expense and more or less peril. Nations held them- TTTT T? 



selves aloof from each other, and travelers were looked T ~ TT OXTT^VO 



, . JUU KIN H Y o 



upon as renegades or spies. 



Alexander von Humboldt had explored mines, climbed 

 mountains, visited that strange people, the Basques of 

 Spain, got little glimpses into Africa where the jungle 

 was waiting for a Livingstone and a Stanley before 

 giving up its secrets. 



The Corsican had thrown Europe into a fever of fear, , 



and war was on in every direction, v^hen in 1799 

 Humboldt ran the blockade and sailed out of the har- 

 bor of Corunna on the little corvette " Pizarro," 

 bound for the Spanish possessions in the New World. 

 Spain had discovered America in the gross two hun- 

 dred years before, but what this country really con- 

 tained in way of possibilities, Spain had most certainly 

 never discovered. 



Humboldt's mind conceived the idea of a Scientific Sur- 

 vey, and in this he was the maker of an epoch. In this 

 undertaking he secured the assistance of the Prime 

 Minister who secretly issued passports and letters of 

 recommendation to Humboldt, first cautioning him 

 that if the Court at Madrid should know anything 

 about this proposed voyage of discovery it could never 

 be made, so jealous and ignorant were the officials. 

 Only one thing did Spain have in abundance, and that 

 was religion. 



At that time the Spanish Colonies included Louisiana, 

 Florida, Texas, California, Mexico, Central America, 

 Cuba, most of the West Indies, and the most of South 



113 



