol icy of

Europe,t o b e always ready for war

,every male in Prus

sia,the highest nobleman’s son no t except ed

,is compelled

t o serve his regular turn in the army. In the t ee th of

all set tled Opinions,and as it were

,upset t ing the whole

doctrine of standing armies,General Taylor

,with a

handful of regulars,and a small body of vo lunte ers who

had never been in bat tle,had stood up for a who le day

against a murderous fire,and had finally defeated four

t imes his number. Field-marshals and g enerals of

Prussia,among them ve terans who had studied the art of

war on the great bat tle -fields of Europe,were struck

with admirat ion at the daring and skill displayed at

Buena Vista ; and this admirat ion,Baro n Humbold t

said,they expre ssed witho ut reserve

,free ly

,publicly,

and everywhere . Amidst the bit terness and malignityof the English press

,it was grat eful t o hear from such

lips,that the leading military men of a military nat ion

did just ice t o the intrepidity of our vo lunte ers,and t o

the courage,skill

,and high military talent s of General

Taylor ; , while Baron Humbo ldt’s comment s upon his

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4 4 6 HUMBOLDT AND BANCROFT.

great ly,judged us calmly

,with the best and mo st fervent

wish es for our welfare,with no disinclinat ion t o our ih

crease of t erritory. Wishing especially that Californiaand all the noble tract of land which now be longs to us

o n the Pacific might come t o us,expressing only his

apprehensions of the ext ent of t erritory that circums tance s might st ep in and int erfere

,with the proper

development of free institut ions. I have never heardany one discuss these quest ions of our relat ions t o Mex

ico and our relat ions t o Cuba more calmly and morecandidly

,and with more gent leness towards us

,and with

mo re full and perfect int imacy of all the circums tancesthat would at t end any further progress on our part . Hewas always the friend ofYoung America. He measuredhis regard for us no t by any merit s that we might have ,b ut by the goodness of his own heart . He was alwaysready to pour out his thoughts

,his sympathies

,and his

encouragement s t o any young man that came within hisinfluence . I remember

,in 1 8 2 0

,having at that early

period bestowed a good deal of at t ent ion to the study

of languages,and

,among o thers

,the aboriginal lan

guages of our own country ; h e part icularly po int ed out

the proper me thods of cont inuing inquiries and invest i

g at ions on the subject . These ideas he no t only commu

nicat ed by word of mouth,b ut he wro t e them o ut at

considerable length , and I had the sat isfact ion,when I

returned,to communicat e them t o persons engaged in

that branch of study,and I doubt no t that in some degre e

they contribut ed t o the development of an acquaintancewith the aboriginal languages of this country .

“ It has been my go od fortune ,” says an American cor

respondent of The Commercia l Advertiser,writing from

HUMBOLDT IN 1 8 50. 4 4 7

Berlin on the l st of January,1 850: “ it l lZlS bee n my

good fortune to see the pat riarch of modern science,

Alexander V on Humboldt . During the summer,and in

fact up t o the last we ek,he resided in Po tsdam

,in the

royal palace ; when the king removed to Charlo t t enburghe ret urned to his own re sidence in Berlin. One of his

friends,t o whom I am al ready indebted for many kind

nesses,offered t o present me t o him

,and wro t e a no t e to

so licit an int erview. This is necessary,as casual visitors

are rare ly or never admit ted . The first po st of the nextmorning brought the answer

,writ t en evident ly before

daybreak,and mailed before seven o

’clo ck . He fixedthe hour at one o

’clook on the 2 9th . But on that day

a second no te informed us that Mr. Humbo ldt was unex

pec tedly called t o at t end some court ceremony at the

appo inted hour,and so begged us t o defer our visit unt il

the 30th,at the same hour. I ment ion this as an illus

tration of his at tent ion t o small th ings . He do es no tcons ider himself exempted from the performance of all

the minor dut ies of social int ercourse. Exact ly at the

appo inted hour we were at his door. The house is plainand comfortable

,j ust like the o ther three ~story houses

of Berlin,in its dull

,clay-ye llow co lour. The entrance

is by a large carriag e door, persons driving in and de

scending at the foo t of the stairway.

“ Humboldt occupies the second floor. A tall,well

fed servant in livery answered the bell,and ushered us

into a small ant ero om,where w e laid aside our cloaks

and hats,and wait ed unt il our visit should b e announced .

We had scarce ly t ime t o se e that a large picture on wood,

aft er the o ld Flemish school,hung on the wall

,and to

admire some stuffed birds , admirable specimens of taxi

4 4 8 PERSONAL APPEARANCE .

dermic skill,wh ich stood on a round table

,before the

servant reappeared and conducted us through a largeroom

,the walls of which

,from ce iling to floor

,were

covered with bo oks,plainly shelved up

,into the ro om of

Humbo ldt himself. He me t us at the door,and rece ived

us very cordially. I must confe ss that my first impre ssion was one of disappo intment

,for his busts and pic

tures had given me the idea of a man nearly six fee thigh

,rather stoutly built

,and erect as an arrow . Instead

of this . there stood before me a man of middle he ight,

his once robust frame and limbs meagre with ag e , and

his head drooping and shoulders bowed under the we ightof more than four sc ore summers . Behind him stood a

tall,ro sy-complexioned professor from Bonn

,some fifty

years of ag e , and at first my eye fe ll on him as the per

Son more nearly approaching my ideal of Humbo ldt ;b ut a single glance convinced me that he had no t ye t

l ived his half century. This ideal is the one common t o all

the world who have no t seen Humbo ldt,for everybody

that has seen him seems t o delight in repeat ing that ag e

has no t t ouched his noble facult ies,or abat ed his bodily

vigour. It is very natural t o us t o excuse our want of

acquirement s by at tribut ing supernatural qualit ies t othose who excel us so far as t o b e unapproachable . But

in the case of Humbo ldt the miraculous e scape from the

effects of ag e does not exist . He appears as o ld as he

really is,but in a fine stat e of prese i

'

vat ion — the resultof constan t t emperance , and active exercise in the openair from youth

,and of carefully avo iding all unnecessary

expo sure,and all extreme emo t ions

,but at the same t ime

cult ivat ing his affect ions,and the genial part of his

nature .

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4 50 A’ GOOD WORD FOR AGASSIz .

organs of such men . It is,I should say, a

of remarkably harmonious development,and no t

singular in its appearance,unless it b e a singu larity that

it is no t ye t bald, b ut covered with long thin whitehair.

“ The conversat ion ran on numerous topics . He hadjust rece ived a pamphlet published by one of our astronomers

,Mr. G .

,in wh ich Sir John Herschel is at tacked .

