THWARTED PLANS. 245 



existing between all the high table-lands of the Spanish Penin- 

 sula by which they were united into one vast plateau.' The 

 leading feature of this new investigation has since become of 

 great importance, not only in acquiring a knowledge of the 

 varying configuration of the earth's surface, but in determining 

 the zones of elevation characterised by certain forms of vege- 

 table and animal life. It would, however, be inappropriate to 

 enter here on a discussion of these labours. 1 



While at Madrid, Humboldt unexpectedly met with the 

 fulfilment of his long-cherished plans. Herr von Forell, a 

 distinguished patron of science, already mentioned in p. 215, 

 as the ambassador from Saxony to the court of Madrid, offered 

 with the greatest readiness to obtain permission from the king, 

 through the minister Don Mariano Luis de Urquijo, a man of 

 liberal views, for Humboldt, at his own expense, to visit the 

 Spanish colonies in America. 



In consequence of this application he was accorded an inter- 

 view with the king, and the promise of the desired permit. His 

 reception by the sovereign is thus described by Humboldt : ' I 

 was presented at the court of Aranjuez in March 1799. The 

 king honoured me with a very gracious reception. I laid 

 before him my reasons for wishing to visit the islands of the 

 Philippines and to travel in the New World, and presented to 

 the Secretary of State a treatise in which I had expressed my 

 views fully on the subject. 2 My petition was supported by the 

 Chevalier d'Urquijo, who was successful in removing every 

 difficult} 7 . The kind and courteous treatment shown me by 



1 The first publication of the results obtained from these hypsometric 

 measures and the sectional elevation deduced from them appeared in 

 Gavanilles' f Annales de Ilistor. natural/ vol. i. p. 86 ; they were afterwards 

 published in Laborde's 'Itine"raire descriptif de 1'Espagne, 1808,' vol. i. p. 

 cxiv., and incorporated into Bonnet and Male's large map of the Spanish 

 Peninsula, and in Ilumboldt's ' Atlas ge"ogr. et phys. du Nouv. Cont.' PI. 

 III. ; finally enlarged in Humboldt's treatise ' Ueber die Gestalt und das 

 Klima des Hochlandes in der Iberischen Halbinsel, ein Sendschreiben an 

 Prof. Berghaus ' (Hertha, 1825, vol. iv. ; and reprinted in the i Briefwechsel 

 Alexander von Humboldt's mit Heinrich Berghaus,' vol. i. pp. 18-48). 



2 Unfortunately, this memoir has not since been recovered ; Bergenroth 

 had entertained hopes of finding it among the archives of Simanca?, but 

 his early death, while investigating the records of Spain, put an end to his 

 labours. 



