Digitale Ausgabe

THE following abstract of the Ameri-can Travels of the celebrated Ba-ron Humboldt and his companion Bon-pland, has been drawn up from noteswhich the former has kindly furnished,and will supercede the many very incor-rect accounts hitherto published rela-tive to this interesting object. Baron Humboldt, having travelledfrom the year 1790, as a naturalist,through Germany, Poland, France,Switzerland, and through parts of Eng-land, Italy, Hungary, and Spain, cameto Paris in 1798, when he received aninvitation, from the directors of the na-tional museum to accompany captain Baudin in his voyage round the world.Citizen Alexander Aime Gourjon Bonp-land, a native of Rochelle, and broughtup in the Paris museum, was also tohave accompanied them; when on thepoint of departing, the whole plan wassuspended until a more favorable op-portunity, owing to the re-commence-ment of the war with Austria, and theconsequent want of funds. Mr. Humboldt, who from 1792, hadconceived the plan of travelling throughIndia at his own expense, with a viewof adding to the knowledge of the scien-ces connected with natural history, thenresolved to follow the learned men, whohad gone on the expedition to Egypt.His plan was to go to Algiers in theSwedish frigate which carried the con-sul Skoldebrandt, to follow the caravanwhich goes from Algiers to Mecca, go-ing through Egypt to Arabia, and thence |Spaltenumbruch| by the Persian gulph to the EnglishEast-India establishments. The warwhich unexpectedly broke out in Octo-ber, 1798, between France and the Bar-bary powers, and the troubles in theEast, prevented Mr. Humboldt fromembarking at Marseilles, where he hadbeen fruitlessly two months waiting toproceed. Impatient at this delay, andcontinuing firm in his determination togo to Egypt he went to Spain, hoping topass more readily under the Spanishflag from Carthagena to Algiers andTunis. He took with him the largecollection of philosophical, chemical, andastronomical instruments, which he hadpurchased in England and France. From a happy concurrence of circum-stances, he obtained, in February, 1789,from the court of Madrid, a permissionto visit the Spanish colonies of the twoAmericas, a permission which was grant-ed with a liberality and frankness,which was honorable to the governmentand to a philosophic age. After a resi-dence of some months at the Spanishcourt, during which time the king show-ed a strong personal interest in the plan,Mr. Humboldt, in June, 1799, left Eu-rope, accompanied by Mr. Bonpland,who, to a profound knowledge in botanyand zoology, added an indefatigablezeal. It is with this friend that Mr. Humboldt has accomplished, at his ownexpense, his travels in the two hemis-pheres, by land and sea, probably themost extensive which any individual hasever undertaken. These two travellers left Corunna inthe Spanish ship Pizarro, for the Cana-ry Islands, where they ascended to thecrater of the Peak of Teyde, and madeexperiments on the analysis of the air.In July they arrived at the port of Cuma-na, in South America. In 1799, 1800,they visited the coast of Paria, the mis-sions of the Chaymas Indians, the pro-vince of New Andalusia (a country whichhad been rent by the most dreadfulearthquakes, the hottest and yet themost healthy, in the world,) of NewBarcelona, of Venezuela; and SpanishGuayana.—In January, 1800, they leftCaraccas to visit the beautiful valliesof Aagca, where the great lake of Va-lencia recals to mind the views of thelake of Geneva, embellished by the ma-jesty of the vegetation of the tropics.From Porto Cabello they crossed, tothe south, the immense plains of Calo-boza, of Apure, and of the Oronoco, al- |Spaltenumbruch| so los Llanos, a desert similar to thoseof Africa, where in the shade (by thereverberation of heat) the thermometerof Reaumur rose to 35 and 37 (111 to115 F.) degrees. The level of the coun-try for 2000 square leagues does not dif-fer 5 inches. The sand every whererepresents the horizon of the sea, with-out vegetation; and its dry bosom hidesthe crocodiles, and the torpid boa (a spe-cies of serpent.) The travelling here, as in all SpanishAmerica, except Mexico, is performedon horseback. They passed whole dayswithout seeing a palm-tree or the vestigeof a human dwelling. At St. Fernandode Apure, in the provinces of Varinas,Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland beganthat fatiguing navigation of nearly 1000marine leagues, executed in Canoesmaking a chart of the country by theassistance of chronometers, the satel-lites of Jupiter, and the lunar distances.They descended the river Apure, whichempties itself into the Oronoco, in 7 de-grees of latitude.