328 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES. RETURN HOME. 



From Acapulco to the Capital Acquisition of Historical Information 

 concerning New Spain The Mines of Moran and Guanaxuato The 

 Jorullo Correspondence with Willdenow Reminiscences of a Fair 

 Mexican Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl The Pyramid of Cholula 

 Jalapa, Cofre, Orizaba Second Visit to Havana Visit to the United 

 States Sojourn with Jefferson at Washington Return Home At 

 Bordeaux Humboldt an Apparition Greetings to his Friends. 



THE exact determination of the latitude and longitude of the 

 harbour of Acapuleo was of the highest importance to the 

 geography of America, since this port served as a starting-point 

 for determining, by means of the chronometer, the position of 

 all the harbours in use along the north-west coast of America 

 up to the 60 of latitude. Setting aside former errors which 

 . placed this harbour full for degrees too much to the west, even 

 Arrowsmith, in his 'Chart of the West Indies and Spanish 

 Dominions' (in four sheets), bearing date 1803, is in error as to 

 its position to the amount of half a degree of longitude, and 

 seven minutes of latitude. 1 The correction of this error is due . 

 to Humboldt. 



Before visiting the interior, he remained some time at the 

 coast for the purpose of completing his collections and insti- 

 tuting a series of observations. On his way to the capital he 

 traversed the scorching valleys of Mescala and Papagayo, where 

 the thermometer stood at 104 in the shade, and thence as- 



1 In a skeleton map, entitled ' Carte des Fausses Positions/ forming No. 

 10 of the * Atlas gogr. de la Nouv.-Espagne,' the large errors hitherto 

 existing in the maps of New Spain are very strikingly shown in the erro- 

 neous positions of the three most important places in Mexico, the capital and 

 the harbours of Acapulco and Vera Cruz. 



