Account of the Travels of M. A. de Humboldt in South America, extracted from some of his Letters .

From Magazin Encyclopedique, Thermidor, an. 11.

M. Humboldt's brother, who is now at Rome, received from him lately three letters: one dated Quito, June 3, 1802; another, Cuenca, July 13, 1802; and the third, Lima, the capital of Peru, November 25, 1802.

They announce that M. Humboldt will soon return, and that he expected to land in the month of August or September at Cadiz, or Corunna; but the last of his letters in particular is the most interesting.

In the following extract from it care has been taken to insert every thing worthy of attention in the other two:

my dear brother, Lima, Nov. 25, 1802.

You must have learned by my preceding letters that I had reached Quito, at which we arrived by traversing the snow of Quiridian and Tolima; for as the cordillera of the Andes forms three separate branches, and as we were at Santa Fe de Bogota, on that which is the most eastern, it was necessary to cross the highest to approach the coasts of the South Sea.

Oxen are the only animals which can be employed in this passage for transporting baggage.

Travellers in general are carried by men called largeros.

They have a chair, in which the traveller is seated, tied to their back; they travel about four hours journey every day, and in five or six weeks earn only fourteen piastres.

We preferred travelling on foot; and the weather being exceedingly fine, we spent only seventeen days in these solitudes, which exhibit no trace of their having ever been inhabited: we slept in huts constructed of the leaves of the heliconia, which travellers carry with them on purpose.

On the western side of the Andes there are marshes in which we sunk up to the knees.

The weather had changed, and during the last days of our journey there fell such torrents of rain that our boots rotted on our legs; and we arrived at Carthago with our legs naked and covered with bruises, but enriched with a beautiful collection of new plants, of which I have a great number of drawings.

From Carthago we went to Popayan by Buga, crossing the beautiful valley of the river Cauca, and having always at our sides the mountain of Choca, and the platina mines which it contains.

During the month of November 1801 we remained at Popayan, and went to visit the basaltic mountains of Julusuito; the mouths of the volcano of Purace, which with a horrid noise throw out vapours of hydro-sulphurous water; and the porphyritic granites of Pische, which form columns of from five to seven planes, similar to those which I remember to have seen in the Fuganean mountains of Italy, and which are described by Strange.

The greatest difficulty still remained; which was, to go from Popayan to Quito.

It was necessary to cross the Paramos from Pasto, and even in the rainy season, which had already commenced.

The name of Paramo is given in the Andes to every place at the height of 1700 or 2000 toises, where vegetation ceases, and where a cold which penetrates to the bones is experienced.

To avoid the heats of the valley of Patia, where people in the course of one night are seized with fevers which continue three or four months, and which are known under the name of calcuturas de Patia (fevers of Patia), we passed the summit of the cordillera by horrid precipices, in order to proceed from Popayan to Almager, and thence to Pasto, situated at the bottom of a terrible volcano.

Nothing can be more frightful than the entrance and outlet of this valley, in which we spent the Christmas holidays, and where the inhabitants received us with the utmost hospitality.

They were covered with thick forests, situated among marshes where the mules sunk half up to the backs, and we passed ravines so deep and so narrow that we thought we were entering the galleries of a mine.

The roads therefore are paved with the bones of mules which have perished here of cold and fatigue.

The whole province of Pasto, comprehending the environs of Guachucal and Tuqueres, is a cold plain, almost above that point at which vegetation can take place, and surrounded by volcanoes and soufrieres which continually throw up clouds of smoke.

The unfortunate inhabitants of these deserts have no other food but potatoes; and when these fail, as they did last year, they go into the mountains to eat the trunk of a small tree called achupalla (pourretia pitcarnia).

As this tree however is the food also of the bears of the Andes, the latter often dispute with them the only nourishment which these elevated regions afford.

To the north of the volcano of Pasto I discovered in the small Indian village of Voisaco, at the height of 1370 toises above the level of the sea, a red porphyry with an argillaceous base inclosing vitreous feldspar and hornstone, which has all the properties of the serpentine of the Fichtel-Gebirge.

This porphyry has very evident poles, and shows no attractive force.