This he regre t ted,and made some remarks on the favour

able‘

opinion Hersche l had always had of America,and

her scient ific men . He inquired with int erest afterMr.

Bache,and his progre ss towards the survey of our coasts

,

and seemed quit e familiar with the state of po licy hisappo intmen t had produced among the gent lemen of the

navy.

‘The navy officers always obj ect t o an appo intment of that kind when not made from the ir own number

,

no mat ter how competent and efficient the person may

b e .

’ Speaking of Professor Agassiz,he said

, You

Americans have made a fine acquisit ion there . Agassizwould b e dist inguished

,even in Europe

,for his at tain

ment s in various branche s of natural history. Perhapsh e is a lit t le to o unbending in his theory of the effect ofglaciers on the change of the general cl imat e of the world.

However,he has thrown a great deal of light on that

subj ect,having made personally many very excellent

experiment s and observat ions.’ The ment ion ofglaciers

led naturally t o that Of persons who had explored them,

and of exploring voyages to the north . One ofus asked

his opinion as t o the fat e of Franklin . He thought it

quit e probable that Franklin had no t perished,b ut was

st ill shut in by the ice,and gave several facts ofvoyagers

whom he had seen,and who had been for long seasons

A FREE AND EASY ER ITON . 5 ]

so de tained in the northern seas. The Esquimaux of

the coas t,he said

,were no t at all dangero us ; Franklin

was we ll supplied with provisions,and would probably

ye t re turn to give an account of his voyage . Indeedthe report that the Esquimaux Indians

.had said that

some vessels had long been frozen fast in the ice,away

off to the north,seemed to b e fully confirmed .

He praised the United State s for its generous init iat ive in mat ters of science

,and said that the expedit ion

to Chili,for scient ific purpo ses

,would no t have been

undertaken by any country in Europe . He had on the

desk near him a le t t er,which he had apparently been

reading when w e came in. His eyes falling on it,he

asked,

‘Do e ither of you know a Lord K.

,who is now

travelling on the cont inent ? ’ On the reply that we hadno t the honour ofhis lordship ’s acquaintance , and indeedhad never heard of him

,he said that he had j ust rece ived

the mo st extraordinary le t ter from him .

‘He wri tes mefrom Dre sden that he will short ly b e in Berlin ,

and willb e most happy to make my acquaintance , and that I mustcertainly dine with him and a few friends at t wo o

’clo ck

on the 3d,at the Brit ish Ho te l . He expects an o ld man

like me t o come from Po tsdam in the middl e of wint ert o dine with a lord whom I know no thing about . Thisis one of the ant ics ofan eccentric class . ’ He then wenton in some g ay and delicat ely-humoured remarks on the

eccent ricity of Englishmen,which

,if I could put them

on paper as he ut tered them,would b e read w ith great

relish by the lovers of t rue w it , and by none more than

the English themselves . They reminded me of the

live ly sallies of the Parisian wit , Philare te Chasles . One

ofus t o ld him that Captain Stone had left forEgypt and

4 5 2 THE CALIFORNIA GOLD MINE S.

Jerusal em . Mr. Humbo ldt expressed the pleasure h e

had derived from his acquaintance,and wished t o know

whe ther the Captain was aware that he had put his namein the last vo lume of the recent edit ion of the work

,The

Asp ec ts ofNature . This is in connect ion with the accountof the Captain’s visit t o Popo cat epe t l . He then showedus the English translat ion of this work by Mrs. Sabine .

“ The name ofCo lone l Fremont happening t o b e men

tioned,Humbo ldt spoke in high praise of his c ontribu

t ions t o geographical science,and though t it unfo rtunat e

he had re turned as a prisoner by the very road which hetravelled as an explorer. He thought the day wouldcome when Co l . Fremont ’s works would b e much be t t erappreciated than at pre sent . He expressed the Opinionthat the probable produce of the Californian go ld mineshad been over est imated

,for that up t o the pre sent t ime

the yield had been much less than that of the Russianmines

,the lat t er having oft en produced annually thirty

millions of do llars . No such large pieces had beenfound in California. One solid piece of e igh ty poundshad been found in Russia

,and many of forty

,th irty

,

twenty,and sixteen . He was surprised that no plat inahad

been found. The se are only a few of the remarks madein a conversat ion

,which he

,of course

,conducted almo st

without remarks on our side . He seems t o have an

inexhaust ible store of fact s,and t o b e accurat e ly informed

about everyth ing and everybody . His friend said,after

we came away,that the way t o hear him t o the greate st

advantage was to ask his opinion on any given po int ,when his wonderful knowledge wo uld b e brought t o bearupon it in a manner most sat isfact ory to any scept ic as tothe ext ent and minuteness of his informat ion. We left

,

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4 54 BAYARD TAYLOR AT BERLIN.

suit of knowledge . He has brought t o this pursuit arare suscep t ibility to the charms of nature

,a heart capa

b le of fe e ling,and a head ofgeneralizing. His fortune

and rank have ever given him the best advantages ofevery kind . If he had no t be en a savant

,he might have

been an art ist or a po et,fo r his works show taste and

imaginat ion of the mo st exquisite perfect ion . Mo st of

his writ ings will compare in e legance with the purestclas sics ofGermany . In short

,he is one of the mo st har

moniously deve loped charact ers the world has ever seen,and posterity will

“

reserve for him a higher niche in the

temple of fame,than for the blo ody hero e s who have

dazzled the world for a moment by the ir engineer talentofmanoeuvring masses of troops .Some years lat er there came t o Berlin a young Ameri

can traveller,who

,younger than Humbo ldt

,when he

made his great American journey,had already trave lled

ext ensive ly in four cont inent s,and writ t en several books

of travel,which the world had pronounced unequalled

of the ir kind. He lacked Humbo ldt ’s universal knowledge of science

,for what t rave lle r, ancient or modern

,

ever po ssessed it ? bu t in word-paint ing— in the powerofmaking the landscapes that he had seen

,glow on his

pages,as on a paint er’s canvass

,he had no need to fear

a comparison with that great mast er of the picturesque .

From his early you th he had venerat ed the name of

Humboldt,and be ing in Germany

,he made a pilgrimage

to Berlin t o see him . The homage that he brought t o

the great traveller was alike honourable to bo th . It

becomes youth to reverence ag e , and it becomes ag e toaccept the reverence of youth .

