BARON HUMBOLDT. THE following abstract of the American Travels of the celebrated baron Humboldt and his companion Bonpland, has been drawn up from notes which the former has kindly furnished, and will supersede the many very incorrect accounts hitherto published relative to this interesting object. Baron Humboldt, having travelled from the year 1790, as a naturalist, through Germany, Poland, France, Switzerland, and through parts of England, Italy, Hungary, and Spain, came to Paris in 1798, when he received an invitation, from the directors of the national museum, to accompany captain Baudin in his voyage round the world. Citizen Alexander Aime Gourjon Bonpland, a native of Rochelle, and brought up in the Paris museum, was also to have accompanied them; when on the point of departing, the whole plan was suspended until a more favourable opportunity, owing to the re-commencement of the war with Austria, and to the consequent want of funds. Mr. Humboldt, who, from 1792, had conceived the plan of travelling through India at his own expence, with a view of adding to the knowledge of the sciences connected with natural history, then resolved to follow the learned men, who had gone on the expedition to Egypt..... His plan was to go to Algiers in the Swedish frigate which carried the consul Skoldebrandt, to follow the caravan which goes from Algiers to Mecca, going through Egypt to Arabia, and thence by the Persian gulph to the English East-India establishments. The war which unexpectedly broke out in October, 1798, between France and the Barbary powers, and the troubles in the East, prevented Mr. Humboldt from embarking at Marseilles, where he had been fruitlessly two months waiting to proceed. Impatient at this delay, and continuing firm in his determination to go to Egypt, he went to Spain, hoping to pass more readily under the Spanish flag from Carthagena to Algiers and Tunis. He took with him the large collection of philosophical, chemical, and astronomical instruments, which he had purchased in England and France. From a happy concurrence of circumstances, he obtained, in February, 1789, from the court of Madrid, a permission to visit the Spanish colonies of the two Americas, a permission which was granted with a liberality and frankness, which was honourable to the government and to a philosophic age. After a residence of some months at the Spanish court, during which time the king showed a strong personal interest in the plan, Mr. Humboldt, in June, 1799, left Europe, accompanied by Mr. Bonpland, who, to a profound knowledge in botany and zoology, added an indefatigable zeal. It is with this friend that Mr. Humboldt has accomplished, at his own expence, his travels in the two hemispheres, by land and sea, probably the most extensive which any individual has ever undertaken. These two travellers left Corunna in the Spanish ship Pizarro, for the Canary islands, where they ascended to the crater of the Peak of Teyde, and made experiments on the analysis of the air. In July they arrived at the port of Camana, in South America. In 1799, 1800, they visited the coast of Paria, the missions of the Chaymas Indians, the province of New Andalusia (a country which had been rent by the most dreadful earthquakes, the hottest, and yet the most healthy, in the world) of New Barcelona, of Venezuela, and of Spanish Guayana.....In January, 1800, they left Caraccas to visit the beautiful vallies of Aragua, where the great lake of Valencia recals to the mind the views of the lake of Geneva, embellished by the majesty of the vegetation of the tropics. From Porto Cabello they crossed, to the south, the immense plains of Caloboza, of Apure, and of the Oronoco, also los Llanos, a desert similar to those of Africa, where in the shade (by the reverberation of heat) the thermometer of Reaumur rose to 35 and 37 (111 to 115 F.) degrees. The level of the country for 2000 square leagues does not differ 5 inches. The sand every where represents the horizon of the sea, without vegetation; and its dry bosom hides the crocodiles, and the torpid boa (a species of serpent). The travelling here, as in all Spanish America, except Mexico, is performed on horseback..... They passed whole days without seeing a palm-tree or the vestige of a human dwelling. At St. Fernando de Apure, in the provinces of Varinas, Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland began that fatiguing navigation of nearly 1000 marine leagues, executed in canoes, making a chart of the country by the assistance of chronometers, the satellites of Jupiter, and the lunar distances. They descended the river Apure, which empties itself into the