3 



relates to the first plans I had traced out, has 

 been strangely disfigured*. 



From my earliest youth I had felt an ardent de- 

 sire to travel into distant regions, which Euro- 

 peans had seldom visited. This desire is the cha- 

 racteristic of a period of our existence, when life 

 appears an unlimited horizon, and when we find 

 an irresistible attraction in the impetuous agita- 

 tions of the mind, and the image of positive dan- 

 ger. Educated in a country which has no direct 

 communication with the colonies of either India, 

 living amidst mountains, remote from the coasts, 

 and celebrated for their numerous mines, I felt 

 an increasing passion for the sea, and distant 

 expeditions. The objects with which we are ac- 

 quainted only by the animated narratives of tra- 

 vellers, have a particular charm ; imagination 

 wanders with delight over what is vague and 

 undefined; and the pleasures of which we are 

 deprived, seem possessed of a fascinating power 



* I here beg leave to observe, that I never had the slight- 

 est knowledge of a work in six volumes, published by Voll_ 

 mer, at Hamburgh, under the strange title of " Voyage 

 round the World, and in South America, by A. de Hum- 

 boldt." This narrative, which appeared in my name, was 

 compiled, it seems, from accounts given in the public papers, 

 and from memoirs which I read to the first class of the Insti- 

 tute. The compiler, with a view of engaging the attention 

 of the public, thought he might give to an expedition made 

 to some parts of the New Continent, the more attractive title 

 of Voyage round the World. 



B 2 



