45 



others, expect to find it. In the records of Barcelona there is not a 

 trace of the triumphal entry made by Columbus ; in Marco Polo no 

 mention of the great wall of China, and in the archives of Portugal 

 nothing about the voyage of Amerigo Yespucci in the service of that 

 Crown. ("History of the Geography of the New World," Pt. IV. 

 p. 160, et seq.) 



XXXVII. 



HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN. 



Friday, 13th September, 1839. 



M. Piaget has left a very agreeable impression on 

 me. He would probably be most useful in the College 

 Franqais, as Professeur de litterature ou d'histoire, but 

 the pedantic preceptorial examination stands in the 

 way. I will use every exertion with M. von Werther ; 

 the rather unliterary moustache and the long sleek 

 South Sea hair will, I fancy, somewhat astonish the 

 latter. 



Your old and attached friend, 



A. v. HUMBOLDT. 



Wonderful, indeed, that the Neufchatel Council ad- 

 vise the Cabinet against Piaget. Par jalousie de 

 metier ? 



XXXVIII. 



HUMBOLDT TO VAUNHAGEN. 



Berlin, 29th December, 1839. 



It is a noble and right charitable act that you have 

 done in lending me this little work,* which would other- 

 wise certainly have escaped me. The praise bestowed 

 on it by you who are able so vividly to sketch the picture 



* Fr. Jacobs' " Jubelschrift fur Kries in Gotha." 



