MELANCHOLY FOREBODINGS. 189 



victim of his zeal for the progress of natural history. 

 They had not yet passed a year in the torrid zone ; and 

 Humboldt's faithful memory conjured up everything he 

 had read in Europe on the dangers of the atmosphere 

 inhaled in the forests. Instead of going up the Orinoco, 

 they might have sojourned some months in the temperate 

 and salubrious climate of the Sierra Nevada de Merida. 

 "It was I," he thought, "who chose the path of the 

 rivers, and Bonpland's death, if he dies, will be laid at 

 my door." 