“ I came t o Berlin,says Bayard Taylor, writ ing

KING HUMBOLDT. 4 55

from that city,under the dat e of November the 2 5th

,

1 8 56:“ I came t o Berlin

,no t t o visit its museums and

gal leries,its magn ificent street of lindens

,its Operas and

theatres,nor t o mingle in the g ay life of it s stree t s and

salo ons,but for the sake of see ing and speaking with

the world’s great e st living man,Alexander V on Hum

bo ldt .“ A t present

,with his great ag e and his universal re

nown,regarded as a throned monarch in the world of

science,his friends have been obliged

,perforce

,to pro

tee t him from the exhaust ive language of his tho usands

of subj ects,and

,for his own sake

,tO

'

mak e difficult theways of access to him . The friend and familiar com

panion of the King,he may b e said, equally, t o ho ld his

Court,with the privilege

,however

,of at any t ime

breaking t hrough the formalit ies,wh ich only self-defence

has rendered necessary . Some of my works,I knew

,

had found the irway into his hands ; I was at the begin.

ning of a j ourney which would probably lead m e

through regions which his fee t had traversed,and his

genius il lustrated,and it was no t mere ly a natural curi

o sity which at tract ed me towards him . I fo llowed the advice of some German friends

,and made use of no media

to ry influence,but simply dispat ched a no t e to him

,stat ing

my name and obj ect,and asking for an int erview.

Thre e days aft erwards I rece ived,through the city

post,a reply in his own hand

,stat ing

,that although he

was suffering from a cold wh ich had fo llowed his removalfrom Po t sdam to the capital

,he would will ingly rece ive

me,and appo int ed one o

’clock to day for the visit . Iwas punctual t o the minut e

,and reached his residence in

the Oranienburger-strasse as the clock st ruck . While in

4 56 HIS STUDY.

Berlin he lives with his servant,Se ifert

,who se name

only I found on the door. It was a plain two -storyhouse

,with a dull pink front

,and inhabited

,like most

of the houses in German cit ies,by two or three familie s .

The bell-wire over Se ifert ’s name came from the secondstory . I pulled : the heavy p orte-cochere opened of itself,and I mount ed the st eps unt il I reached a second bell-pull

,

over -a plate inscribed Alexander V on Humbo ldt . ’

A stout,square -faced man of about fifty

,whom I at

once recognised as Se ifert,Opened the door for me .

‘Are you Herr Taylor ?’he asked : and added

,on re

c eiv ing my reply : ‘His Excellency is ready t o rece iveyou .

’ He ushered me int o a room,filled with stuffed

birds and o ther obj ect s of natural h istory ; then into a

large library which apparently contained the gifts of

authors,art ists

,and men of science . I walked be twe en

two large tables heaped with sumptuous fo lio s,t o the fur

ther door,which Opened int o the study. Tho se who

have seen the admirable co loured lithograph of Hildebrand’s picture

,know precise ly how the ro om looks .

There was the plain table,the writ ing-desk covered with

le t t ers and manuscripts,the lit tle green sofa

,and the

same maps and pictures on the drab-covered walls . The

picture had been so long hanging in my own room at

home,that I at once recognised each part icular obj ect .

Se ifert went to an inner do or,announced my name

,

and Humbo ldt immediately appeared. He came up t o

me with a heart iness and cordial ity which made me feelthat I was in the presence of a friend

,gave me his hand

,

and inquired whe ther we Should converse in English or

German.

‘Your le t ter,

’ said he,was that ofa German,

and you must speak the language familiarly ; b ut I am

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4 5 8 MR . TAYLOR ’S WINTER JOURNEY.

should no t have suspected him of be ing over seventyfiv e . His wrinkles are few and small

,and his skin has a

smo o thness and delicacy rare ly seen in old men . Hishair

,althoug h snow-whit e

,is st ill abundant ; his step

Slow b ut firm,and his manner act ive almo st to restless

ness. He sleeps but four hours out of the twenty-four,

reads and replie s to his daily rain of le t ters,and

suffers no single o ccurrence of the least interest in anypart of the world to escape his at t ent ion. I could no t

perce ive that his memory,the first mental faculty to

show decay,is at all impaired. He talks rapidly

,with

the great est apparent ease,never hesitat ing for a word

,

whe ther in English or German,and

,in fact

,seemed to

b e unconscious wh ich language he was using,as he changed

five or Six t imes in the course of the conversat ion. Hedid no t remain in his chair more than t en minut es at a

t ime,frequent ly ge t t ing up and walking about the room ,

now and then po int ing t o a picture,or Opening a book

t o illustrate some remark.

“ He began by referring t o my Wint er Journey intoLapland .

‘Why do you cho ose the Wint er ?’ he asked

‘Your experience s will b e very interest ing,it is true

,

b ut will you no t suffe r from the severe co ld ? ’ ‘That‘

re

mains t o b e seen,

’ I answered,

‘I have t ried all climate sexcept the Arct ic

,without the least injury. The last

two years of my t ravels were spent in t ropical countriesand now I wish t o have the strongest po ssible contrast .‘That is quit e natural

,

’he remarked

,

‘and I can under

stand how your obj e ct in trave l must lead you t o se eksuch contrast s ; b ut you must po ssess a remarkablyhealthy organizat ion .

’ ‘You do ubt less know from your

own experience,

’ I said,

‘that no thing preserves a man’s

REMINISCENCE S OF CENTRAL ASIA. 4 59

vitality like trave l . ’ ‘Very true,

’he answered

,

‘if it

do es no t kill at the out set . For my part,I keep my

health everywhere,like yo urself. During fiv e years in

South America and the We st Indies,I passed through

the midst of black vomit and yellow fever untouched.

’

“ I spoke of my proj ect ed visit t o Russia,and my de

sire t o traverse the Russian Tart ar provinces of CentralA sia. The Kirghiz st eppe s

,he said

,were very mono

t onous : fifty miles gave you the picture of a thousand ;b ut the people were exceedingly int erest ing. If I desired t o g o there

,I would have no difficul ty in passing

through them to the Ch inese front ier ; b ut the southernprovinces of Siberia

,he thought

,would best repay me .

The scenery among the Altai mountains was very grand .

From his window in one of the Siberian t owns,he had

count ed e leven peaks covered with e t ernal snow . The

Kirghizes,he added

,were among the few race s who se

habit s had remained unchanged for thousands of years,

and they had the remarkable peculiarity of combining amonast ic with a nomadic life . They were part ly Buddist and part ly Musselman

,and the ir monkish sect s fol

lowed the different clans in the ir wanderings,carrying

on the ir devo t ions in the encampment s,inside of a sacred

circle marked out by Spears . He had seen the ir ceremonies

,and was struck with the ir resemblance to tho se

of the Cat ho lic church .

“ Humbo ldt ’s reco llect ions of the Altai Mountainsnaturally led him t o speak of the Andes. ‘You havetrave lled in Mexico

,

’ said he : ‘do you no t agre e withm e in the opinion that the fine st mountains in the wo rldare tho se single cones ofperpe tual snow rising o ut of the

splendid vegetat ion of the tropics ? The Himalayas,

4 60 THE CHAME LION .

al though loft ier,can scarcely make an equal impression ;

they lie further to the north,without the belt of tropical

growths,and the ir sides are dreary and st erile in com

parison . You remember Orizaba,

’ cont inued he : ‘here

is an engraving from a rude sketch of mine . I hopeyou will find it correct .

