OFFICIAL EMPLOYMENT. 141 



Prague, and Eger. Elaborate reports upon Colberg, and upon 

 some boring experiments at Ciechoczinek, dated from Gold- 

 kronach towards the end of June, 1794, are still extant. 



Soon after his return, he was summoned, by the unexpected 

 course of political events, to take part in some diplomatic 

 negotiations connected with the army on the Khine, occupying 

 Munzernheim, Mayence, and Wesel a service which detained 

 him about four months, until October 1794. 



In the hope of rendering essential service in the settlement 

 of the dispute with France, the minister Von Hardenberg 

 arrived in June, 1794, at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, where the 

 king, who took a personal part in the war, was holding his 

 head-quarters. The deeper the significance attached to Har- 

 denberg's arrival at the royal camp, inasmuch as he came upon 

 his own responsibility, and the more unpromising the position 

 of affairs at that time appeared to be, so much the more nat- 

 tering to Humboldt was the distinction shown him by the 

 minister, by whom had been effected the breach of the contract 

 of subsidy with the Hague, in selecting him as his most inti- 

 mate and confidential companion. As early as October 21 the 

 army' recrossed the Khine, and a separate peace was concluded 

 at Basle. 



In what manner Humboldt was employed in these negotia- 

 tions is not known, for all that remains to us of this .period is 

 the following fragment of a letter, dated September 10, 1794, 

 from the head-quarters at Ueden, in Brabant : 



' My life was never so changeful as it is now. I have for 

 some time been removed from my own department to under- 

 take some work connected with the diplomatic mission of the 

 minister Von Hardenberg, and though I am nominally attached 

 to the suite of Field-Marshal von Mollendorf, I am just now 

 under orders here in camp. I leave Ueden on the 14th for 

 Altenkirchen, to make a general inspection of the mines of 

 that district, and thence I return to camp by Kreuznach and 

 Frankfort. Something of this kind is always going on : it does 

 not afford me any particular pleasure, and yet it amuses me 

 sometimes, for the constant travelling through interesting 

 mineralogical districts has greatly helped me in my work 

 upon strata and stratifications. I have now ascertained with 



