BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 51 



neu-Wied, a small principality of Rhenish Prussia. He was from boy- 

 hood of a studious inclination, and early became interested in the natural 

 sciences. In spite of this he was in the Prussian army at the battle of 

 Jena, and was among those captured by the enemy. He returned to his 

 studies at the end of this war, but was among the victorious army which 

 entered Paris in 1813. In this service he earned the iron cross of 

 Chalons and a major-generalship. During all of this time he had been 

 planning a scientific expedition to Brazil in order to satisfy a keen de- 

 sire to add to the world's knowledge, imparted to him by the celebrated 

 Professor Johann Friederich Blmnenbach, of whom he was a favorite 

 pupil. Early in 1815 he started for Brazil. He was joined in South 

 America by two other German scholars, and the trio spent two years 

 studying the flora, fauna and native races of this country. His result- 

 ing publications gave him a high rank among the scientists of the period, 

 and his " Eeise nach Brasilien in den Jahren 1815 bis 1817 " was soon 

 translated into the French, English and Dutch languages. 



In 1833 Prince Maximilian started on a second enterprise — a trip 

 to the trans-Mississippi region. He arrived in Boston on the fourth of 

 July. He brought with him a very capable artist, for the express pur- 

 pose of obtaining portraits of famous Indians. He made more or less 

 brief visits to Boston, New York and Philadelphia, and then went to 

 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and thence through the coal region, reaching 

 Pittsburg in the autumn. The journey was then continued overland to 

 Wheeling, where they embarked for the voyage down the Ohio River. 

 They turned aside for the purpose of visiting New Harmony, Indiana, 

 where then was located the best library of American and natural history 

 west of the Atlantic seaboard. Here the winter was spent studying 

 and preparing for the journey on the Missouri River. On March 16, 

 1833, the journey was resumed and they arrived in St. Louis before the 

 fur-trading expeditions had left on their annual trip to the northwest. 

 Following the advice of several St. Louis men, the journey was made by 

 boat up the Missouri River, instead of by land, as was at first planned. 

 On April 10 the journey was commenced, and by the twenty-second they 

 had reached Fort Leavenworth. The expedition was continued to Fort 

 McKenzie, on a branch of the Yellowstone River, among the Blackfeet 

 Indians, where they remained for two months. The return trip was be- 

 gun on September 14, and the succeeding winter was spent at Fort 

 Clark, near the present town of Bismarck, North Dakota. The next 

 spring Prince Maximilian returned to St Louis and journeyed eastward 

 by way of the Ohio canal and Lake Erie to New York, where he em- 

 barked for the Old World on July 16, 1834. Upon returning from the 

 upper Missouri country the collections which had been made were left 

 behind to be sent down the river in another steamer which was soon to 

 follow the one carrying the party. A fire broke out on this steamer and 



