305 

 CCXVIII. 



HUMBOLDT TO VAKNHAGEN. 



Berlin, 11 th January, 1858. 



I, too, my valued friend, am suffering again from 

 my cutaneous complaint, a troublesome consequence 

 of old age. You at least have your full liberty, and 

 can nurse yourself. I have no liberty, am worried 

 by every one, most pitilessly and most inevitably of 

 all by the Post- Office. The friendly reminiscence of 

 Mrs. Sarah Austin is very flattering to me. I have 

 to thank you for it, as for many other things. Be 

 kind enough also to become the interpreter of my 

 gratitude and sincere esteem for that gifted lady and 

 her brother John Taylor, to whom I am so much 

 attached. Livingstone's accounts are especially in- 

 teresting to me, in consequence of the view he takes 

 of the capacity for improvement in the negro race, 

 at a time when, under the pretext of free labour, 

 France on the one hand, and North America on the 

 other, are countenancing, in a most disgraceful man- 

 ner, the kidnapping of slaves in Africa. The 

 political accounts on India by Captain Meadows 

 Taylor were unimportant. Perhaps you would like 

 to have for your archives original letters of Count 

 Walewski, Prince Napoleon (the son of King 

 Jerome, who is going to Egypt), Lord Stratford de 

 Redcliffe, and the copy of a letter in very good style 

 by the Pasha of Egypt, the original of which I was 

 obliged to give to Dr. Brugsch. 



Doctor Michael Sachs will not desist from my 

 glorification in Hebrew. Say many kind things to 



