Chapter III: Part I (3)

Frederick Henry Alexander, Baron of Humboldt, brother of the celebrated Prussian statesman of the same name, was born at Berlin on the 14th September 1769, the same year with Napoleon, Wellington, Goethe, Marshal Ney, and many other illustrious men. He received an excellent and extensive education at the university of Gottingeu, and at an academy at Frankfort on the Oder. His first step into the business of life was as a clerk in the mercantile house of Buch, at Hamburg, where he soon made himself master of accounts and bookkeeping, and acquired that perfect command of arithmetic, and habit of bringing every thing, where it is possible, to the test of figures, by which his political and scientific writings are so pre-eminently distinguished. But his disposition was too strongly bent on scientific and physical pursuits, to admit of his remaining long in the comparatively obscure and uninviting paths of commerce. His thirst for travelling was from his earliest years unbounded, and it erelong received ample gratification. His first considerable journey was with two naturalists of distinction, Messrs Fontu and Genns, with whom he travelled in Germany, Holland, and England, in the course of which his attention was chiefly directed to mineralogical pursuits. The fruit of his observations appeared in a work, the first he ever published, which was printed at Brunswick in 1790, when he was only twenty-one years of age, entitled _Observations sur les Basaltes du Rhin_.

To extend his information, already very considerable, on mineralogical science, Humboldt in 1791 repaired to Freyburg, to profit by the instructions of the celebrated Werner; and, when there, he devoted himself, with the characteristic ardour of his disposition, to make himself master of geology and botany, and prosecuted in an especial manner the study of the fossil remains of plants in the rocks around that place. In 1792, he published at Berlin a learned treatise, entitled _Specimen Florae, Friebergensis Subterraniae_; which procured for him such celebrity, that he was soon after appointed director-general of the mines in the principalities of Anspach and Bayreuth, in Franconia. His ardent and philanthropic disposition there exerted itself for several years in promoting, to the utmost of his power, various establishments of public utility; among others, the public school of Streben, from which has already issued many distinguished scholars. Charmed by the recent and brilliant discoveries of M. Galvani in electricity, he next entered with ardour into that new branch of science; and, not content with studying it in the abstract, he made a great variety of curious experiments on the effects of galvanism on his own person, and published the result in two octavos, at Berlin, in 1796, enriched by the notes of the celebrated naturalist Bluemenbach. This work was translated into French by J. F. Jadelot, and published at Paris in 1799. Meanwhile Humboldt, consumed with an insatiable desire for travelling, resumed his wanderings, and roamed over Switzerland and Italy, after which he returned to Paris in 1797, and formed an intimacy with a congenial spirit, M. Aime Bonpland; who afterwards became the companion of his South American travels. At this time he formed the design of joining the expedition of Captain Baudin, who was destined to circumnavigate the globe; but the continuance of hostilities prevented him from carrying that design into effect. Baffled in that project, upon which his heart was much set, Humboldt went to Marseilles with the intention of embarking on board a Swedish frigate for Algiers, from whence he hoped to join Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, and cross from the banks of the Nile to the Persian Gulf and the vast regions of the East. This was the turning point of his destiny. The Swedish frigate never arrived; the English cruisers rendered it impossible to cross the Mediterranean, except in a neutral vessel; and after waiting with impatience for about two months, he set out for Madrid, in the hope of finding means in the Peninsula of passing into Africa from the opposite shores of Andalusia.

Upon his arrival in the Spanish capital, the German philosopher was received with all the distinction which his scientific reputation deserved; and he obtained from the government the extraordinary and unlooked-for boon of a formal leave to travel over the whole South American colonies of the monarchy. This immediately determined Humboldt. He entered with ardour into the new prospects thus opened to him; wrote to his friend Aime Bonpland to propose that he should join him in the contemplated expedition--an offer which was gladly accepted; and soon the visions of Arabia and the Himalaya were supplanted by those of the Pampas of Buenos Ayres and the Cordilleras of Peru. The two friends embarked at Corunna on board a Spanish vessel, and after a prosperous voyage, reached Cumana, in the New World, in July 1799. From that city they made their first expedition in Spanish America, during which they travelled over Spanish Guiana, New Andalusia, and the Missions of the Caribbees, from whence they returned to Cumana in 1800. There they embarked for the Havannah; and the whole of the summer of that year was spent in traversing that great and interesting island, on which he collected much important and valuable information. In September 1801, he set out for Quito, where he arrived in January of the succeeding year, and was received with the most flattering distinction. Having reposed for some months from their fatigues, Humboldt and Bonpland proceeded, in the first instance, to survey the country which had been devastated in 1797 by the dreadful earthquake, so frequent in those regions, and which swallowed up in a minute forty thousand persons. Then he set out, in June 1802, to visit the volcano of Tungaragno and the summit of Chimborazo. They ascended to the height of 19,500 feet on the latter mountain; but were prevented from reaching the top by impassable ravines. Perched on one of the summits, however, of this giant of mountains, amidst ice and snow, far above the abode of any living creature except the condor, they made a great variety of most interesting observations, which have proved of essential service to the cause of science. They were 3485 feet above the most elevated point which the learned Condamine, who had hitherto ascended highest, reached in 1745, but were still 2140 feet below the loftiest summit of the mountain. They determined, by a series of strict trigonometrical observations, the height of the chief peaks of that celebrated ridge--

"Where Andes, giant of the western star,
Looks from his throne of clouds o'er half the world."

