OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 239 



immense botanical collections which were afterwards published by Bon- 

 pland himself, and by Kunth, after Bonpland had determined on an 

 expedition to South America. In the beginning of 1802 he reaches 

 Quito, where, during four months, he turns his attention to everything 

 worth investigating, ascends the Chimborazo to a height to which no 

 human foot had reached, anywhere ; and having completed this survey, 

 and repeatedly crossed the Andes, he descends the southern slope of 

 the continent to the shore of the Pacific at Truxillo, and, following the 

 arid coast of Peru, he visits finally Lima. I will pass lightly over all 

 the details of his journey, for they are only incidents in that laborious 

 exploration of the country, which is best appreciated by a considera- 

 tion of the works which were published in consequence of the immense 

 accumulation of materials gathered during those explorations. From 

 Lima, or rather from Callao, he sails in 1802 for Guayaquil and Aca- 

 pulco, and reaches Mexico in 1803, where he makes as extensive ex- 

 plorations as he had made in Venezuela and the Andes, and after a 

 stay of about a year, having put all his collections and manuscripts in 

 order, revisits Cuba for a short time, comes to the United States, makes 

 a hurried excursion to Philadelphia and "Washington, where he is wel- 

 comed by Jefferson, and finally returns with his faithful companion 

 Bonpland to France, accompanied by a young Spanish nobleman, Don 

 Carlo de Montufar, who had shared his travels since his visit to Quito. 

 " At thirty-six years of age, Humboldt is again in Europe, with col- 

 lections made in foreign lands, such as had never been brought to- 

 gether before. But here we meet with a singular circumstance. The 

 German nobleman, the friend of the Prussian and Spanish Courts, 

 chooses Paris for his residence, and remains there twenty-two years to 

 work out the result of his scientific labor ; for, since his return, with 

 the exception of short journeys to Italy, England, and Germany, 

 sometimes accompanying the King of Prussia, sometimes alone, or 

 accompanied by scientific friends, he is entirely occupied in scientific 

 labors and studies. So passes the time to the year 1827; and no doubt 

 he was induced to make this choice of a residence by the extraordinary 

 concourse of distinguished men in all branches of science with whom 

 he thought he could best discuss the results of his own observations. 

 I shall pi'esently have something to say about the works he completed 

 during that most laborious period of his life. I will only add now, 

 that in 1827 he established himself in Berlin, having been urged of 

 late by the King of Prussia again and again to return to his native 