After having been wet day and night for two months, and exposed to the danger of drowning by a very sudden rise of the waters, accompanied with earthquakes, we arrived on the 6th of January 1802 at Quito, where the marquis of Salvaalegre was so kind as to prepare for us a house, which after so many fatigues afforded us all the conveniences that we could have wished for at Paris, or at London.

Quito is a beautiful town, but the sky is dismal and cloudy.

The neighbouring mountains exhibit little verdure, and the cold is very considerable.

The great earthquake of February 4th 1797, which agitated the whole province, and destroyed in a moment from thity-five to forty thousand people, has also been fatal to the survivors.

It has so changed the temperature of the air, that the thermometer generally stands at from 4° to 10° of Reaumur, and rarely ascends to 16° or 17°; while Bouguer always observed it at 15° or 16°.

Since that catastrophe there have been continual earthquakes: and what shocks!

It is probable that the whole elevated part is only one volcano.

What are called the mountains of Cotopaxi and Pinchincha are only small summits, the craters of which form different apertures all terminating in the same hollow.

The earthquake of 1797 unfortunately proved this hypothesis, for the earth everywhere opened and vomited up sulphur, water, &c. Notwithstanding these horrors and dangers with which nature has surrounded the inhabitants of Quito, they are cheerful, lively, and agreeable.

Their town breathes nothing but pleasure; and no where does there appear so decided a taste for amusements.

It is in this manner that man is accustomed to sleep soundly on the brink of a precipice.

We resided nearly eight months in the province of Quito; that is to say, from the beginning of January to the month of August, and employed that time in visiting the different volcanoes.

We examined in succession the summits of Pinchincha, Cotopaxi, Antisana, and Ilinica, spending from a fortnight to three weeks on each of them; and always returning in the intervals to Quito, which we left on the 9th of June 1802 to proceed to the environs of Chimboraco, which is situated in the southern part of the province.

I twice ascended, viz.

on the 26th and 28th of May 1802, to the edge of the crater of Pinchincha, a mountain which overlooks the town of Quito.

Before, no person, as far as I know, except Condamine, ever saw it; and Condamine himself arrived there only after five or six days of fruitless researches, and without instruments; and, on account of the excessive cold, could remain on it only twelve or fifteen minutes.

I succeeded in carrying thither my instruments; I made important measurements, and collected some of the air to analyse it.

The first time I ascended I was accompanied only by an Indian. As La Condamine approached the crater at the lower part of its edge covered with snow, I made my first attempt by following his traces; but we were in danger of perishing.

The Indian fell into a fissure up to the breast; and we observed with horror that we had walked on a bridge of frozen snow, for at the distance of some paces from us there were holes through which daylight appeared.

We then found ourselves on arches which adhere to the very crater.

Alarmed, but not discouraged, I changed my project.

From the circumference of the crater there arise, projecting themselves as I may say over the abyss, three peaks or rocks not covered with snow; because the vapours exhaled from the mouth of the volcano continually dissolve it. I climbed up one of these rocks, and found at its summit a stone, which being supported at one end only, and hollow below, projected over the precipice in the form of a balcony.

Here I stationed myself to make experiments.

But this stone was only about twelve feet in length and six in breadth, and was strongly agitated by frequent shocks of an earthquake, of which I counted eighteen in less than thirty minutes.

That we might examine the bottom of the crater better, we lay down on our bellies; and I do not think that the imagination can conceive any thing more gloomy and frightful than what we then saw.

The mouth of the volcano forms a circular hole of nearly a league in circumference, the edges of which, cut perpendicularly, are covered with snow at the top.

The inside is very black, but the gulph is so immense, that the summits of several mountains placed there can be distinguished.

These summits seemed to be 300 toises below us: you may judge then where their bases must be. I have no doubt that the bottom of the crater is on a level with the town of Quito.

La Condamine found this crater extinct, and even covered with snow; but we had melancholy news to carry to the inhabitants of Quito, that the volcano in their neighbourhood was now burning.

We were convinced of this beyond all doubt by the most evident signs.

When we approached the mouth of it we were almost suffocated by sulphureous vapours.

We even saw blue flames moving about here and there, and every two or three minutes we experienced strong shocks of an earthquake, with which the edges of the crater were agitated, and of which nothing was perceived at the distance of 100 toises.