Having returned, after this fatiguing and dangerous mountain expedition, to Lima, Humboldt remained several months enjoying the hospitality of its kind-hearted inhabitants, whose warm feelings and excellent qualities excited in him the warmest admiration. In the neighbouring harbour of Callao, he was fortunate enough to see the passage of the planet Mercury over the disk of the sun, of which transit he made very important observations; and from thence passed into the province of New Spain, where he remained an entire year, sedulously engaged in agricultural, political, and statistical, as well as physical enquiries, the fruits of which added much to the value of his published travels. In April 1803, he proceeded to Mexico, where he was so fortunate as to discover the only specimen known to exist of the tree called _Cheirostomon Platanoides_, of the highest antiquity and gigantic dimensions. During the remainder of that year, he made several excursions over the mountains and valleys of Mexico, inferior to none in the world in interest and beauty; and in autumn 1804, embarked for the Havannah, from whence he passed into Philadelphia, and traversed a considerable part of the United States. At length, in 1805, he returned to Europe, and arrived safe at Paris in November of that year, bringing with him, in addition to the observations he had made, and recollections with which his mind was fraught, the most extensive and varied collection of specimens of plants and minerals that ever was brought from the New World. His herbarium consisted of four thousand different plants, many of them of extreme rarity even in South America, and great part of which were previously unknown in Europe. His mineralogical collection was of equal extent and value. But by far the most important additions he has made to the cause of science, consist in the vast series of observations he has made in the New World, which have set at rest a great many disputed points in geography, mineralogy, and zoology, concerning that interesting and, in a great degree, unknown part of the world, and extended in a proportional degree the boundaries of knowledge regarding it. Nor have his labours been less important in collecting the most valuable statistical information regarding the Spanish provinces of those vast regions, especially the condition of the Indian, negro, and mulatto race which exist within them, and the amount of the precious metals annually raised from their mines; subjects of vast importance to Great Britain, and especially its colonial and commercial interests, but which have hitherto been in an unaccountable manner neglected, even by those whose interests and fortunes were entirely wound up in the changes connected with these vital subjects.

The remainder of Baron Humboldt's life has been chiefly devoted to the various and important publications, in which he has embodied the fruit of his vast and extensive researches in the New World. In many of these he has been assisted by M. Aime Bonpland, who, his companion in literary labour as in the danger and fatigues of travelling, has, with the generosity of a really great mind, been content to diminish, perhaps destroy, his prospect of individual celebrity, by associating himself with the labours Of his illustrious friend. Pursued even in mature years by the desire of fame, the thirst for still greater achievements, which belongs to minds of the heroic cast, whether in war or science, he conceived, at a subsequent period, the design of visiting the upper provinces of India and the Himalaya range. After having ascended higher than man had yet done on the elevated ridges of the New World, he was consumed with a thirst to surmount the still more lofty summits of the Old, which have remained in solitary and unapproachable grandeur since the waves of the Deluge first receded from their sides. But the East India Company, within whose dominions, or at least beneath whose influence, the highest ridges of the Himalaya are situated, gave no countenance to the design, and even, it is said, refused liberty to the immortal Naturalist to visit their extensive territories. Whatever opinion we may form on the liberality or wisdom of this resolution, considered with reference to the interests, physical, moral, and political, of British India, it is not to be regretted, for the cause of science and literature over the world, that the great traveller has been prevented from setting out late in life to a fresh region of discovery. It has left the remainder of his life, and his yet undiminished powers, to illustrate and explain what he has already seen. To do that, was enough for the ordinary span of human life.

Humboldt's works relating to the New World are very numerous. I. He first published, in 1805, at Paris, in four volumes quarto, the _Personal Narrative_ of his travels from 1799 to 1804. Of this splendid and interesting work, several editions have since been published in French, in twelve volumes octavo. It is upon it that his fame with the generality of readers mainly rests. II. _Vues des Cordilleras et Monumens des Peuples Indigenes de l'Amerique_--two volumes folio: Paris, 1811. This magnificent work, the cost of which is now L130, contains by far the finest views of the Andes in existence. Its great price renders it very scarce, and not more than a few copies are to be met with in Great Britain; but a cheap edition, without the great plates, was published at Paris in 1817. III. _Recueil d'Observations Astronomiques, et de Mesures executees dans le Nouveau Continent_: two volumes quarto. This learned work contains the result of Humboldt's astronomical and trigonometrical observations on the lunar distances, the eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter, the transit of Mercury, and upwards of five hundred elevated points in the New World, taken from barometrical observations, with all the requisite allowances and calculations carefully made. IV. _Essai sur la Geographie des Plantes, ou Tableau Physique des Regions Equinoxiales_: in quarto, with a great map. V. _Plantes Equinoxiales recueillies au Mexique, dans l'Ile de Cuba, dans les Provinces de Caraccas, &c._: two volumes folio. A splendid and very costly work. VI. _Monographie des Melastomes_: two volumes folio. A most curious and interesting work on a most interesting subject. VII. _Nova Genera et Species Plantarum_: three volumes folio. Containing an account of the botanical treasures collected by him in the New World, and brought home in his magnificent herbarium. VIII. _Recueil des Observations de Zoologie et d'Anatomie comparee faites dans un Voyage aux Tropiques_: two volumes quarto. IX. _Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne._ 1811: two volumes quarto. Of this admirable work a subsequent edition has been published in 1822, in four volumes octavo. It contains an astonishing collection of important statistical facts, arranged and digested with the utmost ability, and interspersed with political and philosophical reflections on the state of the human race, and the relation of society in the New World. X. _Ansichten der Natur._ Tubingen, 1808: in octavo. It is remarkable that this is the only one of the learned author's works on Spanish America which originally appeared in his own language; but it was soon translated into French under the title of _Tableaux de la Nature_. Paris: 1808. It contains a series of descriptions of the different styles of scenery and remarkable objects in the vast regions he had visited, portrayed with all the vigour and accuracy for which the author is distinguished. XI. _De Distributione Geographica Plantarum secundum Coeli Temperiem et Altitudinem Montium, Prolegomena_. In octavo. Paris: 1817. The title of this work explains its object and its importance, in describing a portion of the globe consisting of such lofty and successive ridges and table-lands as rise from the level of the sea to the summits of the Cordilleras of Mexico and Peru. XII. _Sur l'Elevation des Montagnes de l'Inde._ Octavo. Paris: 1818. A work prepared when the author was contemplating a journey to the Himalaya and mountains of Thibet. XIII. _Carte du Fleuve Orenoque._ Presented to the Academy of Sciences in 1817. M. Humboldt has there demonstrated the singular fact of the junction of the great rivers Orinoco and of the Amazon by the intermediate waters of the Rio Negro; a fact which the sagacity of D'Anville had long ago led him to suspect, but which the travels of the indefatigable German has established beyond a doubt. XIV. _Examen Critique de l'Histoire de la Geographie du Nouveau Continent, et du Progres de l'Astronomie Nautique aux 15me et 16me siecles._ Paris: 1837. XV. "_Cosmos:_" in German--a "Scheme of a Physical Description of the Universe." This last work embraces a much wider sphere of learning and speculation than any of the preceding, and is more characteristic of the vast erudition and ardent genius of the author.