—They ascended thelast river (passing the celebrated cata-racts of Mapure, and Atures) to themouth of the Guaviare. From thencethey ascended the small rivers of Taba-pa, Juamina, and Tenie. From the mis-sion of Sarita they crossed by land tothe sources of the famous Rio Negro,which Condamine saw, where it joinsthe Amazon, and which he calls a seaof fresh water. About 30 Indians car-ried the canoes through woods of MamiLecythis and Laurus Cinamomoides tothe cano (or creek) of Pemichin. Itwas by this small stream that the tra-vellers entered the Rio Negro, or BlackRiver, which they descended to St. Car-los, which has been erroneously suppo-sed to be placed under the equator, or justat the frontiers of great Para, in the go-vernment of Bresil. A canal from Te-nie to Pemichin, which from the levelnature of the ground is very practicable,would present a fine internal communi-cation between the Para and the pro-vince of Carracas, a communication in-finitely shorter than that of Cassiquiare.From the fortress of St. Carlos on theRio Negro, Mr. H. went north up thatriver and the Cassiquiare to the Orono-co, and on this river to the volcano Dai-da or the mission of Emeralda, near thesources of the Oronoco: the IndiansGuaicas (or race of men almost pigmies,very white and very warlike) renderfruitless any attempts to reach the sour-ces themselves. |388| |Spaltenumbruch| From the Esmeralda Messrs. H. andB. went down the Oronoco, when thewaters rose, towards its mouths at St.Thomas de la Guayana, or the Angos-tura. It was during this long naviga-tion that they were in a continued stateof suffering, from want of nourishment,and shelter from the night rains, fromliving in the woods, from the musque-toes, and an infinite variety of stinginginsects, and from the impossibility of ba-thing, owing to the fierceness of the cro-codile and the little carib fish, and final-ly the miasmata of a burning climate.They returned to Cumana by the plainsof Cari and the mission of the CaribIndians, a race of men very differentfrom any other, and probably after thePatagonians, the tallest and most robustin the world. After remaining some months at New Barcelona and Cumana, the travel-lers arrived at the Havanna, after a te-dious and dangerous navigation, the ves-sel being in the night on the point ofstriking upon the Vibora rocks. Mr.H. remained three months in the Islandof Cuba, where he occupied himself inascertaining the longitude of the Hava-na, and in constructing stoves on thesugar plantations, which have sincebeen pretty generally adopted. Theywere on the point of setting off forVera Cruz, meaning, by the way ofMexico and Acapulco, to go to the Phi-lippine Islands, and from thence, it waspossible, by Bombay and Aleppo, toConstantinople, when some false reportsrelative to Baudin’s voyage alarmedthem, and made them change their plan.The gazettes held out the idea that thisnavigator would proceed from Franceto Buenos Ayres, and from thence, byCape Horn, for Chili and the coast ofPeru. Mr. Humboldt had promised toMr. Baudin and to the Museum of Pa-ris, that wherever he might be, hewould endeavor to join the expedition,as soon as he should know of its havingbeen commenced. He flattered himselfthat his researches, and those of hisfriend Bonpland, might be more usefulto science, if united to the labors of thelearned men who would accompanycaptain Baudin. These considerations induced Mr. Humboldt to send his manuscripts, for1799 and 1800, direct to Europe, andto freight a small schooner at Bantabano,intending to go to Carthagena, and fromthence, as quickly as possible, by the |Spaltenumbruch| Isthmus of Panama, to the South Sea.He hoped to find captain Baudin atGuayaquil, or at Lima, and with him tovisit New Holland, and the Islands of thePacific Ocean, equally interesting in amoral point of view, as by the luxuri-ance of their vegetation. It appeared imprudent to expose themanuscripts and collections alreadymade to the risks of this proposed navi-gation. These manuscripts, of the fateof which Mr. H. remained ignorant du-ring three years, and until his arrival inPhiladelphia, arrived safe, but one thirdpart of the collection was lost by ship-wreck. Fortunately, except theinsects of the Oronoco and Rio Negrothey were only duplicates; but unhap-pily, friar John Gonzales, monk of theorder of St. Francis, the friend to whomthey were entrusted, perished with them.He was a young man full of ardor, whohad penetrated into this unknown worldof Spanish Guayana further than anyother European. Mr. Humboldt left Batabano in March1801, and passed to the south of theIsland of Cuba, on which he determinedmany Geographical positions. The pas-sage was