Oronoco, in 7 degrees of latitude. They ascended the last river (passing the celebrated cataracts of Mapure and Atures) to the mouth of the Guaviare. From thence they ascended the small rivers of Tabapa, Juamini, and Tenie. From the mission of Sarita they crossed by land to the sources of the famous Rio Negro, which Condamine saw, where it joins the Amazon, and which he calls a sea of fresh water. About 30 Indians carried the canoes through woods of Mami Lecythis and Laurus Cinamomoides to the cano (or creek) of Pemichin. It was by this small stream that the travellers entered the Rio Negro, or Black River, which they descended to St. Carlos, which has been erroneously supposed to be placed under the equator, or just at the frontiers of Great Para, in the government of Bresil. A canal from Tenie to Pemichin, which from the level nature of the ground is very practicable, would present a fine internal communication between the Para and the province of Carracas, a communication infinitely shorter than that of Cassiquiare..... From the fortress of St. Carlos on the Rio Negro, Mr. H. went north up that river and the Cassiquiare to the Oronoco, and on this river to the volcano Daida or the mission of the Esmeralda, near the sources of the Oronoco: the Indians Guaicas (a race of men almost pigmies, very white and very warlike) render fruitless any attempts to reach the sources themselves. From the Esmeralda Messrs. H. & B. went down the Oronoco, when the waters rose, towards its mouths at St. Thomas de la Guayana, or the Angostura. It was during this long navigation that they were in a continued state of suffering, from want of nourishment, and shelter from the night rains, from living in the woods, from the mosquetoes, and an infinite variety of stinging insects, and from the impossibility of bathing, owing to the fierceness of the crocodile and the little carib fish, and finally the miasmata of a burning climate. They returned to Cumana by the plains of Cari and the mission of the Carib Indians, a race of men very different from any other, and probably, after the Patagonians, the tallest and most robust in the world. After remaining some months at New Barcelona and Cumana, the travellers arrived at the Havanna, after a tedious and dangerous navigation, the vessel being in the night on the point of striking upon the Vibora rocks. Mr. H. remained three months in the island of Cuba, where he occupied himself in ascertaining the longitude of the Havanna, and in constructing stoves on the sugar plantations, which have since been pretty generally adopted. They were on the point of setting off for Vera Cruz, meaning, by the way of Mexico and Acapulco, to go to the Philipine Islands, and from thence, if it was possible, by Bombay and Aleppo, to Constantinople, when some false reports relative to Baudin's voyage alarmed them, and made them change their plan. The gazettes held out the idea that this navigator would proceed from France to Buenos Ayres, and from thence, by Cape Horn, for Chili and the coast of Peru. Mr. Humboldt had promised to Mr. Baudin and to the Museum of Paris, that wherever he might be, he would endeavour to join the expedition, as soon as he should know of its having been commenced. He flattered himself that his researches, and those of his friend Bonpland, might be more useful to science, if united to the labours of the learned men who would accompany captain Baudin. These considerations induced Mr. Humboldt to send his manuscripts, for 1799 and 1800, direct to Europe, and to freight a small schooner at Batabano, intending to go to Carthagena, and from thence, as quickly as possible, by the Isthmus of Panama, to the South Sea. He hoped to find captain Baudin at Guayaquil, or at Lima, and with him to visit New Holland, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, equally interesting in a moral point of view, as by the luxuriance of their vegetation. It appeared imprudent to expose the manuscripts and collections already made to the risks of this proposed navigation. These manuscripts, of the fate of which Mr. H. remained ignorant during three years, and until his arrival in Philadelphia, arrived safe, but one third part of the collection was lost by shipwreck. Fortunately (except the insects of the Oronoco and of the Rio Negro) they were only duplicates; but unhappily friar John Gonzales, monk of the order of St. Francis, the friend to whom they were entrusted, perished with them. He was a young man full of ardour, who had penetrated into this unknown world of Spanish Guayana further than any other European. Mr. Humboldt left Batabano in March, 1801, and passed to the