From the brief account which has now been given of the published works of this indefatigable traveller and author, the reader will be able to appreciate the extent and variety of his scientific and political attainments. We shall now present him under a different aspect, as an eloquent and almost unrivalled describer of nature. It need hardly be said that it is on these splendid pictures, more even than the numerous and valuable additions he has made to the treasures of science, that his reputation with the world in general is founded.

The rapids of the Orinoco--one of the most striking scenes in America--are thus described by our author:[4]--

"When we arrived at the top of the Cliff of Marimi, the first
object which caught our eye was a sheet of foam, above a mile in
length and half a mile in breadth. Enormous masses of black rock,
of an iron hue, started up here and there out of its snowy
surface. Some resembled huge basaltic cliffs resting on each
other; many, castles in ruins, with detached towers and
fortalices, guarding their approach from a distance. Their sombre
colour formed a contrast with the dazzling whiteness of the foam.
Every rock, every island, was covered with flourishing trees, the
foliage of which is often united above the foaming gulf by
creepers hanging in festoons from their opposite branches. The
base of the rocks and islands, as far as the eye can reach, is
lost in the volumes of white smoke, which boil above the surface
of the river; but above these snowy clouds, noble palms, from
eighty to an hundred feet high, rise aloft, stretching their
summits of dazzling green towards the clear azure of heaven. With
the changes of the day these rocks and palm-trees are alternately
illuminated by the brightest sunshine, or projected in deep shadow
on the surrounding surge. Never does a breath of wind agitate the
foliage, never a cloud obscure the vault of heaven. A dazzling
light is ever shed through the air, over the earth enameled with
the loveliest flowers, over the foaming stream stretching as far
as the eye can reach; the spray, glittering in the sunbeams, forms
a thousand rainbows, ever changing, yet ever bright, beneath whose
arches, islands of flowers, rivalling the very hues of heaven,
flourish in perpetual bloom. There is nothing austere or sombre,
as in northern climates, even in this scene of elemental strife;
tranquillity and repose seem to sleep on the very edge of the
abyss of waters. Neither time, nor the sight of the Cordilleras,
nor a long abode in the charming valleys of Mexico, have been able
to efface from my recollection the impression made by these
cataracts. When I read the description of similar scenes in the
East, my mind sees again in clear vision the sea of foam, the
islands of flowers, the palm-trees surmounting the snowy vapours.
Such recollections, like the memory of the sublimest works of
poetry and the arts, leave an impression which is never to be
effaced, and which, through the whole of life, is associated with
every sentiment of the grand and the beautiful."--(Vol. vii.
171-172.)

Such is a specimen of the descriptive powers of the great German natural philosopher, geographer, botanist, and traveller. When our senior wranglers from Cambridge, our high-honoured men from Oxford, or lady travellers from London, produce a parallel to it, we shall hope that England is about to compete with the continental nations in the race of illustrious travellers--but not till then.

As a contrast to this, we cannot resist the pleasure of laying before our readers the following striking description of night on the Orinoco, in the placid part of its course, amidst the vast forests of the tropical regions:--

"The night was calm and serene, and a beautiful moon shed a
radiance over the scene. The crocodiles lay extended on the sand;
placed in such a manner that they could watch our fire, from which
they never turned aside their eyes. Its dazzling evidently
attracted them, as it does fish, crabs, and the other inhabitants
of the waters. The Indians pointed out to us in the sand the
recent marks of the feet of three tigers, a mother and two young,
which had crossed the open space between the forest and the water.
Finding no tree upon the shore, we sank the end of our oars into
the sand, in order to form poles for our tents. Every thing
remained quiet till eleven at night, when suddenly there arose, in
the neighbouring forest, a noise so frightful that it became
impossible to shut our eyes. Amidst the voice of so many savage
animals, which all roared or cried at once, our Indians could only
distinguish the howling of the jaguar, the yell of the tiger, the
roar of the cougar, or American lion, and the screams of some
birds of prey. When the jaguars approached near to the edge of the
forest, our dogs, which to that moment had never ceased to bark,
suddenly housed; and, crouching, sought refuge under the shelter
of our hammocks. Sometimes, after an interval of silence, the
growl of the tiger was heard from the top of the trees, followed
immediately by the cries of the monkey tenants of their branches,
which fled the danger by which they were menaced.

