HISTORY OF THE SMITHSONIAN EXCHANGES. 719 



Most valuable assistance in connection with foreign exchanges \ra.s 

 also rendered by E. J. Davison, Argentine consul; Jos6 I. Sanchez, con- 

 sul of Venezuela; B. Blanco, consul-general of Guatemala; L. n. J. 

 D'Aguir, consul-general of Brazil ; R. C. Burlage, consul-general of Neth- 

 erlands ; Hon. E. Juteirez, minister from Costa Rica ; the American 

 Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions ; Real Sociedad Econora- 

 ica, Havana ; Board of Foreign Missions, New York ; American Col- 

 onization Society, "Washington; Society of Geography and Statistics, 

 Mexico; University of Chili; Bataviaasche Genootschap van Kunsten 

 en Wetenschappen, Java ; and the Institute of History, Geography, and 

 Ethnology, of Rio Janeiro. 



It was not alone from societies or publicbodies that works w^re received 

 by the Institution for gratuitous distribution at home and abroad among 

 libraries or establishments of learning where they might obtain apijre- 

 dation. Co^iies of works produced by private enterprise were not infre- 

 quently sent to the Institution by individuals who could not afibrd the 

 additional expense attendant upon their desired transmission to distant 

 and scattered points. 



In most cases the list of distribution was made out by the parties 

 sending the copies, but sometimes the selection of recipients was left 

 t-o the Institution. 



Among the articles distributed in this way was the narrative of an 

 exploration to Musardo, the capital of the western Mandigoes, through 

 the country east of Liberia, by Benjamin Anderson, a young man of pure 

 negro blood. The narrative was printed without correction from the 

 original manuscript, at the expense of Mr. H. M. Schieftelin, of New 

 York, and nearly the whole of the edition was presented to the Institu- 

 tion for distribution. 



LLBEEALITY OF TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES. 



The rapid extension of the Smithsonian exchanges soon became a 

 heavy tax upon the resources of the Institution; and the conduct of its 

 principal function ("the increase of knowledge among men" by the pro- 

 motion of original research and discovery) was threatened with being 

 crippled and overridden by the demands of a ser\ice really held as in- 

 cidental and subordinate thereto. With a view to diminish, if possible, 

 the expenses involved, the Institution, in 1855, addressed several of the 

 leading transatlantic steamship companies, unfolding its methods, and 

 asking, in consideration of the great public benefit of the system, the 

 favor of reduced rates of freight upon this particular service. 



With a liberality and public spirit which cannot be too highlj- admired, 

 the companies addressed agreed to carr.y the freights of the Smithsonian 

 lustitutiou not merely at an abatement, but without charge; and thus 

 generously enabled the Institution to maintain the growing magnitude 

 of the operations, when otherwise the system must have broken down 

 by it^ own weight. 