rendered very long by calms,and the currents carried the little schoo-ner too much to the west, to the mouthsof the Attracto. The vessel put intothe river Sinu, where no botanist hadever before visited, and they had a verydifficult passage up to Carthagena. Theseason being too far advanced for theSouth Sea navigation, the project ofcrossing the Isthmus was abandoned;and animated by the desire of being ac-quainted with the celebrated Mutis,and admiring his immencely rich col-lections of objects of natural history,Mr. H. determined to pass some weeksin the woods of Turbaco, and to ascend(which took forty days) the beautiful ri-ver of Madalaine, of the source of whichhe has sketched a chart. From Honda, our travelers proceed-ed thro’ forests of oaks, of malastomo, and of cinchona, (the tree which affordsthe Peruvian bark,) to St. Fe de Bogo-ta, capital of the kingdom of New Gre-nada, situated in a fine plain, elevated1360 toises (of six French feet) abovethe level of the sea. The superb collec-tions of Mutis, the majestic cataract ofthe Tequendama (falls of 98 toisesheight) the mines of Mariquita, St. Ana,and of Tipaquira, the natural bridge of |Spaltenumbruch| Scononza, (three stones thrown togetherin the manner of an arch, by an earth-quake,) these curious objects stoppedthe progress of Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland until the month of September1801. At this time, notwithstanding the rai-ny season had commenced, they under-took the journey to Quito, and passedthe Andes of Quindiu, which are snowymountains covered with wax palm-trees,(palmers a cire,) with passe flores, (pas-sion flower) of the growth of trees, sto-tax, and bambusa (bamboo.) Theywere, during 13 days, obliged to pass onfoot thro’ places dreadfully swampy, andwithout any traces of population. (To be Continued.) |395| |Spaltenumbruch|

(Continued from page 388) FROM the village of Carthago, in thevalley of Cauca, they followed thecourse of the Choco, the country of Pa-latina, which was there found in roundpieces of basalte and green rock (greinstein of Werner,) and fossil wood.——They pass by Buga to Popayan, a bi-ship’s see, and situated near the volca-noes of Sotara and Purace, a most pic-turesque situation, and enjoying the mostdelicious climate in the world, the ther-mometer of Reamur keeping constantlyat 16 to 18 (68 to 72 Fahr.) They as-cended to the crater of the volcano ofPurace, whose mouth, in the middle ofsnow, throws out vapors of sulphuroushydrogene, with continued and frightfulrumbling. From Popayan they passed by thedangerous defiles of Almager, avoidingthe infected and contagious valley of Pa-tia, to Posto, and from this town, evennow situated at the foot of a burningvolcano, by Tuqueras and the provinceof Pastos, a flat portion of country, fer-tile in European grain, but elevatedmore than 1500 to 1600 toises above thetowns of Ibarra and Quito. They arrived, in January, 1802, atthis beautiful capital, celebrated by thelabors of the illustrious Condamine, of Bouger, Godin, Dr. George Juan, and Ulloa, and still more celebrated by thegreat amiability of its inhabitants, andtheir happy turn for the arts. They remained nearly a year in thekingdom of Quito: the height of itssnow-capped mountains, its terribleearthquakes (that of February 7, 1797, |Spaltenumbruch| swallowed up 42,000 inhabitants, in afew seconds,) its fertility, and themanners of its inhabitants, combined torender it the most interesting spot inthe universe. After three vain attempts,they twice succeeded in ascending tothe crater of the volcane of Pichincha,taking with them electrometers, ba-rometers, and hygrometers. Conda-mine could only stop here a few mi-nutes, and that without instruments. Inhis time, this immense crater was coldand filled with snow. Our travellersfound it inflamed; distressing informa-tion for the town of Quito, which is dis-ant from it only 5,000 to 6,000 toises. They made separate visits to thesnowy and porphyritic mountains of An-tisana, Cotopaxi, Tungarague, andChimborazo, the last the highest pointof our globe. They studied the geolo-gical part of the Cordillera of the An-des, on which subject nothing has beenpublished in Europe, mineralogy (if theexpression may be used) having beencreated, as it were, since the time of Condamine. The geodesical measure-ments proved that some mountains,particularly the volcano of Tungarague,has considerably lowered since 1750,which result agrees with the observationsmade to them by the inhabitants. During the whole of this part of thejourney, they were accompanied by Mr. Charles Montufar , son of the Marquisof Salva-alegre, of Quito, a person zea-lous for the progress of science, andwho is, at his own expense, re-buildingthe pyramids of Saraqui, the extremityof the celebrated bases of the triangles ofthe Spanish and French academicians.This interesting young man having fol-lowed Mr. Humboldt in the remainderof his journey through Peru and thekingdom of New Spain, is now on hispassage with him to Europe. Circumstances were so favorable tothe efforts of the three travellers, that at Antisana they ascended 2,200 Frenchfeet, and at Chimborazo, on June 22d,1802, nearly 3,200 higher than Conda-mine was able to carry his instruments.They ascended to 3,036 toises elevationabove the level of the sea, the blood start-ing from their eyes, lips and gums.