374 Humboldt's Letters. 



NOTE BY VARNHAGEX. " The United States, where arsenic, the 

 torture, er Fremont-worshipping negroes, cause a criminal colic to 

 Cuba-mad Buchanan." This passage alludes to the circumstance, that 

 at a hotel in Washington, the President, and many others with him, 



* 



were seized with a violent colic after dinner, so that suspicions of 

 poison were entertained ; and it was only after a legal investigation 

 that the whole was found to have been caused by impure water. 



BY THE TRANSLATOR. " Fremont-worshipping negroes" must refer 

 to the slaves who were reported to be in insurrection soon after the 

 accession of President Buchanan, in Tennessee or Kentucky, and of 

 whom it was said, that they believed Fremont and all his men to be 

 encamped at the bottom of the Cumberland river, ready to emerge 

 for their delivery. 



S00. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEff. 



POTSDAM, THURSDAY. In haste, 

 June 4th, 1857. 



A TRULY grand ducal letter, indelicate without excuse, 

 cutting off every prospect, as he said " Au revoir" on 

 going away, after the preconcerted shibboleth. Silence 

 as to the costs, which are unnecessarily heavy. You 

 and I shall cease "steering in the ocean of investiga- 

 tion," as acquaintance w r ith the party proposed does not 

 suffice to determine him. I have a mind to answer some- 

 what mockingly. It may be agreeable to you, my 



