280 ALEXANDEK VON HUMBOLDT. 



rest were all lost in thought, filled with emotion, and in gloomy 

 apprehension for the future. 



' We were still two days distant to the north (?) from the 

 great cataracts we had to pass, and we had yet nearly 700 miles 

 to accomplish in our pirogue, which, as we had just experienced, 

 was but a frail bark. What an overwhelming anxiety ! This 

 state of depression, however, lasted only through the night. 

 The following day was very beautiful, and our spirits partook of 

 the peace and cheerfulness reigning throughout nature. During 

 the morning we met a family of Caribs who had come from the 

 mouth of the Orinoco in quest of turtle eggs, and who had 

 undertaken a journey fraught with so much danger more for 

 pleasure and from a love of the chase than from any necessity. 

 In our intercourse with them we entirely forgot our misadven- 

 tures.' 



To Willdenow. 



'Havana: February 21, 1801. 



6 My dearest friend, As I am uncertain whether these lines 

 may not suffer the fate of so many others that I have addressed 

 to you from these tropical regions, and never reach their desti- 

 nation, I will confine myself merely to the request I have to 

 make. In contemplating the results of this extensive journey, 

 during which I hope to circumnavigate the globe, I naturally 

 feel exceedingly anxious as to the preservation of my manu- 

 scripts and herbariums, especially as my expedition happens at 

 a time when a neutral passport is as little respected as a neutral 

 ship is by the pirates with whom the ocean just now is infested. 

 It is very unlikely, indeed quite improbable, that we should 

 both of us Bonpland and I be spared to return alive from 

 our lengthened voyage to the Philippines and round the Cape 

 of Grood Hope. In case of such a catastrophe, how grievous 

 would it be to lose the entire results of the expedition ! 



' To avoid this, we have taken the precaution of making 

 copies of our descriptions of plants ; up to the present time they 

 consist of two volumes, and contain 1,400 specimens, many of 

 which are either new or rare species. The original manu- 

 script we retain with us, and we are forwarding a transcript 

 piecemeal, through the French vice-consul, to Bonpland's 