"I have painted, feature by feature, these nocturnal scenes on the
Orinoco, because, having but lately embarked on it, we were as yet
unaccustomed to their wildness. They were repeated for months
together, every night that the forest approached the edge of the
river. Despite the evident danger by which one is surrounded, the
security which the Indian feels comes to communicate itself to
your mind; you become persuaded with him, that all the tigers fear
the light of fire, and will not attack a man when lying in his
hammock. In truth, the instances of attacks on persons in hammocks
are extremely rare; and during a long residence in South America,
I can only call to mind one instance of a Llanero, who was found
torn in pieces in his hammock opposite the island of Uhagua.

"When one asks the Indians what is the cause of this tremendous
noise, which at a certain hour of the night the animals of the
forest make, they answer gaily, 'They are saluting the full moon.'
I suspect the cause in general is some quarrel or combat which has
arisen in the interior of the forest. The jaguars, for example,
pursue the pecaris and tapirs, which, having no means of defence
but their numbers, fly in dense bodies, and press, in all the
agony of terror, through the thickets which lie in their way.
Terrified at this strife, and the crashing of boughs or rustling
of thickets which they hear beneath them, the monkeys on the
highest branches set up discordant cries of terror on every side.
The din soon wakens the parrots and other birds which fill the
woods, they instantly scream in the most violent way, and erelong
the whole forest is in an uproar. We soon found that it is not so
much during a full moon, as on the approach of a whirlwind or a
storm, that this frightful concert arises among the wild beasts.
'May heaven give us a peaceable night and rest, like other
mortals!' was the exclamation of the monk who had accompanied us
from the Rio Negro, as he lay down to repose in our bivouac. It is
a singular circumstance to be reduced to such a petition in the
midst of the solitude of the woods. In the hotels of Spain, the
traveller fears the sound of the guitar from the neighbouring
apartment: in the bivouacs of the Orinoco, which are spread on the
open sand, or under the shade of a single tree, what you have to
dread is, the infernal cries which issue from the adjoining
forest."--(Vol. vi., 222-3.)

One of the most remarkable of the many remarkable features of Nature in South America, is the prodigious plains which, under the name of Llanos and Pampas, stretch from the shores of the Atlantic to the foot of the Andes, over a space from fifteen hundred to two thousand miles in breadth. Humboldt traversed them more than once in their full extent, and has given the following striking description of their remarkable peculiarities.

"In many geographical works, the savannahs of South America are
termed _prairies_. That word, however, seems not properly
applicable to plains of pasturage, often exclusively dry, though
covered with grass four or five feet high. The Llanos and Pampas
of South America are true _steppes_: they present a rich covering
of verdure during the rainy season; but in the months of drought,
the earth assumes the appearance of a desert. The turf is then
reduced to powder, the earth gapes in huge cracks; the crocodiles
and great serpents lie in a dormant state in the dried mud, till
the return of rains, and the rise of the waters in the great
rivers, which flood the vast expanse of level surface, awaken them
from their long slumber. These appearances are often exhibited
over an arid surface of fifty or sixty leagues square--every
where, in short, where the savannah is not traversed by any of the
great rivers. On the borders, on the other hand, of the streams,
and around the lakes, which in the dry season retain a little
brackish water, the traveller meets from time to time, even in the
most extreme drought, groves of Mauritia, a species of palm, the
leaves of which, spreading out like a fan, preserve amidst the
surrounding sterility a brilliant verdure.

"The steppes of Asia are all out of the region of the tropics, and
form in general the summit of very elevated plateaux. America also
presents, on the reverse of the mountains of Mexico, of Peru, and
of Quito, steppes of considerable extent. But the greatest
steppes, the Llanos of Cumana, of Caraccas, and of Meta, all
belong to the equinoctial zone, and are very little elevated above
the level of the ocean. It is this which gives them their peculiar
characters. They do not contain, like the steppes of Southern
Asia, and the deserts of Persia, those lakes without issue, or
rivers which lose themselves in the sand or in subterraneous
filtrations. The Llanos of South America incline towards the east
and the south; their waters are tributary to the Orinoco, the
Amazon, or the Rio de la Plata.

"What most strongly characterizes the savannahs or steppes of
South America, is the entire absence of hills, or inequalities of
any kind. The soil, for hundreds of miles together, is perfectly
flat, without even a hillock. For this reason, the Castilian
conquerors, who penetrated first from Coro to the banks of the
Apure, named the regions to which they came, neither deserts, nor
savannahs, nor meadows, but _plains--los Llanos_. Over an extent
of thirty leagues square, you will often not meet with an eminence
a foot high. The resemblance to the sea which these immense plains
bear, strikes the imagination the more forcibly in those places,
often as extensive as half of France, where the surface is
absolutely destitute of palms, or any species of trees, and where
the distance is so great from the mountains, or the forests on the
shores of the Orinoco, as to render neither visible. The uniform
appearance which the Llanos exhibit, the extreme rarity of any
habitations, the fatigues of a journey under a burning sun, and in
an atmosphere perpetually clouded with dust, the prospect of a
round girdle of an horizon, which appears constantly to recede
before the traveller, the isolated stems of the palm-tree, all
precisely of the same form, and which he despairs to reach,
because he confounds them with other seemingly identical trunks
which appear in the distant parts of the horizon: all these causes
combine to make these steppes appear even more vast than they
really are.