’ He ro se and t ook down the

illustrat ed fo lio which accompanied the last edit ion of

his ‘Minor Writ ings,

’t urned over the leaves

,and re

called at each plat e,some reminiscence of his American

trave l . ‘I st ill think,

’he remarked

,as he clo sed the

book,

‘that Chimborazo is the grandest mountain in the

world.

’

“ Among the obj ect s in his study was a livmg chamelion

,in a b ox with a glass lid. The animal

,which was

about six inches long,was lazily dozing on a b ed of

sand,with a big blue fly (the unconscious provision for

his dinner) perched upon his back‘He has j ust been

sent me from Smyrna,

’ said Humbo ldt ‘he is very listle ss and unconcerned in his manner. Just then the

chamelion Opened one of his long,tubular eye s

,and

looked up at us . ‘A peculiarity of this animal,

’ he con

t inned,

‘is its power of looking in different direct ions atthe same t ime . He can turn one eye towards heaven

,

while his o ther inspect s the earth . There are manyclergymen who have the same power.

’

“ After showing me some ofHildebrand’s water-co lourdrawings

,he re turned to his seat and began t o converse

about American affairs,with which he seemed to b e

ent ire ly familiar. He spoke with great admirat ion of

Co l . Fremont,who se defeat he profoundly regre t t ed.

‘But it is at least a most che ering sign,

’he said

,

‘and an

omen of go od for yo ur country,that more than a half

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4 62 NOT A RUIN BUT A PYRAMID .

which he had grant ed me had expired . Se ifert at lengthreappeared

,and said t o him

,in a manner at once respect

ful and familiar,

‘It is t ime,

’and I took my leave .

‘You have trave lled much,and seen many ruins

,

said Humbo ldt,as he gave me

,

his hand again ;‘now

you have seen one more ! ’ ‘No t a ruin,

’ I could no t

help replying,

‘b ut a pyramid.

’ For I pressed the

hand wh ich had t ouched tho se of Frederick the Great,

of Forst er,the companion of Captain Cook

,of Klop

stock and Schiller,of Pit t

,Napo leon

,Jo sephine

,the

Marshals of the empire,Jefferson

,Hamilton

,Wie land

,

Herder,Go ethe

,Cuvier

,Laplace

,Gay Lussac, Bee

thov en,Wal ter Sco t t

,in short of every great man whom

Europe has produced for three -quarters of a century . Ilooked into the eyes wh ich had no t only seen this livingh ist ory of the world pass by

,scene after scene

,t ill the

actors re t ired one by one,t o re turn no more

,b ut had

beheld the cataract of Atures and the forests of the

Cassiquiare , Chimborazo , the Amazon, and Popocatepe t l, the Al taian Alps of Siberia

,the Tartar steppes

,

and the Caspian sea. Such a splendid circle of experi

ence we ll befit s a life of such generous devo t ion t o science ; I have never seen so sublime an example of Oldag e , crowned with imperishable succe ss, full of the

ripest wisdom,che ered and swee t ened by the noblest

at tribut es of the heart . A ru in,indeed ! A human

t emple,perfect as the Parthenon .

As I was passing out through the cabinet ofNaturalHist ory

,Seifert ’s vo ice arrested me ;

‘I b eg your pardon

,Sir

,

’ said he ;‘b ut do you know What this is ? ’

po int ing to th e ant lers of a Rocky Mountain elk .

‘Ofcourse I do

,

’ said I ; ‘I have helped to eat many of

MR . TAYLOR ’S SE COND VISIT. 4 63

them .

’ He then po inted out the o ther specimens,and

t o ok me into the library,t o show me some drawings by

his son-in-law,Miihlhausen

,who had accompan ied Lieut .

Whipple,in his expedit ion t o the Rocky Mountains.

He also showed me a very e laborat e specimen of beadwork

,in a gilt frame .

‘This,

’he said

,

‘is the work of

a Kirghiz princess,who presented it t o His Excellency

when w e were on our j ourney t o Siberia.

’ You

accompan ied His Exce llency,then ?

’ I asked.

‘Yes,

’

said he ;‘we were there in Se ifert is j ust ly proud

of having shared fo r thirty or forty years the fortunesof his mast er. There was a ring

,and a servant came in

to 'announce a visit er.

‘Ah,the Prince Ypsilant i

,

’ saidh e don’

t le t him in ; don’t le t him in ; don

’t let a sin

g le so ul in ; I must g o and dress His Excellency. Sir,

excuse me— yours,most respectfully

,and therewith he

bowed himself out . AS I descended to the stree t,I

passed Prince Ypsilant i on the stairs .”

In October,of the fo llow ing year

,Mr. Taylor had a

second int erview with Humbo ldt,this t ime at Po t sdam .

As I had busine ss,he write s

,which de tained me

four days in Berlin,I sent a no te t o Humbo ldt

,asking

permission to call upon him again,in case his time p er

mit ted the visit . The next day’s express from Po tsdambrought me a mo st kind and friendly reply

,welcoming

me back to the ‘Balt ic sand-sea,

’as h e calls the Bran

denb urg plain,and stat ing that

,altho ugh the Emperor

Alexander and his suit e were to arrive that evening,he

would nev ertheless t ake an hour or two from the excit ement of the Court to talk t o me about the North . Hewas residing in the Palace at Po tsdam

,where he directed

me t o call at noon on Monday.

4 62 NOT A RUIN BUT A PYRAMID .

which he had grant ed me had expired . Se ifert at lengthreappeared

,and said t o him

,in a manner at once respect

ful and familiar,

‘It is t ime,

’and I took my leave .

‘You have t ravelled much,and seen many ruins

,

said Humbo ldt,as he gave me

.

his hand again ;‘now

you have se en one more ! ’ ‘No t a ruin,

’ I could no t

help replying,

‘b ut a pyramid.