—An opening, of 80 toises deep, and ve-ry wide, prevented them from reachingthe top, from which they were only dis-tant 134 toises. |Spaltenumbruch| It was at Quito that Mr. Humboldt received a letter from the National In-stitute of France, informing him, thatcaptain Baudin had proceeded by theCape of Good Hope, and that there wasno longer any hope of joining him. After having examined the countryoverturned by the earthquake of Riobam-ba, in 1797, they passed by the Andes of Assuay to Cuenza. The desire ofcomparing the barks (cinchona) disco-vered by Mr. Mutis, at Santa Fe de Ba-gota, and with those of Popayan, andthe cuspa and cuspare of New Andalu-sia, and of the river Caroni (namedfalsely Cortex Augustura) with the cin-chona, (barks) of Loxa and Peru, theypreferred deviating from the beatentrack from Cuenza to Lima; but theypassed with immense difficulties in thecarriage, their instruments and collec-tions, by the forest (paramo) of Saragu-ra to Loxa, and from thence to the pro-vince of Saen de Bracamoros. Theyhad to cross thirty-five times, in twodays the river Guancabamba, so dange-rous for its sudden freshes. They sawthe ruins of the supurb Ynga road, com-parable to the finest roads in France,and which went upon the ridge of the Andes from Cusco to the Assuay, ac-commodated with fountains and ta-verns. They descended the river Chamaya,which led them into that of the Amazones and they navigated this last river downto the cataracts of Tomeperda, one ofthe most fertile, but one of the hottestclimates of the habitable globe. From the Amazone river they returned to thesouth east by the Cordilleras of the An-des to Montar, where they found theyhad passed the magnetic equator, theinclination being 0, although at sevendegrees of south latitude. They visit-ed the mines of Hualgayoc, where na-tive silver is found at the height of2000 toises. Some of the veins of thesemines contain petrified shells, andwhich, with those of Pasco and Huan-tajayo, are actually the richest of Peru.From Caxamarca they descended toTruxillo, in the neighborhood of whichare found the ruins of the immense Pe-ruvian city, Mansiche. It was on this western descent of the Andes that the three voyagers, for thefirst time, had the pleasure of seeing thePacific Ocean. They followed its barrensides, formerly watered by the canals |396| |Spaltenumbruch| of the Yngas at Santa, Guerma, and Li-ma. They remained some months inthis interesting capital of Peru, of whichthe inhabitants are distinguished by thevivacity of their genius and the liberali-ty of their ideas. Mr. Humboldt had the good fortuneto observe the end of the passage ofMercury over the suns disk, in the portof Callao. He was astonished to find,at such a distance from Europe, themost recent productions in chemistry,mathematics and medicine; and hefound great activity of mind in the in-habitants, who in a climate where itnever either rains or thunders, havebeen falsely accused of indolence. From Lima our travellers passed bysea to Guayaquil, situated on the brinkof a river, where the growth of thepalm-tree is beautiful beyond descrip-tion. They every moment heard therumbling of the volcano of Cotopaxi,which made an alarming explosion onthe 6th January, 1803. They immedi-ately set off to visit it a second time,when the unexpected intelligence of thespeedy departure of the frigate Atalan-ta determined them to return, after be-ing seven days exposed to the dreadfulattacks of the musquitoes of Babaoya and Ujibar. They had a fortunate passage, by thePacific Ocean, to Acupulco, the westernport of the kingdom of New Spain, fa-mous for the beauty of its harbor, whichappears to have been formed by earth-quakes, for the misery of its inhabitants,and for its climate, which is equally hotand unhealthy. (To be continued.) |402| |Spaltenumbruch| |Spaltenumbruch| |Spaltenumbruch|

