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fast, and the friend of Humboldt did not receive it until 

 more than eight months had elapsed after it had been 

 written. It first was carried by a sailing ship to Europe, 

 thence taken to Boston in another sailing ship, then by 

 mail-coach to New r York, and then by mail-coach across 

 the Alleghenies until it finally reached the person for 

 whom it was intended. What miracles have been 

 achieved by human ingenuity since Columbus first 

 anchored where we are lying, and more particularly 

 since Alexander von Humboldt came to visit the 

 regions about the Gulf of Paria ! By the way, Humboldt 

 on his mother's side was descended from a family 

 bearing the name of Colomb. Some of his biographers 

 claim that he was of the same race as the great Cristo 

 fero. However that may be, in a certain sense he was 

 the re-discoverer of South America. He was the first 

 really scientific observer to resort to these lands. His 

 writings quickened interest in them, not from a political 

 and mercenary point of view, but from the standpoint 

 of the student of natural phenomena. All works deal- 

 ing with the natural sciences relating to South America 

 and published before the day of Humboldt are full of 

 errors and crudities. He was followed by a host of 

 successors, whose training was largely received by 

 communion with nature on the virgin soil of this noble 

 continent. The list is portentous, and includes the 

 names of some of the greatest scientific men of the past 

 eleven decades, such as Bonpland, D'Orbigny, Darwin, 

 Spix, Louis Agassiz, Bates, and Burmeister. One of 

 the greatest of them all, Alfred Russel Wallace, still 

 survives at a green old age, the representative of a 

 generation which has almost entirely passed from the 

 stage. 



We went ashore in the Company's launch. As we 