’ For I pressed the

hand which had touched tho se of Frederick the Great,

of Forst er,the companion of Captain Co ok

,of Klop

sto ck and Schiller,of Pit t

,Napo leon

,Jo sephine

,the

Marshals of the empire,Jefferson

,Hamilton

,Wie land

,

Herder,Go e the

,Cuvier

,Laplace

,Gay Lussac, Bee

thov en,Walter Sco t t

,in short of every great man whom

Europe has produced for three -quart ers of a century. Ilooked into the eyes wh ich had no t only seen th is livingh ist ory of the world pass by

,scene after scene

,t ill the

actors re t ired one by one,t o re turn no more

,b ut had

beheld the cataract of Atures and the forests of the

Cassiquiare , Chimborazo , the Amazon, and Popocatepe t l, the Altaian Alps of Siberia

,the Tartar steppes

,

and the Caspian sea. Such a splendid circle of experi

ence well befit s a life of such generous devo t ion t o science ; I have never seen so sublime an example of o ld

ag e , crowned with imperishable succe ss, full of the

ripest wisdom,che ered and swee tened by the noblest

at tributes of the heart . A ruin,indeed ! A human

t emple,perfect as the Parthenon .

As I was passing out through the cabine t ofNaturalHistory

,Se ifert ’s vo ice arrested me ;

‘I b eg your pardon

,Sir

,

’ said he ;‘b ut do you know what this is ? ’

point ing to the ant lers of a Ro cky Mountain elk .

‘Ofcourse I do

,

’ said I ; ‘I have helped to eat many of

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4 64 SANS SOUCI.

The train by which I left Berlin was filled with ofli

cers and diplomat ic officials in full uniform,go ing down

t o do homage to the Czar. In the carriage in which I sat,

were two o ld gentlemen who present ly commenced con

versing in French . After a t ime,the ir talk wandered to

the Orient,and they spoke of Diebitsch and his cam

paig ns, and the treaty of U nkiar-Isk elessi. Suddenlyone of them asked in Arabic

,

‘Do you speak Arabic ?The o ther answered in Turkish ,

‘No,bu t I speak Turk

ish .

’The first replied in the same language

,wh ich

,

after a t ime,the two exchanged for Modern Greek

,and

finally subsided into Russian. I made out that one wasa Wallachian

,b ut could discover nothing more

,no twith

standing there was an air ofa secre t mission about them,

which great ly piqued my curio sity. With us was also aPrussian regimental surgeon

,decorated with the Order of

St . Stanislaus for his serv ice in the Crimea.

“ Po t sdam was all alive with the Imperial arrival . TheKing of Saxony was also coming t o dinner ; and, thatthe three monarchs might b e pleasant ly divert ed in the

evening,the sparkling Marie Taglioni

,who had arrived

with us,tripped out of the cars and off t o the Royal

Theatre . The park at Sans Souci was in brilliant ho liday trim,

the walks newly swept,and the fountains je t

t ing the ir tallest and bright est streams. The stree ts ofthe dull lit t le court-town glit tered with resplendent uni

forms,among which the driver of my carriage po inted

out Carl,Albert

,and vario us o ther princes of the House

ofPrussia. As we were cro ssing an Open space near thepalace

,a mount ed guard

,fo llowed by an Open carriage

,

drawn by a span of superb black horse s, suddenly ap

peared. I at once recognised the punchy figure in a

HUMBOLDT IN 1 8 57 . 4 65

green military coat,but toned up t o the chin

,who sat on

the righ t hand,although I had never before se en his

Majesty . My driver re ined up on one side and t o ok off

his hat . I lifted mine as the King passed,looked at him

,

and he replied with a military salut e . His face wasslight ly flushed and his eyes brigh t

,and I remember

th inking that the heavy and rather stupid air wh ich hewears in his portrait s did him inj ust ice . But he was eventhen

,perhaps

,laboring under that congest ion which

struck him down the same nigh t,and from the effect s of

wh ich he will never recover.

“ I was glad wh en the clo ck struck twe lve at last,and

I could leave the rat tling street s for that quie t corner of

the palace in which Humbo ldt lives. The door was

opened,as before

,by Se ifert

,who recognised me at

once .

‘Welcome b ack ! ’ he cried ; we know where

you have been— we have read all your le t t ers ! His Excellency has been quit e sick, and you will no t find himso strong as he was last year, b ut he is in t o lerable health

again,thank God ! Come in

,come in ; he is wait ing .

’

Opening the doors as lie spoke,he ushered me into a lit

t le library,on the thresho ld of wh ich Humbo ldt

,who

had risen,rece ived me . He was sligh t ly paler than b e

fore,a lit t le thinner

,perhaps

,and I could see that his

step was no t so firm ; b ut the pale blue eye beamed as

clear an int elligence as ever,and the vo ice had as steady

and che ery a t one . He sho ok hands with the cordiali tyof a friend

,and after the first gree t ing s were o ver

,

quest ioned me minutely concerning my t rave ls in the

North .

“ But one t opic soon suggests a hundred o thers,and he

was ere long roaming at large over the who le field of2 0*

4 66 PROOF-SHEETS OF KOSMOS.

geography and climato logy,t ouching the farthest and

darkes t regions of the earth with the ligh t of his stu

pendous knowledge . The shee t s of the new vo lume of‘Ko smos’ lay upon the table .

‘Here is what I havebe en do ing

,since you were here before ,

’ said he,taking

it up : ‘the work will b e published in two or thre e

we eks. ’ ‘You find yourself,then

,still capable Of such

labour ? ’ I ventured t o ask .

‘Work is now a part ofmy life

,

’ said he ;‘I sleep so lit tle

,and much rest wo uld

b e irksome . Day before yesterday, I worked fo r sixteenhours

,reviewing these shee t s. ’ ‘Are you no t

.

great lyfat igued

,

’ I asked,

‘after such an exert ion ? ’ ‘On the

contrary,

’he replied

,

‘I fe el refreshed,b ut the per

formance of it depends great ly on my state of bodilyhealth . I am unconscious of any mental fat igue .

’ AsI saw in the face

,and heard in the vo ice

,of the splendid

old man,all the Signs of a sound

,unfailing intellect

,I

could we ll be lieve it . I had prided myse lf a lit tle on

having worked with the brain fifte en hours a day for Sixmonths

, ye t here was Humbo ldt , in his e igh ty-nin th year,capable of an equal exert ion.

The manner in wh ich he spoke of his bodily healthwas exceedingly int erest ing t o me . His mind

,full of

vigour and overflowing wi th act ive life,se emed to con

sider the body as some thing independent of itself,and t o

watch,wi th a curious eye , its gradual decay, as he might

have wat ched that of a tre e in his younger days . ‘Ihave be en unwell through the Summer

,

’said he

,

‘b ut

you must no t believe all you may have se en in the newspapers concerning my illness . They stated that I wasat tacked with apoplexy

,b ut it was only a vertigo

,wh ich

soon left m e,and has no t been fo llowed by any of the

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4 68 IIILDEBRAND’S DRAWING .

face st ill as plainly as I can see yours. I was b i t

eighteen when I visited England for the first t ime . It

was during the trial ofWarren Hast ings,which I fre

quently at t ended. I remember that I heard EdmundBurke

,Pit t

,and Sheridan

,all speak on the same night .’

