a 
THADDAEUS HAENKE. 25 
SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATIONS OF THE ISLAND. 
MALASPINA EXPEDITION. 
In February, 1792, Guam was visited by Alessandro Malaspina, in 
commund of the corvettes Afrevida and Deseubicrta, which had been 
sent by Carlos 1V, King of Spain, on a voyage of scientific investiga- 
tion. Attached to his expedition as naturalists were Thaddacus Haenke 
and Luis Née, who were the first to make systematic botanical collec- 
tions on the island. They were also the first botanists to visit Cali- 
fornia, having the preceding year collected in the vicinity of San Diego 
and Monterey.“ 
The story of Haenke’s adventures while attempting to join Mala- 
spina is told both in the official narrative of the expedition and in the 
preface to Presl’s Reliquiw Haenkeanw. Haenke was a Bohemian by 
birth. He received his botanical education from Jacquin, who fora 
time was professor of chemistry and botany in Vienna, and upon his 
recommendation was appointed botanist of the expedition by the King 
Db 
of Spain. Although he set out for Cadiz immediately on receiving 
Eas) 
his appointment, he reached that port only to tind that the two cor- 
vettes had just set sail (July 30, 1789). Following them in the first 
vessel bound for Montevideo, he suffered shipwreck on one of the 
numerous shoals at the mouth of the Rio de Ja Plata, losing nearly all 
his books, papers, and effects. He succeeded in reaching shore, how- 
ever, with his Linneus and a collecting outfit, but he found that the 
expedition had already sailed. Knowing that it was to stop on the coast 
of Chile, he set out at once on foot, crossing the Pampas of Argentina 
and the Chilean cordillera of the Andes, collec ting and drying plants 
on the way.” On reaching Santiago, Chile, to his great joy he found 
there Malaspina and a number of his officers, who had left their ships 
at anchor in the harbor of Valparaiso to pay an official visit to the 
capital. He immediately reported for duty and was assigned to the 
Descubierta. 
The expedition skirted the coasts of South America, Mexico, and 
North America as far as Port Mulgrave, which is situated in Yakutat 
Bay, southern Alaska. Their exploration of the latter region is com- 
memorated by the name of the celebrated Malaspina Glacier, Return- 
ing to Mexico, Haenke went alone on a collecting tour from Acapulco 
to Mexico City and back. Leaving Acapulco on December 21, 1791, 
the expedition sailed for Guam, coming to anchor on February 12 
«See Brewer, in Geologic al Survey of California, Botany, vol. 2, p. 558, 1880. 
b«*Con un verdadero amor i las ciencias y particularmente i la botanica, conside- 
raba resarcidos en mucha parte los sufrimientos pasados, pues le habian deparado la 
‘asualidad de atravesar las Pampas 6 lanuras de Buenos Aires y las cordilleras del 
Chile, logrando acopiar hasta 1,400 plantas, la mayor parte nuevas 6 no bien carac- 
terizadas.’’ Official narrative, p. 86, 1885. 
