APPENDIX. 405 



that ' Aime Bonpland was a fellow-labourer of Alexander von Hum- 

 loldt: 



Last Days of Aime Bonpland. By Dr. "Robert Ave-Lallemant. 



Humboldt was accustomed to speak in high terms of the industry 

 of Bonpland. Yet this activity and perseverance was always more 

 displayed in the endurance of hardships, in the collection of Flora 

 and Fauna, than in the plodding labour of the desk. Bonpland' s 

 sphere of action was pre-eminently amid the wilds of nature, in the 

 forest, on the llanos and the pampas, in the canoe or on the gal- 

 loping steed. Writing was to him an uncongenial employment, 

 which he carried on with vacillating energy, and never with great 

 accuracy; his works contain much that is incorrect, and several even 

 gross eiTors. This characteristic of Bonpland was frequently the 

 cause of great perplexity to Humboldt, until at length the irksome 

 task was relinquished. Whether in resigning his occupation he 

 acted with the consent of Humboldt does not appear, but it is cer- 

 tain that they parted in perfect amity and with the most sincere 

 friendship on both sides. Of this evidence is afforded by the follow- 

 ing letter, 1 addressed by Humboldt to his faithful fellow-traveller 

 after his settlement at his new home on the banks of the La Plata : 



' Paris : January 28, 1818. 



' I avail myself of M. Thounin's departure to give you some news 

 of my weli'are, and to assure you again of my inalienable attach- 

 ment. I have already written to you before this week by M. 

 Charles de Yismes. I am not personally acquainted with M. 

 Thounin, but I have heard a great deal in his favour, and I have 

 been earnestly requested to give him a letter to you. Alas ! my 

 dear friend, everyone around me, M. Delille, Lafon, Delpech, have 

 received letters from you telling them of your present position and 

 domestic happiness, while I have not had a single line from you 

 since your departure, except the one short note brought me by M. 

 Alvarez.' . . . He then proceeds to inform him that he (Bcm- 

 pland) had been elected a corresponding member of the Academy of 

 Sciences, mainly through the influence of Arago, Gay, Thenard, 

 Chaptal, Laplace, and Berthollet, and mentions his intention to 

 enclose him various publications of his own. Finally, he asks him 

 to return the plants which he had ' meme centre sa volonte ' - carried 

 off with him in some of his packages. He concludes with ' Adieu, 



1 De la Koquette, vol. i, p. 206. 



