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Alexander von Humboldt: „Letter from Berlin, Prussia. Rumored Death of Amie Bonpland, the Botanist – Letter from Alexander V. Humboldt“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1858-Neueste_Nachrichten_ueber-10-neu> [abgerufen am 29.03.2024].

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Titel Letter from Berlin, Prussia. Rumored Death of Amie Bonpland, the Botanist – Letter from Alexander V. Humboldt
Jahr 1858
Ort Boston, Massachusetts
Nachweis
in: Boston Daily Journal 26:7842 (2. August 1858), [o. S.].
Sprache Englisch
Typografischer Befund Antiqua; Spaltensatz.
Identifikation
Textnummer Druckausgabe: VII.159
Dateiname: 1858-Neueste_Nachrichten_ueber-10-neu
Statistiken
Seitenanzahl: 1
Spaltenanzahl: 1
Zeichenanzahl: 14023

Weitere Fassungen
Neueste Nachrichten über den Botaniker Aimé Bonpland (Berlin, 1858, Deutsch)
Neueste Nachrichten über Aimé Bonpland von Alexander v. Humboldt (Hannover, 1858, Deutsch)
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Neueste Nachrichten über den Botaniker Aimé Bonpland (München, 1858, Deutsch)
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Aimé Bonpland (London, 1858, Englisch)
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Aime Bonpland (Dublin, 1858, Englisch)
[Neueste Nachrichten über den Botaniker Aimé Bonpland] (Paris, 1858, Französisch)
Letter from Berlin, Prussia. Rumored Death of Amie Bonpland, the Botanist – Letter from Alexander V. Humboldt (Boston, Massachusetts, 1858, Englisch)
A letter from Humboldt on the death of Bonpland (New York City, New York, 1858, Englisch)
A Letter from Humboldt on the Death of Bonpland (New York City, New York, 1858, Englisch)
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Amie Bonpland–The Naturalist (Boston, Massachusetts; New York City, New York, 1858, Englisch)
Extrait d’une Lettre de M. De Humboldt à M. F. Delessert (Paris, 1858, Französisch)
[Extrait d’une Lettre de M. De Humboldt à M. F. Delessert] (Paris, 1858, Französisch)
Une lettre de M. de Humboldt (Paris, 1858, Französisch)
|Seitenumbruch| [Foreign Correspondence of The Journal.] Letter from Berlin, Prussia.

Rumored Death of Amie Bonpland, the Botanist—Letterfrom Alexander V. Humboldt.