I suppose that the great catastrophe of February 7th 1797 kindled up the flames also of Pinchincha.

After visiting this mountain alone I returned two days after, accompanied by my friend Bonpland, and Charles de Montufar the son of the marquis de Selvaalegre.

We were furnished with more instruments than the preceding time, and measured the diameter of the crater and the height of the mountain.

We found the former to be 754 toises , and the latter 2477.

In the interval of two days which took place between our excursions to Pinchincha we had a very violent earthquake at Quito.

The Indians ascribed it to some powder which I must have thrown into the volcano.

The crater of Vesuvius is only 312 toises in diameter.

During our journey to the volcano of Antisana, the weather was so favourable that we ascended to the height of 2773 toises.

The barometer fell in that elevated region to 14 inches 7 lines; and in consequenee of the rarity of the air the blood flowed from our lips, gums, and even eyes.

We experienced extreme weakness, and one of the persons who accompanied us fainted.

It was before thought impossible to ascend higher than the summit called Corazon, which is 2470 toises in height, and which La Condamine reached.

On analysing the air brought from the highest point to which we ascended, it gave 0·008 of carbonic acid for 0·218 of oxygen gas.

We paid a visit also to the volcano of Cotopaxi, but it was impossible for us to reach the mouth of the crater.

It is not true that this mountain has become lower since the earthquake of 1797.

On the 9th of June 1802 we left Quito to proceed to the southern part of the province, where we wished to examine and measure Chimboraco and Tunguragua; and to take a plan of the whole country convulsed by the grand catastrophe of 1797.

We succeeded in approaching to within about 250 toises of the summit of the immense colossus of Chimboraco.

A ridge of volcanic rocks, destitute of snow, facilitated our ascent.

We ascended to the height of 3031 toises, and felt ourselves incommoded in the same manner as we had been on the summit of Antisana.

Two or three days even after our return to the plain we were still subject to an indisposition, which we could ascribe only to the effect of the air in these elevated regions, which by analysis gave us 20 hundreds of oxygen.

The Indians by whom we were accompanied deserted us before we reached that height, saying that we intended to kill them. Bonpland, Charles Montufar, and one of my domestics, who carried a part of my instruments, were the only persons who remained with me: nevertheless, we could have continued our journey to the top had we not been prevented by a fissure too deep to be crossed.

We therefore thought proper to descend.

Being ill secured from the cold of these elevated regions, we suffered very much; and I in particular had the misfortune to lacerate my foot by a fall a few days before, which subjected me to great pain in a road where we every moment struck our toes against sharp stones, and were obliged to examine the ground at every step.

La Condamine found the height of Chimboraco to be nearly 3217 toises.

Trigonometrical measurement, which I made at two different times, gave 3267 toises, and I have reason to place some confidence in my operations.

All this enormous colossus, as well as all the high mountains of the Andes, consists not of granite, but of porphyry, from the base to the summit; and the porphyry is 1900 toises in thickness.

The short stay which we made at that enormous height was dismal and melancholy: we were enveloped by a thick fog, which only suffered us from time to time to have a glimpse of the horrid abysses by which we were surrounded.

No living creature, not even the condour, which on Antisana continually hovered over our heads, was to be seen.

Small kinds of moss were the only organized beings which reminded us that we were still in the neighbourhood of the earth.

It is almost probable that Chimboraco, like Pinchincha and Antisana, is of a volcanic nature.

The ridge on which we ascended consists of burnt and scorified rock, mixed with pumice stone.

It resembles all the currents of lava in this country; and continues beyond that point where I was obliged to set bounds to my researches, towards the summit of the mountain.

It is possible that this summit may be the crater of an extinguished volcano; and this is even probable.

The idea of this possibility, however, makes one shudderand with reason; for, if the volcano should be rekindled, this colossus would destroy the whole province.

The mountain of Tunguragua sunk down at the period of the earthquake of 1797.

Bouguer makes its height to be 2620 toises; I found it to be only 2531: it has lost therefore nearly 100 toises of its height.

The inhabitants of the neighbouring country assert that they have seen its summit crumble down before their eyes.

During our stay at Riobamba, where we spent some weeks with the brother of Charles Montufar, who is corregidor there, we by chance made a very curious discovery.

