Equinoctial Regions of America, vol 1

Equinoctial Regions of America,
vol 1

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Title: Equinoctial Regions of America
Author: Alexander von Humboldt
Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6322] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 26,
2002]

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EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS ***

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Equinoctial Regions of America
Alexander von Humboldt
BOHN'S SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY.

HUMBOLDT'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE
VOLUME 1.
PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS TO THE EQUINOCTIAL
REGIONS OF AMERICA DURING THE YEARS 1799-1804
BY
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT AND AIME BONPLAND.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
AND EDITED BY
THOMASINA ROSS.

IN THREE VOLUMES
VOLUME 1.
LONDON.
GEORGE BELL & SONS. 1907. LONDON: PORTUGAL ST.,
LINCOLN'S INN. CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. BOMBAY: A.H. WHEELER

AND CO.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
The increasing interest attached to all that part of the American
Continent situated within and near the tropics, has suggested the
publication of the present edition of Humboldt's celebrated work, as a
portion of the SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY.
Prior to the travels of Humboldt and Bonpland, the countries described
in the following narrative were but imperfectly known to Europeans.
For our partial acquaintance with them we were chiefly indebted to the
early navigators, and to some of the followers of the Spanish
Conquistadores. The intrepid men whose courage and enterprise
prompted them to explore unknown seas for the discovery of a New
World, have left behind them narratives of their adventures, and
descriptions of the strange lands and people they visited, which must
ever be perused with curiosity and interest; and some of the followers
of Pizarro and Cortez, as well as many learned Spaniards who
proceeded to South America soon after the conquest, were the authors
of historical and other works of high value. But these writings of a past
age, however curious and interesting, are deficient in that spirit of
scientific investigation which enhances the importance and utility of
accounts of travels in distant regions. In more recent times, the
researches of La Condamine tended in a most important degree to
promote geographical knowledge; and he, as well as other eminent
botanists who visited the coasts of South 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 coadjutor and
companion, M. Bonpland, afford not only a complete picture of the
botany of the equinoctial regions of America, but of that of other places

visited by the travellers 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