south of the island of Cuba, on which he determined many geographical positions. The passage was rendered very long by calms, and the currents carried the little schooner too much to the west, to the mouths of the Attracto. The vessel put into the river Sinu, where no botanist had ever before visited, and they had a very difficult passage up to Carthagena. The season being too far advanced for the South Sea navigation, the project of crossing the isthmus was abandoned; and animated by the desire of being acquainted with the celebrated Mutis, and admiring his immensely rich collections of objects of natural history, Mr. H. determined to pass some weeks in the woods of Turbaco, and to ascend (which took forty days) the beautiful river of Madalaine, of the course of which he sketched a chart. From Honda, our travellers ascended through forests of oaks, of melastomo, and of cinchona (the tree which affords the Peruvian bark), to St. Fe de Bogota, capital of the kingdom of New Grenada, situated in a fine plain, elevated 1360 toises (of six French feet) above the level of the sea. The superb collections of Mutis, the majestic cataract of the Tequendama (falls of 98 toises height) the mines of Mariquita, St. Ana, and of Tipaquira, the natural bridge of Scononza (three stones thrown together in the manner of an arch, by an earthquake), these curious objects stopped the progress of Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland until the month of September, 1801. At this time, notwithstanding the rainy season had commenced, they undertook the journey to Quito, and passed the Andes of Quindiu, which are snowy mountains covered with wax palm-trees (palmiers a cire), with passe flores (passion flower) of the growth of trees, storax, and bambusa (bamboo). They were, during 13 days, obliged to pass on foot through places dreadfully swampy, and without any traces of population. From the village of Carthago, in the valley of Cauca, they followed the course of the choco, the country of Palatina, which was there found in round pieces of basalte and green rock (grein stein of Werner), and fossil wood. They pass by Buga to Popayan, a bishop's see, and situated near the volcanoes of Sotara and Purace, a most picturesque situation, and enjoying the most delicious climate in the world, the thermometer of Reamur keeping constantly at 16 to 18 (68 to 72 Fahr.) They ascended to the crater of the volcano of Purace, whose mouth, in the middle of snow, throws out vapours of sulphureous hydrogene, with continued and frightful rumbling. From Papayan they passed by the dangerous defiles of Almager, avoiding the infected and contagious valley of Patia, to Posto, and from this town, even now situated at the foot of a burning volcano, by Tuqueras and the province of Pastos, a flat portion of country, fertile in European grain, but elevated more than 1500 to 1600 toises above the towns of Ibarra and Quito. They arrived, in January, 1802, at this beautiful capital, celebrated by the labours of the illustrious Condamine, of Bouger, Godin, Dr. George Juan, and Ulloa, and still more celebrated by the great amiability of its inhabitants, and their happy turn for the arts. They remained nearly a year in the kingdom of Quito: the height of its snow-capped mountains, its terrible earthquakes (that of February 7, 1797, swallowed up 42,000 inhabitants, in a few seconds), its fertility, and the manners of its inhabitants, combined to render it the most interesting spot in the universe. After three vain attempts, they twice succeeded in ascending to the crater of the volcano of Pichincha, taking with them electrometers, barometers, and hygrometers. Condamine could only stop here a few minutes, and that without instruments. In his time, this immense crater was cold and filled with snow. Our travellers found it inflamed; distressing information for the town of Quito, which is distant from it only 5000 to 6000 toises. They made separate visits to the snowy and porphyritic mountains of Antisana, Cotopaxi, Tungarague, and Chimborazo, the last the highest point of our globe. They studied the geological part of the Cordillera of the Andes, on which subject nothing has been published in Europe, mineralogy (if the expression may be used) having been created, as it were, since the time of Condamine. The geodesical measurements proved that some mountains, particularly the volcano of Tungarague, has considerably lowered since 1750, which result agrees with the observations made to them by the inhabitants. During the whole of this part of the journey, they were accompanied by Mr. Charles Montufar , son of the marquis of Selva-alegre, of