To the Editor of The Boston Journal: Within a few days, letters have been received in Berlin from Montevideo, bringing painful rumor that Amie Bonpland, the celebrated botanist, the beloved friend and fellow-traveller of Alexander Von Humboldt, is no more. Should this rumor be confirmed, and there is little occasion to question its truth, Bonpland will have passed away, after an eventful life of unremitted toil and research in the realm of natural science, at the ripe age of eighty-five; he was still engaged, up to a short period previous to the time of his reported death, in arduous agricultural and botanical pursuits. The sorrow which this rumor has diffused throughout Europe, is but the natural regret which all men feel when a noble spirit departs from among them, and bears no resemblance to the grief awakened when a man of promise is cut down in the fullness of strength and expectation, to disappoint the hopes of the world. He had done work enough for one lifetime, and leaving mankind a noble legacy of scientific results, has passed away to higher spheres of labor. “Well done!” is the signet stamp upon the record of his days. I have obtained from a gentleman of this city, who has access to private sources of information, and especially to the correspondence between Humboldt and Bonpland, an interesting sketch of the life of the great botanist. To insert the whole of it here would swell my letter far beyond the prescribed limits, and I must content myself with such brief references to certain portions of his eventful history as will serve to illustrate the touching letter which Humboldt dedicates to the memory of his lifelong friend. The intimacy of these two illustrious men began during Humboldt’s visit to Paris in May, 1798, shortly after Napoleon had sailed from Toulon upon his disastrous expedition to Egypt. Bonpland was about four years his junior, finely cultivated in his profession, ardent in temperament, and in him the maturer German found a man after his own heart. The grand result of this fortunate acquaintance, was the journey they performed together, during the years 1799—1804, through the American tropics, a journey which has furnished material, besides the more immediate scientific results, for some of the most magnificent descriptive passages of the Cosmos. Humboldt’s letters bear frequent witness to the disinterested affection and devotion of his fellow traveller, who in more than one dangerous adventure displayed that greatest of all love, which is willing to sacrifice life itself for its friend. In health and sickness, in every privation, in every pleasure incident to their long wanderings, the two friends were inseparable, and the lonely forests of the Amazon and the Orinoco, the intimacy which began in the gay capital of France ripened into friendship, which after half a century receives its first interruption by the death of Bonpland. On his return to Europe, Bonpland was introduced to Josephine, and by her favor obtained the office of Superintendent of the royal gardens at Malmaison and Navarre. Here, in the sunshine of imperial favor, he passed the happiest and palmiest days of his life. But it was in darker days, when the divorced Empress could no longer distribute royal patronage, that the true nobleness of his character appeared. He remained the faithful friend of his fallen benefactress, and to him she confided her most secret sorrows. After Josephine’s death, Bonpland, finding no place of repose in Europe, emigrated in 1816 to Buenos Ayres, taking with him a large number of fruit trees and a variety of other natural productions. He was there received with due honor, and soon afterward received the appointment of Professor of Natural History. His restless temperament soon incited him to undertake a journey through the interior of the continent, a journey fraught with unhappy consequences to himself and to science. For in passing through a portion of territory claimed by the Argentine Confederacy, he unfortunately incurred the jealousy of the Dictator, Dr. Francia, by whom he was seized in the most dastardly manner and thrown in confinement. True greatness always rises above misfortune, and Bonpland, denied a hearing by his persecutor, confined to a small plantation, dressed in the clothing of a slave, and compelled to perform menial labor for his daily bread, nobly resigned himself to his destiny, and endeavored to make the best of it. He was always ready to give assistence to the sick, and by his gentle benevolence won the hearts of all who knew him. Nor was his scientific ardor suffered meanwhile to lie dormant. He made large additions to his collection of plants, and occupied himself a portion of the time in the distillation of brandy from honey. Notwithstanding the intercession of Alexander V. Humboldt and the remonstrances of France and England, he remained a captive for nearly ten years. In 1831 he was released without the formality of a trial, and sent away from the country which had so long been his prison. Refusing the most pressing invitations to return to Europe, Bonpland lived until recently upon his estate in the village of San Borgia. Conforming in almost every thing, except his ardor in the scientific pursuits, to the habits of the natives, he married an Indian woman, and in the midst of the most enchanting region in the new world built himself a quiet and happy home. Here, surrounded by an affectionate family, revered by every one, and at perfect liberty, he conceived and carried into execution many schemes for the advancement of agriculture, besides adding continually to his immense collection of plants. But neither the charms of a simple life, nor the engrossing nature of his pursuits, could wholly wean his heart from the old associations. Though firmly resolved to live and die upon his own estate in the new world, he long cherished the hope of a flying visit to the old. He desired, with all the ardor of a life-long friendship, to see Humboldt once more, that he might talk over ‘old times’ with him. How deeply this feeling was shared by his illustrious friend, I need not say. For many years they have maintained a constant correspondence, and though separated thousands of miles, each has felt a certain society in the life of the other. The senior by about four years, Humboldt fondly hoped that he might not survive the last, the most faithful, the noblest and best beloved of all the friends of his long life. Yet so it must be. It is the destiny of this venerable man to follow all his friends to the grave, and to remain himself the sole representative of the times of his youth. One after another, within a few years, the great men who started with him and kept pace with him, have gone to their rest and their final fame, and now Bonpland has left him. How deeply he feels this fresh bereavement, the following letter affords touching evidence. It was written for publication in the German papers, but I have learned, from a private source, that the venerable man desires its circulation in the journals of the United States, as a mark of respect and esteem both for Bonpland and his “American friends”:

humboldt’s letter.