“ I shall no t repeat his account of the Cong ress~ of

Verona,or his anecdo te s of Alexander I. of Russia

,

whom he knew int imate ly,as I am no t certain whe ther

I have a righ t t o do so at present . After the visitorsleft

,I remained with him unt il it was t ime for him to

prepare for the dinner given to Alexander II.

,t o wh ich

he was bidden .

‘You will pass through Berlin on yourway t o Mo scow ?

’ said he .

‘Yes.

’ ‘We ll— Imust b epo lite enough to live unt il then . You must bring yourwife with you . Oh

,I know all about it

,and you must

no t think,because I have never been married myself

,

that I do no t congrat ulat e you .

’ After these cordialwords

,and a clasp of the hand

,in which there was

no th ing weak or tremulous,I part ed from the immortal

old man .

I was glad to learn from Seifert,that Hildebrand’s

admirable water-co lour drawing of Humboldt in his

library is soon t o be print ed in chromo tint,so that very

accurat e copies of it can b e obtained at a moderat e price .

As I have no t only seen the o riginal but the ro om and

man that it repre sent s,I can t est ify t o its ent ire fidelity

,

and wo uld suggest t o Humbo ldt ’s admirers in Americathat they canno t procure a bet ter illustrat ion of him . Isuppo se Copie s o f it will b e sent to America for sale .

Herr MOllhausen,Se ifert ’s son-in-law

,who is now

at tached,as art ist

,t o the expedit ion for the survey of a

wagon-road to the Pacific,prepared for the press, before

HUMB OLDT AT POTSDAM. 4 69

leaving Berl in,a splendidly ill ustrat ed work on the Gila

Count ry,wh ich is now be ing published under the pat ron

ag e of the King. It will co st about twen ty-eight do llarsa copy . Humbo ldt himse lf wro te the preface

,a copy of

which he gave m e . He was great ly g ratified at the

readine ss with which our present Secretary ofWar gaveMr. MO‘llhausen a second appo intment .”

Such was Alexander V on Humboldt,author and tra

ve ller,as he appeared t o authors and trave llers in the

palace of his King,and in his own quie t home . To the

cit izens of Po t sdam and Berlin,all of whom knew him

by sigh t,he appeared in a somewhat different light ; for

whil e many of them were ignorant of him as an authorand traveller

,or had at be st b ut a vague idea of his

world-Wide renown in this respect,none were ignorant

of his rank as one of the King’s privy councillors.Everybody knew His Excellency

,the Baron V on Hum

bo ldt,and honoured him like the King himself. He was

oft en seen at Po tsdam,walking on the t errace of Sans

Souci with his Majesty,Frederic William IV.

,or saun

t ering by himse lf in the avenues of the park . One of

his favourit e haunts at Sans Souci was a shady walk,in

a ret ired part of the garden. He loved this spo t becauseit reminded him of his friend

,the former King

,who was

buried there . Frederic William III. slept by the side of

his queenly wife in a stat e ly marble monumen t,the

work of the sculp tor,Rauch . Upon th is monument was

a recumbent statue ofhis Maj esty,

With his martial cloak around him.

But it was in Berlin after all that Humbo ldt was best

4 70 IN TIIE STREET S OF BERLIN .

known. His house in the Oranienburger-strasse was,as

we have said,in the ne ighbourhood of the palace

,to

which he went daily when the King was in Berlin. Allthe inhabitant s of the city

,men

,women

,and children

,

knew his slender figure and wh ite hair. He walkedwith a firm b ut slow st ep

,with his head bent on his

breast . His dress was simple,a plain black suit

,without

ribands or orders,and he had the Napo leonic habit of

carrying his hands beh ind him. His eye was generallyfixed on the ground

,b ut he always no t iced and re t urned

the gre e tings of the cit izens. He was as much at homein the stre et

,as in his own private study

,for the passers

by st epped softly aside for fear ofdisturbing his thought s ;the poorest working-man gazed after him as he passed

,

and whispered t o his comrade or ne ighbour : “ Therego es Humbo ldt .”

Often in the summer twilight the o ld man was seenwending his way t o the beaut iful avenue— Unt er denLinden . A few minut es’ walk from his house broughthim to Frederic’s-strasse

,and the bridge that cro ssed the

Spree,and a few minut es more t o Unt er den Linden

,

wh ich was crowded with promenaders. Up and downthe avenue of lime tree s

,now in shadow and now in

sunshine,the figure of the o ld man moved

,his hands

beh ind him,and his head dro oping on his breast . Of

what is he thinking as he walks there in the mellowtwilight ? Of Ch imborazo and Co t opaxi

,or the dreary

wastes ofCentral Asia ? Or of the ye t unwri t t en vo lumeof “ Ko smos Perhaps h e dreams of his early days

,

the far of golden t ime when he was a b oy at Tege l .Le t the o ld man dream

, ye g ay prome‘

naders ! Disturbhim no t with your laught er ; le t him no t hear your foo t

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4 7 2 LAST MENTION OF BONPLAND.

sant duty ofgiving you some Sign of life— that is to saya renewed proof of my at tachment t o you and my interest in your co untry

,and a brief account ofmy labo urs .

My physical strength declines,b ut it declines

slowly. My steps are more uncertain in the ir direct ion,owing t o a feeblene ss of the ligament s of the knees ;b ut I can remain standing for an hour without beingfat igued. I cont inue work chiefly at night

,be ing unre

lenting ly persecut ed by my correspondence , wh ich increases the more as one become s an obj ect of publiccurio sity; What is called literary ce lebrity is e speciallythe result of long endurance of life . This kind of emi

nence increases,therefore

,in proport ion as imbecility

becomes more man ife st . I am never really ill,b ut often

incommoded,as is t o b e expected at the ag e of e igh ty

nine .

“ Since we were only two persons in the American ex

pedition (the unfortunat e Carlo s de Montufar, son of the

Marquis de Selvale g ra of Quito,fe ll a v ict im t o his love

for the liberty ofhis country), it is somewhat remarkablethat we should bo th have reached so advanced an ag e .

Bonpland,st ill much o ccupied with scient ific labours

,

even cherish ing the hope of Visit ing Europe again,and

ofbringing in person back to Paris his rich and beaut ifulco llect ions in bo tany and geo logy

,is e igh ty-fiv e years

o ld,and enjoys great er strength than I do .

I have j ust published in Germany the fourth volumeof Ko smo s

,and they are now print ing the fifth vo lume

,

wh ich comple te s that work so imprudent ly begun and

so favourably rece ived by the public. Gen . Sabinewrite s me that the English translat ion l s finished andwil l appear immediately. The same news comes to me

ANOTHER GOOD WORD FOR AGAssrz . 4 7 3

from France,from M . Galuzzi

,who has been passing the

winter in the South,at Canne s .