"Yet are their actual dimensions so prodigious, that it is hard to
outstrip them, even by the wildest flights of the imagination. The
colonists, who inhabit the slopes of the mountains which form
their extreme boundary on the west and north, see the steppes
stretch away to the south and east, as far as the eye can reach,
an interminable ocean of verdure. Well may they deem it boundless!
They know that from the Delta of the Orinoco, crossing the
province of Vannos, and from thence by the shores of the Meta, the
Guaviare, and the Caguan, you may advance in the plains, at first
from east to west, then from north-east, to south-east, three
hundred and eighty leagues--a distance as great as from Tombuctoo
to the northern coast of Africa. They know, by the report of
travellers, that the Pampas of Buenos Ayres--which are also
Llanos, destitute of trees, covered with rich grass, filled with
cattle and wild horses--are equally extensive. They imagine,
according to the greater part of maps, that this huge continent
has but one chain of mountains, the Andes, which forms its western
boundary; and they form a vague idea of the boundless sea of
verdure, stretching the whole way from the foot of this gigantic
wall of rock, from the Orinoco and the Apure, to the Rio de la
Plata and the Straits of Magellan. Imagination itself can hardly
form an idea of the extent of these plains. The Llanos, from the
Caqueta to the Apure, and from thence to the Delta of the Orinoco,
contain 17,000 square marine leagues--a space nearly equal to the
area of France; that which stretches to the north and south is of
nearly double the extent, or considerably larger than the surface
of Germany; and the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, which extend from
thence towards Cape Horn, are of such extent, that while one end
is shaded by the palm-trees of the tropics, the other, equally
flat, is charged with the snows of the antarctic circle."--(Vol.
vi. 52, 67.)

These prodigious plains have been overspread with the horses and cattle of the Old World, which, originally introduced by the Spanish settlers, have strayed from the enclosures of their masters, and multiplied without end in the vast savannahs which nature had spread out for their reception.

"It is impossible," says Humboldt, "to form an exact enumeration
of the cattle in the Pampas, or even to give an approximation to
it, so immensely have they augmented during the three centuries
which have elapsed since they were first introduced; but some idea
of their number may be formed from the following facts in regard
to such portions of these vast herds as are capable of being
counted. It is calculated that in the plains from the mouths of
the Orinoco to the lake Maracaybo, there are 1,200,000 head of
cattle, 180,000 horses, and 90,000 mules, which belong to
individual proprietors. In the Pampas of Buenos Ayres there are
12,000,000 cows and 3,000,000 horses belonging to private persons,
besides the far greater multitude which are wild, and wander
altogether beyond the reach of man. Considerable revenues are
realized from the sale of the skins of these animals, for they are
so common that the carcasses are of scarcely any value. They are
at the pains only to look after the young of their herds, which
are marked once a-year with the initial letter of the owner.
Fourteen or fifteen thousand are marked by the greater proprietors
every year, of which five or six thousand are annually
sold."--(Vol. vi. 97.)

The enormous number of beasts of prey which multiply with this vast accumulation of animals to be devoured, as well those introduced by man as those furnished by the hand of nature, renders the life of many of the inhabitants of these regions little else than a constant struggle with wild animals. Many hairbreadth escapes and heroic adventures are recounted by the natives, which would pass for fabulous if not stated on such unquestionable authority as that of M. Humboldt, and supported by the concurring testimony of other travellers. The number of alligators, in particular, on the Orinoco, the Rio Apure, and their tributary streams, is prodigious; and contests with them constitute a large portion of the legendary tales of the Indian and European settlers in the forest.

"The numerous wild animals," says Humboldt, "which inhabit the
forests on the shores of the Orinoco, have made apertures for
themselves in the wall of vegetation and foliage by which the
woods are bounded, out of which they come forth to drink in the
river. Tigers, tapirs, jaguars, boars, besides numberless lesser
quadrupeds, issue out of these dark arches in the green
wilderness, and cross the strip of sand which generally lies
between it and the edge of the water, formed by the large space
which is annually devastated and covered with shingle or mud,
during the rise of the water in the rainy season. These singular
scenes have always possessed a great attraction for me. The
pleasure experienced was not merely that of a naturalist in the
objects of his study; it belongs to all men who have been educated
in the habits of civilization. You find yourself in contact with a
new world, with savage and unconquered Nature. Sometimes it is the
jaguar, the beautiful panther of America, which issues from its
dark retreat; at others the hosco, with its dark plumes and curved
head, which traverses the _sauso_, as the band of yellow sand is
called. Animals of the most various kinds and opposite
descriptions succeed each other without intermission. 'Es como en
el Paraiso,' (It is as in Paradise,) said our pilot, an old Indian
of the Missions. In truth, every thing here recalls that primitive
world of which the traditions of all nations have preserved the
recollection, the innocence, and happiness; but on observing the
habits of the animals towards each other, it is evident that the
age of gold has ceased to them as well as to the human race; they
mutually fear and avoid each other, and in the lonely American
forests, as elsewhere, long experience has taught all living
beings that gentleness is rarely united to force."

