IV 
EDITOR’ 8 PREFACE. 
America, and even ascended the Andes, contributed by their 
discoveries and collections to augment the vegetable riches 
of the Old "World. But, in their time, geology as a science 
had little or no existence. Of the structure of the giant 
mountains of our globe scarcely anything was understood ; 
whilst nothing was known beneath the earth in the New 
World, except what related to her mines of gold and silver. 
It remained for Humboldt to supply all that was wanting, 
by the publication of his Personal Narrative. In this, 
more than in any other of his works, he shows his power 
of contemplating nature in all her grandeur and variety. 
The researches and discoveries of Humboldt’s able coad- 
jutor and companion, M. Bonpland, afford not only a com- 
plete picture of the botany of the equinoctial regions of 
America, but of that of other places visited by the tra 
vellers on their voyage thither. The description of the 
Island of Teneriffe and the geography of its vegetation, 
show how much was discovered by Humboldt and Bonpland 
which had escaped the observation of discerning travellers 
who had pursued the same route before them. Indeed, the 
whole account of the Canary Islands presents a picture 
which cannot be contemplated without the deepest interest, 
even by persons comparatively indifferent to the study of 
nature. 
It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to remind the reader 
that since the time when this work was first published in 
Paris, the separation of the Spanish Colonies from the 
mother-country, together with subsequent political events, 
have wrought great changes in the governments of the 
South American States, as well as in the social condition 
of their inhabitants. One consequence of these changes has 
been to render obsolete some facts and observations relating 
to subjects, political, commercial, and statistical, interspersed 
through this work. However useful such matter might 
have been on its original publication, it is wholly irrelevant 