“ The great and beaut iful work ofAgassiz (the firsttwo vo lumes) reached me only a few days since . It willproduce a great effect by the breadth ofits general v iewsand by the extreme sagacity of its special embryo logicalobservat ions. I never believed that th is illustrious man

,

who is no less a man of a constant and beaut iful nature,

would accept the offers nobly made him in Paris . I wassure that grat itude woul d bind him t o a new countrywhere he finds a field so immense for his re searches andgreat means of as sistance . I hOpe he may b e inclined,toge ther with his great anatomical and physio logicallabours among the inferior organisms

,t o give us also the

Specific ich thyo logy of the numerous basins of the ‘Far

We st,

’ beginning with the Ho ly Empire Of the Mormons .Science has lat ely met with an immense lo ss here by

the unexpect ed death of the great est anatomist of our

country,Prof. Johann Miil ler. This lo ss is as great forscience

,as was for art the death of the immortal sculpt or

Ranch . The universality of his zoo logical knowledgein the inferior organizat ions placed Johann Miil ler near

Cuvier,having a great pre -eminence in the de licacy of

his anatomical and physio logical work . He made longand painful voyages, at his own expense

,on the shores

of the Mediterranean and in the Northern Seas . It isscarcely two years since he came near perishing by shipwreck on the co ast of Norway. He sustained himse lfby swimming for more than half an hour

,and considered

h imself quite lo st when he was wonderfully rescued . Ilose inhim a friend who was very dear to me . He wasa man of great t alent , and at the same t ime of a noble

4 7 4 AN ASSASSIN OF SOULS !

charact er. He was admirable for the elevat ion and inde .

p endence of his opinions . By making enormous sacrifices he was able t o form a cho ice library

,no t only of

anatomy,physio logy

,and zo o logy

,b ut one that ex

t ended over all the physical science s . It consists ofmore than three thousand vo lumes

,well bound

,and

of as many more vo lumes containing dissertat ions,so

difficult t o collect . Mr. Miiller spent nearly e ight hundred thalers a year for binding alone . It would b esad to see a co llect ion dispersed and broken up

,wh ich

was made with so much care . Since duplicat e s are

dreaded in Europe,I canno t help fearing lest this fine

co llect ion should cro ss the great At lant ic river. I havealmost the air of excit ing your appet it e when I thus present myse lf before you as a cit izen of the world

,while

the Church j ournal of Vienna calls me,in capital le t ters

,

a naturalist aSsassin of souls,Selen

“ Accept,I b eg you , my dear and respected friend

,the

renewal of the high and affect ionat e considerat ion which,

for so many years,I have given to your talent s and to

your character.

A. V. HUMBOLDT.

BERLIN,9th May, 1 858 .

Since so many benevo len t persons,colored as well

as whit e,in the Unit ed States

,take an int erest in me

,it

would b e agreeable t o me,my dear friend

,if this le t t er

,

translat ed into English by you ,could b e p rinted, without

omit t ing what re lat es to our mutual friendship . If youth ink it necessary you can add that I have myse lf beggedof yo u th is publicat ion, because I leave unanswered so

many le t t ers that are addressed t o me .

”

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4 76 HEALTH To THE KING OF SCIENCE !

The dinner was set at three o’clock

,and every one

was already there a lit t le before the hour,in order to b e

pre sent when Humbo ldt came . He ent ered the roomprecisely upon t ime . He is a very short man

,and quit e

infirm,and it is with difficulty that he is able to walk.

Of course as soon as he was placed in his chair,the Min

ister introduced the ladies and many of the gent lemenpresent . After a few minutes’ conversat ion the partyadj o urned t o the dinner, and the

‘devouring of eatables ’

took place after a short blessing from a clergyman .

Gov . “ fright made th e first speech,and spoke of the

o ccasion wh ich had brought them t oge ther in a very eloquent manner

,and gave as the first t oast

,

‘The Princeand Princess of Prussia,

’and for the second

,

‘Wash ingt on

’s birthday .

’ Next the Secre tary of Legat ion made afew remarks

,and gave a toast in which b e coupled the

names of ‘Washington and Humbo ldt,

’ which was drunkstanding

,and three rousing cheers given . After some

o ther speeche s and to ast s were given,Mr. Thayer (cor

respondent of Dwig ht’s Journal of Music) gave the fol

lowing,wh ich I consider the best t oas t of the occasion

‘The Baron V on Humboldt — the King of Science,the

latchet of whose shoe s nol

common Kings are worthy of

unlo osing.

’It made a tremendous no ise

,andHumbo ldt

Spoke in answer ; bu t his vo ice was so fe eble,and his

language so indist inct,that I believe no one understood

what he said,He remained two hours and then left , as

he can bear bu t .lit t le excitement . As his greatcoat wasbe ing put on I was standing quit e close to him

,and

se iz ed the Opportunity of touch ing his cape,which is

honour enough for me .

”

CHAPTER II.

BACK TO TEGEL.

TOWARDSthe end ofApril,1 859

,the citiz ens ofBerlin

began to miss His Excellency,the Baron V on Humbo ldt .

They me t him no longer in the stree t in the aft erno onwalking towards the palace ; ne ither did they se e him at

twilight in his favo urite haunt,Unter den Linden .

“ Where is His Excellency ?” they asked,b ut none

could answer. In a few days the quest ion was changedto

“ How is His Excellency ?” for they had learned inthe meant ime that he was ill . The po stboy st ill madehis morning calls at the famous lit t le house in the Ora

nienburger-strasse,and from t ime t o t ime through the day

carriage s stopped near by,and state ly gent lemen

,deco

rated with orders,aligh ted and rang the be ll softly.

On the morning of the 3 rd ofMay, the j ournals ofBerlin announced his illne ss .

“ Alexander V on Humbo ldt has been confined to hisb ed for the last twelve days ; his strength has beengradually failing ; his mind re tains all its clearness

,

though his power of expre ssion has decreased. In the

dangerous condit ion of the revered pat ient,the greatest

care and precaut ion ag ainst all excit ement is neces

4 7 8 THE BULLETINS .

Then fo llowed the bulle t in of his health .

llfay 2 .

— Thc fever has somewhat abated since lastevening. The .catarrh is also less violent . The con

dit ion of the pat ient in his very weak stat e is st ill verydoubtful .”

The bulle t ins were cont inued from day t o day.

May. 3 .

—Very great loss of strength ; his condit ionin a high degree doubtful .

“rlf ay 4 .

