THADDAEUS HAENKE. 25 



SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATIONS OF THE ISLAND. 



MALASPINA EXPEDITION. 



In February, 1792, Guam was visited by Alessandro Malaspina, in 

 command of the corvettes Atrevida and Descubierta, which had been 

 sent by Carlos IV, King of Spain, on a voyage of scientific investiga- 

 tion. Attached to his expedition as naturalists were Thaddaeus Haenke 

 and Luis Nee, who were the first to make systematic botanical collec- 

 tions on the island. They were also the first botanists to visit Cali- 

 fornia, having the preceding }^ear collected in the vicinity of San Diego 

 and Monterey/' 



The story of Haenke's adventures while attempting to join Mala- 

 spina is told both in the official narrative of the expedition and in the 

 preface to Presl's Reliquiae Haenkeanse. Haenke was a Bohemian b}^ 

 birth. He received his botanical education from Jacquin, who for a 

 time was professor of chemistry and botany in Vienna, and upon his 

 recommendation was appointed botanist of the expedition by the King 

 of Spain. Although he set out for Cadiz immediate^ on receiving 

 his appointment, he reached that port onty to find that the two cor- 

 vettes had just set sail (July 30, 1789). Following them in the first 

 vessel bound for Montevideo, he suffered shipwreck on one of the 

 numerous shoals at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, losing nearly all 

 his books, papers, and effects. He succeeded in reaching shore, how- 

 ever, with his Linnseus and a collecting outfit, but he found that the 

 expedition had already sailed. Knowing that it was to stop on the coast 

 of Chile, he set out at once on foot, crossing the Pampas of Argentina 

 and the Chilean cordillera of the Andes, collecting and drying plants 

 on the way/ On reaching Santiago, Chile, to his great joy he found 

 there Malaspina and a number of his officers, who had left their ships 

 at anchor in the harbor of Valparaiso to pay an official visit to the 

 capital. He immediately reported for duty and was assigned to the 

 Descubierta. 



The expedition skirted the coasts of South America, Mexico, and 

 North America as far as Port Mulgrave, which is situated in Yakutat 

 Bay, southern Alaska. Their exploration of the latter region is com- 

 memorated by the name of the celebrated Malaspina Glacier. Return- 

 ing to Mexico, Haenke went alone on a collecting tour from Acapulco 

 to Mexico City and back. Leaving Acapulco on December 21, 1791, 

 the expedition sailed for Guam, coming to anchor on February 12, 



a See Brewer, in Geological Survey of California, Botany, vol. 2, p. 553, 1880. 



& "Con un verdadero amor d las ciencias y particularmente a la botanica, eonside- 

 raba resarcidos en mucha parte los sufrimieutos pasados, pues le habian deparado la 

 casualidad de atravesar las Pampas 6 llanuras de Buenos Aires y las Cordilleras del 

 Chile, logrando acopiar hasta 1,400 plantas, la mayor parte nuevas 6 no bien carac- 

 terizadas." Official narrative, p. 86, 1885. 