* * * * *

"When the sands on the river side are of considerable breadth, the
sauso often stretches to a considerable distance from the water's
edge. It is on this intermediate space that you see the
crocodiles, often to the number of eight or ten, stretched on the
sand. Motionless, their huge jaws opened at right angles, they lie
without giving any of those marks of affection which are
observable in other animals which live in society. The troop
separate when they leave the coast; they are probably composed of
several females and one male. The former are much more numerous
than the latter, from the number of males which are killed in
fighting during the time of their amours. These monstrous reptiles
have multiplied to such a degree, that there was hardly an instant
during our voyage along the whole course of the river that we had
not five or six in view. We measured one dead which was lying on
the sand; it was sixteen feet nine inches long. Soon after, Mr
Bonpland found a dead male on the shore, measuring twenty-two
feet three inches. Under every zone--in America as in Egypt--this
animal attains the same dimensions. The Indians told us, that at
San Fernando scarce a year passes without two or three grown up
persons, usually women, who are drawing from the river, being
devoured by these carnivorous lizards.

"They related to us an interesting story of a young daughter of
Urituen, who, by extraordinary intrepidity and presence of mind,
succeeded in extricating herself from the very jaws of a
crocodile. When she felt herself seized by the voracious animal in
the water, she felt for its eyes, and thrust her fingers into them
with such violence that she forced the animal to let go, but not
before he had torn off the lower part of her left arm. The Indian
girl, notwithstanding the enormous quantity of blood which she
lost, succeeded in swimming to shore with the hand which was left,
and escaped without further injury. In those desert regions, where
man is constantly in strife with animated or inanimated nature,
they daily speak of similar or corresponding means by which it is
possible to escape from a tiger, a great boa, or a crocodile.
Every one prepares himself against a danger which may any day
befall him, 'I knew,' said the young girl calmly, when praised for
her presence of mind, 'that the crocodile lets go his hold when
you plunge your fingers in his eyes.' Long after my return to
Europe, I learned that the negroes in the interior of Africa make
use of the same method to escape from the alligators in the Niger.
Who does not recollect with warm interest, that Isaaco the guide,
in his last journey of the unfortunate Mungo Park, was seized
twice near Boulinkombro, and that he escaped from the throat of
the monster solely by thrusting his fingers into his two eyes?[5]
The African Isaaco and the young American girl owed their safety
to the same presence of mind, and the same combination of
ideas."--(Vol. vi. 203, 205.)

If there is any one fact more than another demonstrated by the concurring testimony of travellers, historians, and statistical observers, in all ages and quarters of the world, it is, that the possession of _property in land_ is the first step in social improvement, and the only effectual humanizer of Savage Man. Rousseau's famous paradox, "The first Man who enclosed a field, and called it mine, is the author of all the social ills which followed," is not only false but decidedly the reverse of the truth. He was the first and greatest benefactor of his species. Subsequent ills have arisen, not from following but forgetting his example; and preferring to the simplicity of country life the seductions and vices of urban society. Humboldt adds his important testimony to the noble army of witnesses in all ages, and from all parts of the world, on this all important subject.

"The Guamos are a race of Indians whom it is extremely difficult
to fix down to the soil. Like other wandering savages, they are
distinguished by their dirt, revengeful spirit, and fondness for
wandering. The greater part of them live by fishing and the chase,
in the plains often flooded by the Apure, the Meta, and the
Guaviare. The nature of those regions, their vast extent, and
entire want of any limit or distinguishing mark, seems to invite
their inhabitants to a wandering life. On entering, again, the
mountains which adjoin the cataracts of the Orinoco, you find
among the Piroas, the Macos, and the Macquiritares, milder
manners, a love of agriculture, and remarkable cleanliness in the
interior of their cabins. On the ridges of mountains, amidst
impenetrable forests, man is forced to fix himself, to clear and
cultivate a corner of the earth. That culture demands little care,
and is richly rewarded: while the life of a hunter is painful and
difficult. The Guamos of the Mission of Santa Barbara are kind and
hospitable; whenever we entered their cottages, they offered us
dried fish and water."--(Vol. vi. 219.)

No spectacle in nature can exceed, few equal, the sublimity and magnificence of the scenery presented by the vast chain of mountains which, under the name of Cordilleras, Andes, and Rocky Mountains, traverses the whole continent of America, both north and south, in the neighbourhood of the Pacific Ocean. Of this prodigious pile of rocks and precipices, Humboldt, in another of his works, has given the following admirable account:--

"The immense chain of the Andes, traversing its whole extent near
the Pacific Ocean, has stamped a character upon South American
nature which belongs to no other country. The peculiarity which
distinguishes the regions which belong to this immense chain, are
the successive plateaux, like so many huge natural terraces, which
rise one above another, before arriving at the great central
chain, where the highest summits are to be found. Such is the
elevation of some of these plains that they often exceed eight and
nine, and sometimes reach that of twelve thousand feet above the
level of the sea. The lowest of these plateaux is higher than the
summit of the Pass of the Great St Bernard, the highest inhabited
ground in Europe, which is 7545 feet above the level of the sea.
But such is the benignity of the climate, that at these prodigious
elevations, which even in the south of Europe are above the line
of perpetual snow, are to be found cities and towns, corn-fields
and orchards, and all the symptoms of rural felicity. The town of
Quito itself, the capital of a province of the same name, is
situated on a plateau, or elevated valley, in the centre of the
Andes, nearly 9000 feet above the level of the sea. Yet there are
found concentrated a numerous population, and it contains cities
with thirty, forty, and even fifty thousand inhabitants. After
living some months on this elevated ground, you experience an
extraordinary illusion. Finding yourself surrounded with pasture
and corn-fields, flocks and herds, smiling orchards and golden
harvests, the sheep and the lama, the fruits of Europe and those
of America, you forget that you are as it were suspended between
heaven and earth, and elevated to a height exceeding that by which
the European traveller makes his way from France into Italy, and
double that of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Great Britain.