Quito, a person zealous for the progress of science, and who is, at his own expence, rebuilding the pyramids of Saraqui, the extremity of the celebrated bases of the triangles of the Spanish and French academicians. This interesting young man having followed Mr. Humboldt in the remainder of his journey through Peru and the kingdom of New Spain, is now on his passage with him to Europe. Circumstances were so favourable to the efforts of the three travellers, that at Antisana they ascended 2200 French feet, and at Chimborazo, on June 22, 1802, nearly 3200 feet higher than Condamine was able to carry his instruments. They ascended to 3036 toises elevation above the level of the sea, the blood starting from their eyes, lips, and gums. An opening, of 80 toises deep, and very wide, prevented them from reaching the top, from which they were only distant 134 toises. It was at Quito that Mr. Humboldt received a letter from the National Institute of France, informing him, that captain Baudin had proceeded by the Cape of Good Hope, and that there was no longer any hope of joining him. After having examined the country overturned by the earthquake of Riobamba, in 1797, they passed by the Andes of Assuay to Cuenza. The desire of comparing the barks (cinchona) discovered by Mr. Mutis, at Santa Fe de Bagota, and with those of Popayan, and the cuspa and cuspare of New Andalusia, and of the river Caroni (named falsely Cortex Augustura), with the cinchona (barks) of Loxa and Peru, they preferred deviating from the beaten track from Cuenza to Lima; but they passed with immense difficulties in the carriage of their instruments and collections, by the forest (paramo) of Saragura to Loxa, and from thence to the province of Jaen de Bracamoros. They had to cross thirty-five times, in two days, the river Guancabamba, so dangerous for its sudden freshes. They saw the ruins of the superb Ynga road, comparable to the finest roads in France, and which went upon the ridge of the Andes from Cusco to the Assuay, accommodated with fountains and taverns. They descended the river Chamaya, which led them into that of the Amazones, and they navigated this last river down to the cataracts of Tomeperda, one of the most fertile, but one of the hottest, climates of the habitable globe. From the Amazone river they returned to the south-east by the Cordilleras of the Andes to Montar, where they found they had passed the magnetic equator, the inclination being 0, although at seven degrees of south latitude. They visited the mines of Hualguayoc, where native silver is found at the height of 2000 toises. Some of the veins of these mines contain petrified shells, and which, with those of Pasco and Huantajayo, are actually the richest of Peru. From Caxamarca they descended to Truxillo, in the neighbourhood of which are found the ruins of the immense Peruvian city, Mansiche. It was on this western descent of the Andes that the three voyagers, for the first time, had the pleasure of seeing the Pacific Ocean. They followed its barren sides, formerly watered by the canals of the Yngas at Santa, Guerma, and Lima. They remained some months in this interesting capital of Peru, of which the inhabitants are distinguished by the vivacity of their genius, and the liberality of their ideas. Mr. Humboldt had the good fortune to observe the end of the passage of Mercury over the sun's disk, in the port of Callao. He was astonished to find, at such a distance from Europe, the most recent productions in chemistry, mathematics, and medicine; and he found great activity of mind in the inhabitants, who, in a climate where it never either rains or thunders, have been falsely accused of indolence. From Lima our travellers passed by sea to Guayaquil, situated on the brink of a river, where the growth of the palm tree is beautiful beyond description. They every moment heard the rumbling of the volcano of Cotopaxi, which made an alarming explosion on the 6th January, 1803. They immediately set off to visit it a second time, when the unexpected intelligence of the speedy departure of the frigate Atalanta determined them to return, after being seven days exposed to the dreadful attacks of the mosquitoes of Babaoya and Ujibar. They had a fortunate passage, by the Pacific Ocean, to Acapulco, the western port of the kingdom of New Spain, famous for the beauty of its harbour, which appears to have been formed by earthquakes, for the misery of its inhabitants, and for its climate, which is equally hot and unhealthy. Mr. Humboldt had originally the intention to remain only a few months in Mexico, and to hasten his return to Europe; his voyage had already been too