Conscious of the deep sympathy of numerous friends in the sorrow occasioned by the wide-spread report of the death of my dear, noble friend and fellow-traveler, Bonpland, I consider it my duty to give at least a brief notice of this event, for the particulars of which I am indebted to the kind services of Dr. Lallemant, author of an important paper on the diseases of Europeans in the tropies. This talented gentleman, after leaving the Austrian Royal Expedition in the frigate Novara, in February of this year, for the purpose of doing a kindness to myself, made the journey from Rio Janeiro to Rio Grande, and thence by way of Porto Alegro through the former Jesuit Mission to San Borgia, under the erroneous impression that Bonpland, who had gone there in 1831, was still resident at that place. I have received two letters from Dr. Lallemant, one dated at San Borgia on the 10th of April, the other written from the village of Umguaiana, after he had visited Bonpland at Santa Ana. An extended abstract of these letters having been sent to the editor of the widely-read and interesting botanical jonrnal, the Bonplandia, in Hanover, the following briefer extracts may here suffice. “In San Borgia,” writes Dr. Lallemant, I lived with an intimate friend of Bonpland, the Vicar Gray, with whom I visited the garden of the botanist, so long cultivated with care, but now lying waste and desolate. It was near the close of the year 1857 that the Vicar last received letters from Bonpland, since when intelligence had come of his severe illness. Letters of inquiry still remained unanswered, and notwithstanding the short distance between the places, the people of San Borgia were uncertain whether I should find your fellow travellers yet in the land of the living. In 1853 Bonpland had left San Borgia and taken up his residence upon his larger plantation of Santa Ana, where he had long occupied himself in the cultivation of orange trees. The residence of the aged scholar in the Estancia of Santa Ana, consists of two large buildings, mere clay walls, bound together by bamboo sticks and a few beams, and thatched with straw. These buildings have doors, but no windows, the light being admitted through the chinks between the bamboo sticks. Despite the deep furrows which an eventful life had engraven in the beloved countenance, his eye had not grown dim nor lost any of its full-thoughted vivacity. But lively conversation, though started by himself, appeared to weary him much, and he suffered severely from a chronic affection of the bladder. The privations he had so strangely imposed upon himself are by no means in consequence of poverty, or of any necessity for abstinence, but of long custom, great self-control, and characteristic individuality. The Government of Corrientes has presented to him an estate valued at 10,000 Spanish piasters, and he enjoys a French pension of 3,000 francs a year. He has never made the practice of medicine a source of pecuniary profit to himself. Though universally revered, he loves the solitude, and especially avoids all persons who might offer him assistance or advice. His scientific ardor has not yet abated, and his collections and manuscripts are deposited in Corrientes, where he has founded a national museum. On the following morning I found him visibly worse, and sinking away. The night had been a painful one. I pressed him to tell me whether I might not, in some way, be of service to him. But I fared no better than his other friends—he would accept of no assistence. How gladly would I have persuaded him to return once more to civilized society! But I, too, felt with him that his time was past. He belongs to the first half of the nineteenth century, not to the second. I think that your friend himself was moved when I took his wasted hands in mine with the pressure of farewell. For three months now his attendants have remarked his failing strength, and perhaps the old man had the same foreboding as myself at parting, that I might be the last ambassador of European lineage who should penetrate the depths of the wilderness to offer him regard, love and thanks, in the name of that science which owes so much to his labors. I mounted my horse and rode northward through the evergreen plains. No path showed my way, no guide disturbed me; I was alone with my sorrowful thoughts over the departed Bonpland. Yet how cheerful the last latter I received from Bonpland, bearing date the 7th of June, 1857! ‘I myself,’ he writes, ‘shall bring all my collections and manuscripts to Paris, and deposit them in the Museum. My journey to France will be exceedingly short. I shall return to my Santa Ana, where I lead a quiet and happy life. Here shall I die, and my sepulchre and my grave shall be underneath the shadow of the many trees I have planted. Oh, how happy were I, my dear Humboldt, could we meet once more, and recall our common experiences! On the 28th of August next I shall be eighty-four years old, and am yet four years younger than you. A man lately died in this vicinity who had attained the age of one hundred and seven. What a prospect for two travelers who have already stepped beyond the eightieth year!” The cheerful, almost life-desiring tone of this letter, contrasts strangely with the melancholy representations of Dr. Lallemant. According to Herr v. Tschudi the report was credited in Montevideo on the 29th of May, that Bonpland had died at Borgia, the date of his death uncertain. Yet Dr. Lallemant had spoken with him on the 18th of April in Santa Ana, and on May 10 the report of his death was discredited at Porto Allegro. Thus there yet remains ground for hope that the younger is not to be first called away. Such remoteness often stretches uncertainty to a painful dura-|Spaltenumbruch|tion; such the solicitude felt for Edward Vogel inCentral Africa, and for Adolphus Schlagintwait inCentral Asia—the sorrowfully missed!

ALEXANDER V. HUMBOLDT.

It is a touching and noble sight—that of the “oldmaster of science,” as ther Germans delight to call him,turning with calm resignation from the graves of hisdearest friends, and quietly addressing himself oncemore to the great work of his life, from which nothingis suffered to divert his mind. He is still hale andfull of vigor, loves the society of congenial friends,and is especially pleased to receive visitors from Amer-ica. No other man of science ever won such a holdupon the heart of mankind, and though all the worldwill sympathize with him in his present bereavement,there is no one but will rejoice that he is still allowedto remain among us, the noblest man that lives.

S. S. C.