"The different gradations of vegetation, as might be expected in a
country where the earth rises from the torrid zone by a few steep
ascents to the regions of eternal congelation, exhibit one of the
most remarkable features in this land of wonders. From the borders
of the sea to the height of two thousand feet, are to be seen the
magnificent palm-tree, the musa, the heleconia, the balms of Tolu,
the large flowering jasmin, the date-tree, and all the productions
of tropical climates. On the arid and burning shores of the ocean,
flourish, in addition to these, the cotton-tree, the magnolias,
the cactus, the sugar-cane, and all the luscious fruits which
ripen under the genial sun, and amidst the balmy breezes of the
West India Islands. One only of these tropical children of nature,
the _Carosylou Andicola_, is met with far in advance of the rest
of its tribe, tossed by the winds at the height of seven and eight
thousand feet above the sea, on the middle ridges of the
Cordillera range. In this lower region, as nature exhibits the
riches, so she has spread the pestilence, of tropical climates.
The humidity of the atmosphere, and the damp heats which are
nourished amidst its intricate thickets, produce violent fevers,
which often prove extremely destructive, especially to European
constitutions. But if the patient survives the first attack, the
remedy is at hand; a journey to the temperate climate of the
elevated plateau soon restores health; and the sufferer is as much
revived by the gales of the Andes, as the Indian valetudinarian is
by a return to Europe.

"Above the region of the palms commences the temperate zone. It is
there that vegetation appears in its most delightful form,
luxuriant without being rank, majestic yet not impervious; it
combines all that nature has given of the grand, with all that the
poets have figured of the beautiful. The bark-tree, which she has
provided as the only effectual febrifuge in the deadly heats of
the inferior region; the cyprus and melastoma, with their superb
violet blossoms; gigantic fuchsias of every possible variety, and
evergreen trees of lofty stature, covered with flowers, adorn that
delightful zone. The turf is enamelled by never-fading flowers;
mosses of dazzling beauty, fed by the frequent rains attracted by
the mountains, cover the rocks; and the trembling branches of the
mimosa, and others of the sensitive tribe, hang in graceful
pendants over every declivity. Almost all the flowering shrubs
which adorn our conservatories, are to be found there in primeval
beauty, and what to Europeans appears a gigantic scale;
magnificent arums of many different kinds spread their ample snowy
petals above the surrounding thickets; and innumerable creepers,
adorned by splendid blossoms, mount even to the summit of the
highest trees, and diffuse a perennial fragrance around.

"The oaks and trees of Europe are not found in those parts of the
Andes which lie in the torrid zone, till you arrive at the height
of five thousand feet above the sea. It is there you first begin
to see the leaves fall in winter, and bud in spring, as in
European climates: below that level the foliage is perpetual.
Nowhere are the trees so large as in this region: not unfrequently
they are found of the height of a hundred and eighty or two
hundred feet; their stems are from eight to fifteen feet across at
their base, and sometimes rise a hundred feet without a single
cross branch. When so great an elevation as the plains of Quito,
however, which is 9515 above the sea, is reached, they become less
considerable, and not larger than those usually found in the
forests of Europe. If the traveller ascends two thousand feet
higher, to an elevation of eleven or twelve thousand feet, trees
almost entirely disappear; but the frequent humidity nourishes a
thick covering of arbutus and other evergreens, shrubs three or
four feet high, covered with flowers generally of a bright yellow,
which form a striking contrast to the dark evergreen foliage with
which they are surrounded. Still higher, at the height of thirteen
thousand feet, near the summit of the lower ranges of the
Cordilleras, almost constant rains overspread the earth with a
verdant and slippery coating of moss; amidst which a few stunted
specimens of the melastoma still exhibit their purple blossoms. A
broad zone succeeds, covered entirely with Alpine plants, which,
as in the mountains of Switzerland, nestle in the crevices of
rocks, or push their flowers, generally of yellow or dark blue,
through the now frequent snow. Higher still, grass alone is to be
met with, mixed with the grey moss which conducts the wearied
traveller to the region of perpetual snow, which in those warm
latitudes is general only at an elevation of fifteen thousand
feet. Above that level no animated being is found, except the huge
condor, the largest bird that exists, which there, amidst ice and
clouds, has fixed its gloomy abode."--(_Tableau de la Nature dans
les Regions Equatoriales_, 59, 140-144.)

In the rhythm of prose these are the colours of poetry; but it is of poetry chastened and directed by the observation of reality, and possessing the inimitable charm of being drawn from real life, and sharing the freshness and variety which characterize the works of nature, and distinguish them from the brightest conceptions of human fancy. As we have set out in this article with placing Humboldt at the head of modern travellers, and much above any that Great Britain has produced, and assigned as the main reason of this superiority the exclusive and limited range of objects on which the attention of our youth is fixed at our great universities, we shall, in justice to Oxford and Cambridge, present the reader with a specimen of the finest passages from Clarke and Bishop Heber, that he may judge for himself on their merit, great as it often is, when compared with that of the ardent and yet learned German.

