THWARTED PLANS. 243 



tions of latitude and longitude, height above the sea level, &c., 

 of various localities, both in France and Spain. 



The letter then continues : ' Although the country through 

 which I am travelling offers nothing very favourable for as- 

 tronomical geography, yet I avail myself of every opportunity 

 that presents itself for taking observations of the sun and stars 

 of the first magnitude. In the kingdom of Valencia I suffered 

 greatly from the hooting of the rabble, as at that time I 

 had not obtained permission from Government to prosecute 

 such labours. I have often grieved to see the sun pass the 

 meridian while not daring to unpack my instruments. I have 

 sometimes been obliged to wait till the middle of the night, and 

 content myself with a star of the second magnitude, which 

 made but a sorry figure in my artificial horizon. On the 

 19th Nivose (January 8, 1799) I took some observations at 

 Barcelona l from the same terrace of the Golden Well from 

 which Mechain had observed. From the 29th Nivose (January 

 18) to the 6th Pluviose (January 25) I was occupied in an 



1 We may here allude to a circumstance which, though it proved of 

 material assistance to Humboldt in the prosecution of his journey, has yet 

 not been generally known. Humboldt had commissioned Kunth from 

 Barcelona to send him as early as possible a letter of credit upon a sub- 

 stantial house in Madrid, to be transmitted direct, and not through a third 

 house, especially not through any Paris banker, because the credit of the 

 Paris houses had been shaken by the state of the public funds a position 

 of affairs which, as before mentioned, had caused him considerable inconve- 

 nience at Marseilles. Kunth attempted to get the business transacted by a 

 Berlin house upon the production of certain Prussian official documents and 

 every satisfactory security. But instead of the letter of credit, came the 

 announcement that the'transaction could not be completed till the validity of 

 the security had been proved. On this becoming known, the house of 

 Mendelssohn and Friedla'nder immediately undertook, without any pledge 

 or security whatever, to remit any sum required by Herr von Humboldt to 

 the Marquis d'Iranda, of the firm of Simon d'Arragora, one of the first 

 Louses in Madrid. The marquis, who was past seventy, had personally 

 jtired from the business, but he loaded Humboldt with proofs of kindness 

 id goodwill, ordered the financial arrangements of his journey in the kind- 

 st and most disinterested manner, without demanding the slightest security, 

 md afterwards honoured his bills of exchange. Humboldt wrote from 

 tadrid on April 4, 1799: 'The Marquis d'Iranda is one of the most 

 distinguished men in Europe. He treats me as his sou, and does and will 

 do everything for me.' (Biester, 'Neue Berliner Monatsschvift,' vol. vi. 

 P . 193.) 



B 2 



