268 OBSERVATORY AT CORDOBA, ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



research, I addressed a letter, in October, 1865, to Mr. Sarmiento, then 

 Argentine minister t® this country, telling him of my desire to make 

 an astronomical expedition thither, and of my bopes of being able to 

 secure the necessary pecuniary means from lovers of science. In this 

 letter I asked him whether such an expedition would be cordially 

 received by the national government and by the people of Cordoba ; 

 whether protection would be afforded in case of need; and whether I 

 could reasonably hope that on my own departure the establishment 

 would be adopted by the government and continued as a national insti- 

 tution. His reply was most cordial, answering all ray questions favor- 

 ably, and promising even more than I had ventured to ask ; and in due 

 time a full ofQcial indorsement was received from the Argentine govern- 

 ment, and Doctor Costa, Minister of Public Instruction, in a note dated 

 January, 1866, expressed his regret that the heavy sacrifices which 

 the nation was making, in its mortal struggle with the tyrant Lopez of 

 Paraguay, deprived him of the power of offering yet more effective 

 support to the undertaking. My plan failed at that time, owing to my 

 want of success in obtaining the necessary pecuniary means, yet Mr. 

 Sarmiento's interest in it never flagged ; nor did he, when nominated 

 for President eighteen months later, forget the astronomical project 

 amid official cares, educational labors, or political excitement. One of 

 his earliest acts after assuming the presidency in 1868 was to recommend 

 a national observatory. This was voted by the Argentine congress at 

 its first subsequent session ; and in the latter half of 1869 I received from 

 Doctor Av^ellaneda, then Minister of Public Instruction, an invitation 

 to organize a permanent national observatory and provide the needful 

 instruments and buildings ; and money-credits were furnished for doing 

 this in an adequate, though unpretending, way. I took the necessary 

 steps as speedily as possible, and a happy combination of circumstances 

 aided the prompt acquisition of instruments, which would else have 

 required a long time for their construction. Happily, as it proved, 

 although it had cost me some regrets in the interval, I had more than 

 three years previously ordered, upon my own responsibility, from the 

 celebrated artist Eepsold, of Hamburg, a meridian-circle of dimensions 

 and character especially adapted to the proposed work; and this had 

 been completed but a few months when the opportunity for its employ- 

 ment arrived. 



The ready assistance and encouragement w^hich the undertaking 

 received from every side, as soon as it became publicly known, will 

 always afford me delightful remembrances. Not only in its private and 

 personal, but also in its scientific relations — not only by words that meant 

 something, but, likewise, by the most jiractical actions — aid came to it 

 from all directions. The Superintendent of the Coast Survey hastened 

 to offer the loan of such portable instruments as might be serviceable ; 

 an offer which I accepted as freely as it was made. The secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution did the same; and both these institutions, as well 