Clarke, on leaving Greece, gives the following brilliant summary of the leading features of that classic land:--

"The last moments of this day were employed in taking once more a
view of the superb scenery exhibited by the mountains Olympus and
Ossa. They appeared upon this occasion in more than usual
splendour; like one of those imaginary Alpine regions suggested by
viewing a boundary of clouds when they terminate the horizon in a
still evening, and are gathered into heaps, with many a towering
top shining in fleecy whiteness. The great Olympian chain forms a
line which is exactly opposite to Salonica; and even the chasm
between Olympus and Ossa, constituting the defile of Tempe, is
here visible. Directing the eye towards that chain, there is
comprehended in one view the whole of Pieria and Bottiaea; and with
the vivid impressions which remain after leaving the country,
memory easily recalled into one mental picture the whole of
Greece. Every reader may not duly comprehend what is meant by
this: but every traveller who has beheld the scenes to which
allusion is made, will readily admit its truth; he will be aware
that, whenever his thoughts were directed to that country, the
whole of it recurred to his imagination, as if he were actually
indulged with a view of it.

"In such an imaginary flight he enters, for example, the defile of
Tempe; and as the gorge opens to the south, he beholds all the
Larissian plain. This conducts him to the fields of Pharsalia,
whence he ascends the mountains south of Pharsalus; then, crossing
the bleak and still more elevated region extending from these
mountains towards Lamia, he views Mount Pindus far before him, and
descending into the plain of the Sperchius, passes the straits of
Thermopylae. Afterwards, ascending, Mount Oeta, he beholds
opposite to him the snowy point of Lycorea, with the rest of
Parnassus, and the villages and towns lying at its base: the whole
plain of Elataia lying at his feet, with the course of the
Cephissus to the sea. Passing to the summit of Parnassus, he looks
down upon all the other mountains, plains, islands, and gulfs of
Greece; but especially surveys the broad bosom of Cithaeron,
Helicon, and Hymettus. Thence, roaming into the depths and over
all the heights of Euboea and Peloponnesus, he has their inmost
recesses again submitted to his contemplation. Next, resting upon
Hymettus, he examines, even in the minutest detail, the whole of
Attica, to the Sunian promontory; for he sees it all--and all the
shores of Argos, Sicyon, Corinth, Megara, Eleusis, and Athens.
Thus, although not in all the freshness of its living colours, yet
in all its grandeur, doth GREECE actually present itself to the
mind's eye--and may the impression never be obliterated! In the
eve of bidding it farewell for ever, as the hope of visiting this
delightful country constituted the earliest and warmest wish of
his youth, the author found it to be some alleviation of his
regret excited by a consciousness of never returning, that he
could thus summon to his recollection the scenes over which he had
passed."--(_Clarke's Travels_, Vol. vii. pp. 476-478.)

So far Clarke--the accomplished and famed traveller of Cambridge. We now give a favourable specimen of Bishop Heber--his companion in traversing Russia--the celebrated author, in early life at Oxford, of _Palestine_, the amiable and upright Bishop of Calcutta, whose life, if ever that could be said of mortal, was literally spent in doing good. This accomplished and excellent prelate thus describes the first view of the Himalaya range and the summits of Nundidevi, the highest mountain in the world, neatly 5000 feet above the loftiest peak of Chimborazo.

"After coasting the lake for a mile, we ascended for thirteen more
by a most steep and rugged road over the neck of Mount Gaughur,
through a succession of glens, forests, and views of the most
sublime and beautiful description. I never saw such prospects
before, and had formed no adequate idea of such. My attention was
completely strained, and my eyes filled with tears; every thing
around was so wild and magnificent that man appeared as nothing,
and I felt myself as if climbing the steps of the altar of the
great temple of God. The trees, as we advanced, were in a large
proportion fir and cedar; but many were ilex, and to my surprise I
still saw, even in these wild Alpine tracts, many venerable Peepul
trees, on which the white monkeys were playing their gambols.
Tigers used to be very common and mischievous; but since the
English have begun to frequent the country, they have become very
scarce. There are many wolves and bears, and some chamois, two of
which passed near us. After wending up

'A wild romantic chasm, that slanted
Down the steep hill athwart a cedar cover--
A savage place, as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath the waning moon was haunted
By woman's wailing for her demon lover,'

we arrived at the gorge of the Pass, in an indent between the two
principal summits of Mount Gaughur, near 8600 feet above the sea.
And now the snowy mountains, which had been so long eclipsed,
opened upon us in full magnificence. To describe a view of this
kind is only lost labour: and I found it nearly as impossible to
make a sketch of it. Nundidevi was immediately opposite, Kedar
Nath was not visible, but Marvo was visible as a distant peak. The
eastern mountains, for whom I could procure no name, rose into
great consequence, and were very glorious objects as we wound down
the hill on the other side. The guides could only tell us they
were a great way off, and on the borders of the Chinese empire.
Nundidevi, the highest peak in the world, is 25,689 feet above the
sea, 4000 higher than Chimborazo. Bhadinath and Kedernath, which
are merely summits of it, are 22,300 feet high. They are all in
the British dominions."--(_Heber's India_, Vol. ii. pp. 193-194,
209.)