406 APPENDIX. 



my dear old friend ; present my affectionate remembrances to 

 Madame B. With renewed assurance of my devoted attachment, 



' AL. DE HUMBOLDT.' 



On the liberation of Bonpland, after a captivity of nine years, 

 Humboldt writes in a joyous strain to Guizot, 1 on November 2, 

 1832': 



. . . ' I am glad to have news at length of my unfortunate friend 

 M. Bonpland. I wish you could obtain for him that decoration 

 peculiar to France given so often with profuse prodigality ! ' . . . 

 And again, on May 25, 1833, he writes : 2 . . . ' It is also a pleasure 

 to me to express my gratitude for your having so kindly fulfilled 

 the wish I expressed to you last autumn concerning my unfor- 

 tunate friend M. Bonpland, in procuring him the decoration of 

 the Legion of Honour. This has caused me the most lively satis- 

 faction. I had some reason to fear that my fellow-traveller would 

 experience a fate not uncommon in human affairs : as long as he 

 was in the clutches of the Dictator Doctor, the Republican tyrant, 

 he was the object of sympathetic interest inquiries as to his fate 

 were reaching me continually, from the banks of the Thames to the 

 shores of the Obi. The drama having come to an end, he is but a 

 man of science who is travelling for the collection of plants. There 

 was some cause to fear that he would be forgotten ; but such forget- 

 fulness is impossible in a soul so generous as yours ! Our mutual 

 friends MM. Benjamin and Francois Delessert have written to me 

 more than once to tell me of the noble assistance you have rendered 

 i n support of the efforts I have been making to secure to M. Bon- 

 pland the arrears that are due to him since 1820. I am wrong in 

 saying the arrears are due to my friend, for I am aware that by law 

 no payments can be claimed beyond a period of five years. The 

 Minister of Finance, therefore, in paying up the arrears for the last 

 five years only, did, no doubt, all that he was empowered to do, 

 although, in consideration of the peculiar circumstances attending 

 the case of M. Bonpland, hopes of some more liberal arrangement 

 had been raised by the Committee of Finance and the Council of 

 State. I feel constrained to plead the cause of my fellow-traveller 

 with a minister so generously disposed as yourself to relieve the 

 misfortunes of men of letters. I have ventured to-day to write to 

 the king himself, not to urge a right, but to crave a special favour. 

 May I implore your kind interest in this affair, which is one of great 

 importance to the ruined fortunes of M. Bonpland ? My letter to 

 his Majesty will be of no avail unless you supplement the applica- 



1 De la Roquette, vol. ii. p. 95. 



2 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 106. 



