926 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



The reason wliy the geography 

 of plants and the physical table of 

 the equinoctial, or equatorial, re- 

 gions appears foremost in the work, 

 is set forth vvitii great judgment 

 and elegance of taste by Mr. Hum- 

 boldt, in his preface : " Placed at a 

 distance from Europe for five 

 years, and having traversed coun- 

 tries, several of which were never 

 visited by naturalists, I ought, 

 perhaps, to publish, without delay, 

 an abridged account of my voy- 

 age to the tropics, and of the se- 

 ries of phenomena that presented 

 themselves to my researches. I 

 flatter myself that such prompti- 

 tude would have been approved by 

 the public ; a part of whom have 

 shown a most generous concern, 

 both for my personal safety, and 

 the success of my expedition. But 

 I have thought it best, before 

 speaking of myself and the ob- 

 stacles I had to surmount in the 

 course of my operations, to draw 

 the attention of natural philoso- 

 phers to those grand appearances 

 which nature presents to our view 

 in the regions which I have visited. 

 It is their general contour, their 

 tout ensemble, that forms the 

 subject of the present essay. It 

 exhibits the general result of ob- 

 servations developed in detail in 

 other works which I am preparing 

 for the public. These embrace all, 

 not only the natural phenomena 

 observed on the surface of the 

 globe, but in the atmosphere that 

 surrounds it. The natural philo- 

 sopher who is acquainted with the 

 actual state of science, will not be 

 surprised to see so great a number 

 of objects treated of in so small a 

 number of pages. It I could have 

 employed more time in digesting 

 them, my work would have lain 



in a still narrower compass, for a 

 table of natural appearances ought 

 not to exhibit any other views 

 than such as are grand ; results 

 that are certain and capable of 

 being expressed in exact numbers. 

 My voyage to the tropics has fur- 

 nished precious materials for a 

 physical history of the world. 

 Grand objects are best described 

 when they are seen, and make an 

 impression on our mind through the 

 senses. It was at the footofChim- 

 borazo, on the coast, of the South 

 Sea, that I composed the greatest 

 part of the present work." 



It would be a pleasure to us to 

 extract from the two pieces com- 

 posing the first part of the voyage 

 of Humboldt, some passages for 

 the amusement of our ingenious 

 and intelligent readers. But of 

 this our limits will not admit for 

 the present. In subsequent vo- 

 lumes, we shall have opportunities 

 of presenting, under dift'erentheads, 

 extracts from the magnificent and 

 valuable work before us, in the 

 farther progress of its publication, 

 as we have done in our present vo- 

 lume, under the head of Natural 

 History. 



What remained of 1798, after the 

 month of July, the travellers em- 

 ployed in visiting the coast of Pa- 

 ria, the Indian missions of Chay- 

 mas, and the provinces of New An- 

 dalusia, New Barcelona, Venezue- 

 las, and Spanish Guyana. 



Humboldt and Bompland, leav- 

 ing Caraccas, January, 1800, vi- 

 sited the delicious valleys of Aragua, 

 the great lake of Valeria, or Taca- 

 rigua, the appearance of which 

 calls to mind the lake of Geneva, 

 but whose borders are clothed with 

 the brilliant vegetation of the tro- 

 pical regions. Traversing the cele- 

 brated 



