14 TlMEHRl. 



state that it was the example set by that distinguished 

 traveller, that has led me onward through difficulties and 

 privations of no ordinary nature, till I had the good 

 fortune to accomplish the journey that you have been 

 pleased this evening to crown with your approval. For 

 myself personally, I do not feel that I have a claim to 

 this high honour. Let me however, consider it as an 

 encouragement to further exertion ; and although the 

 path marked out for me at present, in my future travels 

 in Guiana, is restricted to the limits of the colony, I 

 confidently trust that I may obtain permission to extend 

 them to the eastward, and also that another attempt may 

 be made to reach the course of the Orinoco to the west- 

 ward, by ascending the rivers Mocajahi and Catrimani. 

 To you, Sir, as President of the Society, I beg to offer 

 my sincere thanks for the too flattering terms in which 

 you have conferred this distinction, which I shall ever 

 consider as one of the proudest events of my life ; and I 

 trust that my future researches may prove me to have 

 been not wholly unworthy of it."* 



Humboldt wrote a preface to the German account 

 of the expeditions, (edited by Otto Schomburgk) in 

 which the father of modern travellers spoke very highly 

 of the work. The results of the journeys had afforded 

 him, "towards the close of a very active life, the highest 

 enjoyment." Great had been his pleasure to witness 

 so important an extension of the world's geographical 

 knowledge, and to know that such a bold, well-executed 

 plan had been carried out by a young man with whom he 

 felt himself connected by the bonds of a similar pursuit 

 and a common country. " Robebt Schomburgk had 



* Geographical Journal. 