The state of the province of Quito before the conquest of the inca Tupayupagi is absolutely unknown.

But the king of the Indians, Leandro Zapla, who resides at Lican, and whose mind is highly cultivated, has in his possession manuscripts written by one of his ancestors in the sixteenth century, which contain the history of that period.

These manuscripts are written in the language of Paraguay, which formerly was the general language of Quito; but in the course of time it gave place to that of the Incas, or the Anichna, and is now lost.

Fortunately, another of Zapla's ancestors amused himself in translating these manuscripts into Spanish.

We made extracts from these valuable documents, and particularly in regard to the memorable period of the eruption of the mountain called Nevado del Attas, which must have been the highest in the universe, superior even to Chimboraco, and which the Indians called Capa-Urcu, 'the chief of mountains.' Ouainia Abomatha, the last independent cochocando (king of the country), reigned at that time at Lican.

The priests informed him that this catastrophe was a sinister presage of his destruction.

"The face of the universe," said they to him, "is changing: other gods will expel ours.

Let us not oppose what has been ordained by fate."

The Peruvians indeed introduced into the country the worship of the sun.

The eruption of the mountain continued seven years, and Zapla's manuscript asserts that the shower of ashes at Lican was so abundant that continual night prevailed during that period.

When the quantity of volcanic matters which are found in the plain of Tapia around the enormous mountain which then crumbled to pieces, is considered, and when we reflect that Cotopaxi has often involved Quito in darkness for fifteen or eighteen hours, we may believe that the exaggeration of this account is not very great.

This manuscript, the traditions which I collected at Parime, and the hieroglyphics I saw in the desert of Casiquiare, where at present no vestiges of mankind remain, added to the ideas offered by Clavigero respecting the emigration of the Mexicans towards the southern part of America, have given rise to some conjectures on the origin of these people, which I purpose to explain as soon as I can find leisure.

Quito was conquered by the Peruvians in 1470.

I have applied also with great assiduity to the study of the American languages, and I have seen how much what La Condamine says of their poverty is false.

The Carib language is rich, beautiful, energetic, and polished: it is in no want of expressions for abstract ideas. It speaks of posterity, eternity, existence, &c.; and the numerical signs are sufficient to express all the possible combinations of figures.

I applied in particular to the Inca language: it is generally spoken in company; and is so rich in delicate and varied phrases, that the young men, in order to say soft things to the ladies, when they have exhausted all the resources of the Castillan, begin to speak Inca.

These two languages, and others equally rich, are sufficient to prove that America formerly possessed a greater degree of culture than the Spaniards found there in 1492.

But I have collected still further proofs, not only at Mexico and in Peru, but even at the court of the king of Bogota, a country the history of which is absolutely unknown in Europe, and whose mythology even and fabulous traditions are highly interesting.

The priests were acquainted with the art of drawing a meridian line, and observing the moment of the solstice.

They reduced the lunar year to a solar by intercalations; and I have in my possession a heptagon stone, found near Santa Fe, which they employed for calculating these intercalary days.

But what is still more, even at Erevato, in the interior of Parime, the savages believe that the moon is inhabited by men; and know by tradition from their ancestors, that it derives its light from the sun.

From Riobamba I proceeded by the famous paramo of Assuay towards Cuenca, after having visited the large sulphur mines of Tirrau.

It was this mountain of sulphur which the negroes who revolted in 1797, after the earthquake, attempted to set on fire.

This no doubt was the most desperate project ever attempted, for they hoped by these means to form a volcano which would swallow up the whole province of Alaussy.

At the height of the paramo of Assuay, an elevation of 2300 toises, are the magnificent ruins of the Inca's highway.

It conducted almost to Cuzco, was entirely constructed of cut stone, and very straight, and resembled the most beautiful of the Roman roads.

In the same neighbourhood are found also the ruins of the palace of the inca Tupayupangi, of which La Condamine gave a description in the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin.

In the quarry which furnished the stones there are still seen several half cut.

I do not know whether Condamine spoke also of the so-called Inca's billiard-table.

The Indians name this place in the Quichua language, Inca-chungana, the Inca's game.

But I much doubt whether it was ever destined for that purpose.

It is a seat cut out in the rock, with ornaments in the arabesc form, in which it is believed that the ball ran.