(Continued from page 396.) MR. HUMBOLDT had originallythe intention to remain only afew months in Mexico, and to hasten hisreturn to Europe; his voyage had alrea-dy been too much protracted, his in-struments, particularly the chronome-ters, began to be out of order, and eve-ry effort that he made to have newones sent him proved of no avail; addto this consideration, that the progressof science is so rapid in Europe, that,in a journey that lasts four or fiveyears, great risk is run of contemplatingthe different phenomena under aspects,which are no longer interesting at themoment of publishing the result of yourlabors. Mr. Humboldt hoped to be in Francein August or September, 1803, but theattractions of a country, so beautifuland so varied, as is that of the kingdomof New Spain, the great hospitality ofits inhabitants, and the fear of the yel- |403| |Spaltenumbruch| low fever, so fatal, from June to No-vember, for those who come from themountainous parts of the country, ledhim to stay a year in this kingdom. Our travellers ascended from Acapul-co to Tasco, celebrated for its mines,as interesting as they are ancient.They rise, by small degrees, from theardent valley of Mescala and Papagayo,where the thermometer of Reaumur stands in the shade, constantly from 28to 31 (95 to 101 Farh.) in a region 6 or700 toises above the level of the sea,where you find the oaks, the pines, andthe fougere (fern) as large as trees, andwhere the European grains are cultiva-ted. They passed by Tasco, by Cuer-na Vacca, to the capital of Mexico.This city, of 150,000 inhabitants, isplaced upon the ancient site of Texoch-titlan, between the lakes of Tezcuco andXochimilco, lakes which have lessenedsomewhat since the Spaniards have open-ed the canal of Hacheutoca, in the sightof two snow-topped mountains, of whichone, Hopocatepec, is even now an ac-tive volcano, surrounded by a greatnumber of walks, shaded with trees,and by Indian villages. This capital of Mexico, situated 1160toises above the sea, in a mild and tem-perate climate may doubtless be com-pared to some of the finest towns in Eu-rope. Great scientific establishments,such the Academy of Painting, Sculp-ture, and Engraving, the College ofMines, (owing to the liberality of theCompany, of Miners of Mexico,) andthe Botanic Garden, are institutionswhich do honor to the governmentwhich has created them. After remaining some months in thevalley of Mexico, and after fixing thelongitude of the capital, which had beenlaid down with an error of nearly twodegrees, our travellers visited the minesof Moran and Real del Monte, and theCerro of Oyamel, where the ancientMexicans had the manufactory of knivesmade of the obsidian stone. They soonafter passed by Queretaro and Salaman-ca to Guanaxoato, a town of fifty thou-sand inhabitants, and celebrated for itsmines, more rich than those of Potosihave ever been. The mine of the count of Valenciana,which is 1840 French feet perpendicu-lar depth, is the deepest and richestmine of the universe. This mine |Spaltenumbruch| alone gives to its proprietor nearly sixhundred thousand dollars annual andconstant profit. From Guanaxoato they returned bythe valley of St. Jago, to Valladolid, inthe ancient kingdom of Michuacan, oneof the most fertile and charming provin-ces of the kingdom. They descendedfrom Pascuaro towards the coast of thePacific Ocean to the plains of Serullo,where, in 1759, in one night, a volcanoarose from the level, surrounded by twothousand small mouths, from whencesmoke still continues to issue. Theyarrived almost to the bottom of the cra-ter of the great volcano of Serullo, ofwhich they analized the air, and foundit strongly impregnated with carbonicacid. They returned to Mexico by thevalley of Teluca, and visited the volca-no, to the highest point of which theyascended, 14,400 French feet above thelevel of the sea. In the months of January and Februa-ry, 1804, they pursued their researcheson the eastern descent of the Cordille-ras, they measured the mountains Me-rados, de la Peubla. Popocatyce, Izazi-huatli, the great peak of Orizaba, andthe Cofre de Perote; upon the top ofthis last Mr. Humboldt observed themeridian height of the sun. In fine,after some residence at Xalappa, theyembarked at Vera Cruz, for the Havan-nah. They resumed the collectionsthey had left there in 1801, and by theway of Philadelphia, embarked forFrance, in July, 1804, after six yearsof absence and labors. A collection of6000 different species of plants (of whicha great part are new) and numerousmineralogical, astronomical, chemicaland moral observations, have been theresult of this expedition. Mr. Hum-boldt gives the highest praises to the li-beral protection granted to his research-es by the Spanish government. Baron Humboldt was born in Prussia,on the 14th of September, 1769.