THWARTED PLANS. 239 



came me. I lay for full ten minutes in the window, contem- 

 plating the bright vision. At length they came to seek me ; I 

 could almost have shed tears as I thought of my shattered 

 prospects.' After a short visit to the islands of the Hyeres, 

 'where the golden apples were hanging by hundreds on the 

 dwarf trees,' Humboldt and Bonpland returned to Marseilles 

 on November 13. 



Here they were detained for two whole months, from October 

 27 till the end of December, watching in vain for an oppor- 

 tunity of sailing to Africa. Everything was kept ready packed, 

 and the horizon was daily searched in quest of the long-expected 

 ' Jaramus.' At length the news arrived that the ' Jaramus ' 

 had been wrecked off the coast of Portugal, with the loss of 

 everyone on board. 'Nothing daunted,' writes Humboldt, 

 ' by all these disappointments, I hired a vessel from Ragusa to 

 take us direct to Tunis. The municipal authorities of Mar- 

 seilles, however, apparently warned of the troubles which were 

 soon to beset the French in Barbary, refused to grant us pass- 

 ports ; and scarcely had the Ragusan bark quitted the harbour 

 when there arose a fearful tempest, which, lasting nearly a 

 week, strewed the shore between Cette and Agele with the frag- 

 ments of many shipwrecked vessels. Almost at the same time 

 the news arrived that the Dey of Algiers had interdicted the 

 departure of the caravan for Mecca, as Egypt, through which 

 it had to pass, was polluted by the presence of the Christians. 

 Thus all hope vanished of either reaching Egypt by the Levant 

 or of joining the French expedition by the land route to Cairo.' 



Were, then, the best months of the spring, January, Fe- 

 bruary, and March, to be spent in weary waiting at Marseilles, 

 among a society the leading members of which, whether consuls, 

 diplomatists, officials, or even men of science, had thrown aside 

 the mask, and revealed a tone both immoral in feeling and 

 politically dangerous ? Corsica and Sardinia, rich as they 

 might be in botanical treasures, offered no facilities for any 

 comprehensive plan. The only feasible arrangement seemed 

 to be to proceed to Spain, and thence to embark in the 

 spring for Smyrna. In pursuance of this plan, Humboldt, on 

 December 15, gave a commission for the purchase of some 

 Spanish bills of exchange to Ellenberg, a merchant with whom 



