PROJECTED JOURNEY TO THIBET. 331 



was dedicated to the King of Spain. How his Catholic 

 Majesty received the work, which, on the whole flatter- 

 ing to his government of Mexico, was still truth-telling 

 when it came to speak of its defects, we are not told. It 

 was eagerly read in France, and immediately translated 

 into English, the English version appearing simulta- 

 neously in London and New York. The English and 

 American public were anxious to see what Humboldt 

 had to say concerning Mexico ; familiar with his reputa- 

 tion as a traveller and a naturalist, they were curious to 

 see him in the character of a political economist. That 

 he satisfied their expectations the reviews of the day tes- 



tify. 



In the autumn of 1810. William Yon Humboldt, who, 

 since we left him at Albano, had been appointed by the 

 King of Prussia Councillor of State in the Ministry of 

 Home Affairs, and Chief of the Section of Keligion and 

 Public Instruction, went as Extraordinary Ambassador 

 to the Court of Yienna. There, as at Rome and Paris, 

 he was surrounded with authors, artists, and statesmen, 

 such men as Metternich and Schlegel, and Korner, the 

 youthful Theodore Korner, who was soon to lay down 

 his lyre, and take up his sword. But a greater celebrity 

 soon appeared. It was his brother Alexander, who had 

 left Paris after the publication of the first portions of his 

 American travels, to take leave of his family before he 

 started on another great journey. The Minister Roman- 

 zow had proposed to him to accompany a Russian mis- 

 sion across Kashghor to Thibet, and, delighted with the 

 idea, he had at once accepted. He could now visit the 

 mountains of India, and compare them with the Cordil- 

 leras of America. 



