PKEFACE. "V 



not because the autJior preferred tJiera to their origbials^ 

 hut because he doubted his ability to better them. It is one 

 thing to find fault icith a translator for his shortco^nings^ 

 but quite another thing to avoid them in one^s oion trans- 

 lation. The translators to ichom the author of this Biogra- 

 phy is indebted are: Tfiomasina JRoss, for the "Voyage;" 

 3frs. Sabine for the "Ansichten der Xatur;" Helen Maria 

 Williams, for the "Vues des Cordilleres ;" and John 

 Blach for the " Essai politique." The last tico worl^s are 

 out of print, though copies are occasionally to be found at 

 the old booh stalls y the " Ansichten der ISTatur," and the 

 "Voyage," or as it is christened in the translation, the 

 "Personal Xarrative," are in print, though scarcely icithin 

 the reach of the general reader, never having been reprinted 

 in this country. The English edition of the "Personal 

 Narrative" costs three times as much as the present 

 volum,e. 



The chapter on Central Asia, in Booh III., which is th6 

 substance of Rose's " Reise nach dem Ural," is reioritten 

 and enlarged from Mr. Taylor'' s " Cyclopaedia of Modern 

 Travel." These, as far as the author remembers, are the 

 principal sources to lohich he is indebted. He should meii' 

 tion, perhaps, the various French and English Encyclo- 

 pedias from lohich he has filled up his shetches of some 

 of Humboldfs contemporaries, but Encyclopaedias have no 

 authors, as everybody hnoics ; besides, they are made for 

 the very purpose to ichich he has put them. The same 

 may be said of the journals of the day. 



The reader now understands the extent of the author'' s 