-The condit ion of Humbo ldt during the

night of Monday— Tuesday,was exceedingly crit ical

,

through the vio lent fits of cough ing and difficulty of

breathing. Towards noon of Tue sday the pat ient wasmuch improved in various respects

,b ut th e cont inued lo ss

of strength renders his po sit ion t o a high degree crit ical .May 5 .

—Humbo ldt ’s condit ion since yest erday almostunchanged. Weakness increasing.

fay 6.

—(Friday morning) -The strength of the

pat ient is decreasing from hour t o hour.

”

The last hours of the dying man were soo thed by thepresence of his re lat ives

,who flo cked t o his residence as

soon as they heard of his illness . First came fromTege l the Baroness V on Bulow

,— o nce his merry lit tle

niece Gabrie le , b ut now a placid widow of fifty-seven

then the husband of his niece Adelhe id,General V on

Hedemann ; and then , from Ot tmachan,his nephewHer

mann,and his grandnephew William,

the son of “the

amiable Theodore ,

”of whom Frau Caroline wro te more

t han sixty years before .

Shall w e describe the chamber of the dying man

the darkened walls t ouched with the sunlight that creepsthrough the half-clo sed blinds— the group of sorrowingfriends around his b ed— his reverend wh ite hair

,his

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4 8 0 THE FUNERAL PROCE SSION .

Presently the procession start ed . It was headed bySe ifert and the servants of the family. Then came thestudents of the Frederic William University

,six hundred

in all,led by marshals bearing black rods then a band

ofmusicians playing so lemn music,and fo llowed by e igh t

clergymen in official robes. Next came the three courtchamberlains

,the Count of Furst enberg Stammhein

,

Count V on Donhoff,and Baron V on Z eck litz

,and a

fourth appo inted for the occasion. They bore on red

velve t cushions the insignia of the Order of the BlackEagle

,the medal of the Grand Chance llor of the peace

class of the Order ofMerit,and the count less medals and

orders wh ich the sovere igns of Europe had showeredupon Humbo ldt . Then came the hearse covered withb lack

,and drawn by six black horses from the royal

stables. The horses were led by royal grooms,who were

at tended by five court foo tmen,and a yager. Behind

the hearse were twenty deput ies of the Students’ Socie ty,

each with a palm branch in his hand. Upon the coffin,

which was also decorat ed w ith palm-leaves,were two

crowns,one of laurel

,the o ther ofwhit e azalea branches.

The male relat ives of the dead fo llowed— General V on

Hedemann,Hermann V on Humbo ldt

,andWilliam Hum

bo ldt -DacherO'

den ; t oge therwith a number ofKnights ofthe order of the Black Eagle

,h eaded by the chief of the

order,General V on Wrangel

,and the Generals of the in

fantry and cavalry,Prince IVradz iv ill

,and Count V on der

Gro eb en . Then came the Ministers of Stat e in th e ir brilliant uniforms

,Officers of the Court , Privy Councillors,

and the members of the diplomat ic corps . Among thelat ter was the American Minister, GovernorWright

,and

all the Americans in Berlin . Then a deputat ion from

AT THE DOM CHURCH . 4 81

bo th Houses of the Legis lature ; the members of the

Academy of Sciences ; the Professors of the Unive rsity,headed by the Rec torMag nificus the members of theAcademy of Art s

,and some of the mo st dist inguished

actors of the Royal Theatre . Then the mag istrat es andofficials of the ci ty

,each wearing a go ld chain and a

medal over his coat . Then the cit izens of Berlin old

and young,rich and poor

,with a great number of stran

gers,many of whom had come from a long dis tance t o

show the ir respect t o the dead. The rear was formed bya line of empty carriages

,half a mile in leng th , headed

by the Stat e carriage of the King and Queen,drawn b v

“

e ight horses,the carriage of the Prince Regent

,and tho se

of the Princes and diplomat ic corps.Solemn and slow t o the sound of mournful music thepro cession wended it s way t o the Dom Church . As

it passed through Frederic-strasse the pupils of the

Frederic Gymnasium sang a hymn . The Windows weredraped with black and thronged with respectful face s

the crowds in the stre e t st oo d uncovered and silent . No t

a sound was heard save the rain-like pat ter of fe e t,and

the yearning soul of the music . As soon as Unt er denLinden was passed the church bells began to to ll

,and

the Choral Socie ty ofBerlin broke into a hymn.

The Prince Regent,and the Princes of Prussia

,stand

ing with th eir heads bared like the meanest of their sub

je cts, rece ived the coffin at the port ico of the Dom

Church . It was borne into the church,fo llowed by the

court preach er and several ministers,and placed on a

bier before the altar,wh ich was decorat ed with palms and

flowers . The chamberlains deposited the ir cushions ladenwith orders on e ither side

,and stood at the head of the2 1

4 8 2 BACK To TEGEL .

coffin ; the royal personages and the relat ives of Humbo ldt stepped with in the al tar-railing

,and the organ

began t o peal . The congregat ion sang “ Jesus my t rust .”

Ble ssed are the dead,

” said the Prie st,

“who die in the

Lord .

” “ Yea,saith the Spirit

,

”the cho ir answered

,

for they rest from the irlabours . Hallelujah A prayerwas then made

,a funeral sermon was preached

,and the

Lord’s Prayer was said. Then the grand old chorals,

B e comforted and mo st happy,

”and Christ is my

Life,

” were sung,and the ceremony was over. The pro

ce ssion depart ed as it came,with pat t ering fe e t and

melancho ly music. The church was soon deserted of the

living,but the dead remained

,in the oaken coffin under

the solemn dome,alone with God !

That night the body was removed to Tege l .

THE END.

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VERNON GROVE ;dy Mrs. CAROLINE H . GLOVER.

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BALLAD OF BABIE BELL,

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TRUE LOVE NEVER DID RUN SMOOTH .

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DOCTOR ANTONIO .

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ATale . By G . RUFFINI, author of “ Doc tor Antonio , ’“ Lorenzo Benoni,” & C. With illustrations by Leech,of the London Punch. Izmo . Muslin, price $ 1 00.

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ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT.

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LOVEBy M . Ja n MICHELET. Author of “ A History of

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WOMAN (LA FEMME) .A sequel and companion t o

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LIFE OF HUGH MILLERAuthor of “ Schoo ls and Scho o lmast ers, O ld Red

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AFTERNOON OF UNMARRIED LIFE .

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“ Woman’s Thoug hts ab out Women .

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SOUTHWOLD .

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DOESTICKS’ LETTERS.

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ROMANCE OF A POOR YOUNG MAN.

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THE NEW AND THE OLD ;

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UPAND DOWN THE IRRAWADDI;Or, the G olden Dag on. Being

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THE HABITS OF GOOD SOCIETY.

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RECOLLECTIONS OF THE REVOLUTION.

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HARTLEY NORMAN .

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