There is nothing more elegant in our gardens in the English style; and every thing proves the good taste of the inca, for the seat is so situated as to command a delightful view.

In a wood not far from this place is found a round spot of yellow iron in freestone: the Peruvians have ornamented it with figures, supposing it to be the image of the sun. I made a drawing of it.

We remained only ten days at Cuenca, and proceeded thence to Lima through the province of Jaen, where we spent a month in the neighbourhood of the river of the Amazons.

We arrived at Lima on the 23d of October 1802.

In the month of December I purpose proceeding from this place to Acapulco, and thence to Mexico, that in the month of May 1803 I may reach the Havanna, where I shall embark without delay for Spain. I have given up, as you may see, the idea of returning by the Philippines. I should have crossed an immense tract of the ocean without seeing any thing but Manilla and the Cape; or, if I had attempted to proceed to the East Indies, I should have wanted the necessaries for that voyage, and which it was impossible for me to procure here.

We have had forty or fifty young crocodiles, on the respiration of which I have made very curious experiments.

Other animals diminish the volume of the air in which they live, but the crocodile increases it. A crocodile immersed in 1000 parts of atmospheric air, which contain 274 of oxygen gas, 15 of carbonic acid gas, and 711 of azot, increases this mass in one hour and forty-three minutes 124 parts; and these 1124 parts contain then, as I found by exact analysis, 106·8 of oxygen, 79 of carbonic acid, and 938·2 of azotic gas, mixed with other unknown gaseous substances.

The crocodile then in one hour and three quarters produces 64 parts of carbonic acid, and absorbs 167·2 of oxygen; but as 46 parts are found in the 64 parts of carbonic acid, it appropriates to itself only 121 parts of oxygen; which is very little, considering the colour of its blood.

It produces 227 parts of azote, or other gaseous substances, on which the acidifiable bases exercise no action.

I made these experiments in the town of Munpox with lime water and nitrous gas prepared with great care.

The crocodile is so sensible to carbonic acid gas and to its own exhalations, that it dies when put into air corrupted by one of its own species.

It however can live two or three hours without breathing at all. I made these experiments on crocodiles seven or eight inches in length: notwithstanding this smallness of size, they are capable of cutting off a finger with their teeth, and they have the courage to attack a dog.

These experiments are troublesome, and require great circumspection.

We have made very minute descriptions of the caiman or crocodile of South America; but as the descriptions of that of Egypt which I saw before my departure from Europe were not equally circumstantial, I cannot venture to determine whether they are of the same species.

The Institute of Egypt must undoubtedly have obtained details which will remove all doubt in regard to this point.

This much however is certain, that there are three different species of crocodile in the tropical regions of the new continent, to which the inhabitants give the names of bava, caiman, and crocodile.

No naturalist has yet sufficiently distinguished these species.

These monsters, as at New Barcelona, are sometimes of so peaceable a nature that people bathe before them; and sometimes, as at New Guiana, they are so mischievous and ferocious, that during the time we were there they devoured an Indian on the quay in the middle of the street.

At Uritucu we saw an Indian girl, eighteen years of age, whom a crocodile seized by the arm.

She had the courage to put her other hand into her pocket to pull out her knife, with which she gave the monster so many wounds in the eyes that he let her go, but cut off the arm near the shoulder.

This girl's presence of mind was as astonishing as the skill displayed by the Indians in speedily curing so dangerous a wound: one might have said that the arm was amputated and dressed at Paris.

Near Santa-Fe there are found in the Campo de Gigante, at the height of 1370 toises, an immense number of fossil elephants' bones, both of the African species and of the carnivorous kind discovered near the Ohio.

We caused several to be dug up, and have sent some specimens of them to the National Institute. I much doubt whether any of these bones were ever before found at such a great height: since that time I have received two from a place of the Andes situated about two degrees of latitude from Quito and Chili, so that I can prove the existence and destruction of these gigantic elephants from the Ohio to the country of the Patagonians. I shall bring with me a fine collection of these bones for M. Cuvier.

About fifteen years ago the entire petrified skeleton of a crocodile was discovered in a calcareous rock in the valley of the Magdalen: it was broken through ignorance, and it was impossible for me to procure the head, which existed not long ago.