much protracted, his instruments, particularly the chronometers, began to be out of order, and every effort that he made to have new ones sent to him proved of no avail; add to this consideration, that the progress of science is so rapid in Europe, that, in a journey that lasts four or five years, great risk is run of contemplating the different phenomena under aspects, which are no longer interesting at the moment of publishing the result of your labours. Mr. Humboldt hoped to be in France in August or September, 1803, but the attractions of a country, so beautiful and so varied, as is that of the kingdom of New Spain, the great hospitality of its inhabitants, and the fear of the yellow fever, so fatal, from June to November, for those who come from the mountainous parts of the country, led him to stay a year in this kingdom. Our travellers ascended from Acapulco to Tasco, celebrated for its mines, as interesting as they are ancient. They rise, by small degrees, from the ardent valley of Mescala and Papagayo, where the thermometer of Reaumur stands, in the shade, constantly from 28 to 31 (95 to 101 Fah.), in a region 6 or 700 toises above the level of the sea, where you find the oaks, the pines, and the fougere (fern) as large as trees, and where the European grains are cultivated. They passed by Tasco, by Cuerna Vacca, to the capital of Mexico. This city, of 150,000 inhabitants, is placed upon the ancient site of Texochtitlan, between the lakes of Tezcuco and Xochimilco, lakes which have lessened somewhat since the Spaniards have opened the canal of Hacheutoca, in sight of two snow-topped mountains, of which one, Hopocatepec, is even now an active volcano, surrounded by a great number of walks, shaded with trees, and by Indian villages. This capital of Mexico, situated 1160 toises above the sea, in a mild and temperate climate, may doubtless be compared to some of the finest towns in Europe. Great scientific establishments, such the Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving, the College of Mines, (owing to the liberality of the Company of Miners of Mexico), and the Botanic Garden, are institutions which do honour to the government which has created them. After remaining some months in the valley of Mexico, and after fixing the longitude of the capital, which had been laid down with an error of nearly two degrees, our travellers visited the mines of Moran and Real del Monte, and the Cerro of Oyamel, where the ancient Mexicans had the manufactory of knives made of the obsidian stone. They soon after passed by Queretaro and Salamanca to Guanaxoato, a town of fifty thousand inhabitants, and celebrated for its mines, more rich than those of Potosi have ever been. The mine of the count of Valenciana, which is 1840 French feet perpendicular depth, is the deepest and richest mine of the universe. This mine alone gives to its proprietor nearly six hundred thousand dollars annual and constant profit. From Guanaxoato they returned by the valley of St. Jago to Valladolid, in the ancient kingdom of Michuacan, one of the most fertile and charming provinces of the kingdom. They descended from Pascuaro towards the coast of the Pacific Ocean to the plains of Serullo, where, in 1759, in one night, a volcano arose from the level, surrounded by two thousand small mouths, from whence smoke still continues to issue. They arrived almost to the bottom of the crater of the great volcano of Serullo, of which they analized the air, and found it strongly impregnated with carbonic acid. They returned to Mexico by the valley of Teluca, and visited the volcano, to the highest point of which they ascended, 14,400 French feet above the level of the sea. In the months of January and February, 1804, they pursued their researches on the eastern descent of the Cordilleras, they measured the mountains Merados, de la Puebla, Popocatyce, Izazihuatli, the great peak of Orizaba, and the Cofre de Perote; upon the top of this last Mr. Humboldt observed the meridian height of the sun. In fine, after some residence at Xalappa, they embarked at Vera Cruz, for the Havannah. They resumed the collections they had left there in 1801, and by the way of Philadelphia, embarked for France, in July, 1804, after six years of absence and labours. A collection of 6000 different species of plants (of which a great part are new) and numerous mineralogical, astronomical, chemical, and moral observations, have been the result of this expedition. Mr. Humboldt gives the highest praises to the liberal protection granted to his researches by the Spanish government. Baron Humboldt was born in Prussia, on the 14th of September, 1769.