400 APPENDIX. 



with his distinguished friend, had lost all charm for him. 1 The 

 desire to supplement the herbariums hitherto contributed from 

 tropical countries with the collections to be obtained in the tem- 

 perate zone, a region which had been but imperfectly explored by 

 the botanical researches of Feuillee, induced him towards the close of 

 the year 1816 to undertake a second expedition to South America. 

 He sailed to Buenos Ayres, and took out with him a supply of 

 fruit trees and various common vegetables. 



How completely in the mean time had everything changed in 

 South America ! The invasion of Spain by Napoleon had severed 

 the ties by which the Spanish Colonies had been united to the 

 mother country. From Mexico to Buenos Ayres, everywhere floated 

 the standard of revolt. The struggle, though bloody, was short, and 

 peace now reigned, except where plots and party strife aroused 

 dissension. On the .banks of the La Plata were established the 

 first free Republics, and this river was the first to open to unre- 

 stricted commerce. 



At Buenos Ayres Bonpland met with a most flattering reception. 

 He was at once appointed Professor of Natural History an office 

 which he retained only for a limited period ; since, owing to the 

 jealousy, envy, and evil machinations to which, as a foreigner, he 

 was exposed, the Government was soon prejudiced against him. 

 In the year 1820 he undertook a journey for purposes of explora- 

 tion, with the intention of visiting the Pampas districts, the province 

 of Santa Fe, the desert of Gran Chaco, and of penetrating through 

 the district of Bolivia to the foot of the Andes. In the course of 

 his expedition he reached, in sailing up the Paraguay, a former set- 

 tlement of the Jesuits, lying on the left bank of the river, a few 

 miles from Itapua. 



At this spot he unfortunately entered upon a territory the pos- 



observe the events transpiring in either world. A magnificent idea ! will be 

 exclaimed by those who remember the part subsequently played in international 

 politics by this isthmus, which has since then been rendered so familiar to us. 

 But this is mere tradition. ' Bonpland,' wrote Humboldt on one occasion to the 

 writer of this sketch, ' had no conversation with Napoleon either before or after 

 the battle of Waterloo ; he never went to Fontainebleau, where various persons 

 were proposing impracticable schemes to the emperor. At that time I had 

 daily intercourse with Bonpland. He may possibly have spoken of Mexico to 

 some of his acquaintance as a suitable place of refuge, but not to the emperor, of 

 whom he saw nothing, and to whom he remained a complete stranger.' 



1 Of the two works exclusively edited by him, ' Plantes equinoxiales ' and 

 'Monographic des Melastomes ' (two volumes in folio, with 120 plates), the latter 

 had already given rise to considerable discussion, for, according to Robert Brown, 

 among the various Melastomse therein described there was not one to be recog- 

 nised as genuine. (See Martius, ' Denkrede auf Alexander von Humboldt,' p. 25, 

 note.) 



