Equinoctial Regions of America, vol 1 | Page 8

Europe in
the present state of civilization. In tracing the geological description of
the richest mining districts in Mexico, I have, in short, given a
statement of the mineral produce, the population, the imports and
exports of the whole of Spanish America. I have examined several
questions which, for want of precise data, had not hitherto been treated
with the attention they demand, such as the influx and reflux of metals,
their progressive accumulation in Europe and Asia, and the quantity of
gold and silver which, since the discovery of America down to our own
times, the Old World has received from the New. The geographical
introduction at the beginning of this work contains the analysis of the
materials which have been employed in the construction of the
Mexican Atlas.
1.I.7. VIEWS OF THE CORDILLERAS, AND MONUMENTS OF
THE INDIGENOUS NATIONS OF THE NEW CONTINENT.*
(*Atlas Pittoresque, ou Vues des Cordilleres, 1 volume folio, with 69
plates, part of which are coloured, accompanied by explanatory
treatises. This work may be considered as the Atlas to the historical
narrative of the travels.)
This work is intended to represent a few of the grand scenes which

nature presents in the lofty chain of the Andes, and at the same time to
throw some light on the ancient civilization of the Americans, through
the study of their monuments of architecture, their hieroglyphics, their
religious rites, and their astrological reveries. I have given in this work
a description of the teocalli, or Mexican pyramids, and have compared
their structure with that of the temple of Belus. I have described the
arabesques which cover the ruins of Mitla, the idols in basalt
ornamented with the calantica of the heads of Isis; and also a
considerable number of symbolical paintings, representing the
serpent-woman (the Mexican Eve), the deluge of Coxcox, and the first
migrations of the natives of the Aztec race. I have endeavoured to
prove the striking analogies existing between the calendar of the
Toltecs and the catasterisms of their zodiac, and the division of time of
the people of Tartary and Thibet, as well as the Mexican traditions on
the four regenerations of the globe, the pralayas of the Hindoos, and the
four ages of Hesiod. In this work I have also included (in addition to
the hieroglyphical paintings I brought to Europe), fragments of all the
Aztec manuscripts, collected in Rome, Veletri, Vienna, and Dresden,
and one of which reminds us, by its lineary symbols, of the kouas of the
Chinese. Together with the rude monuments of the aborigines of
America, this volume contains picturesque views of the mountainous
countries which those people inhabited; for example, the cataract of
Tequendama, Chimborazo, the volcano of Jorullo and Cayambe, the
pyramidal summit of which, covered with eternal ice, is situated
directly under the equinoctial line. In every zone the configuration of
the ground, the physiognomy of the plants, and the aspect of lovely or
wild scenery, have great influence on the progress of the arts, and on
the style which distinguishes their productions. This influence is so
much the more perceptible in proportion as man is farther removed
from civilization.
I could have added to this work researches on the character of
languages, which are the most durable monuments of nations. I have
collected a number of materials on the languages of America, of which
MM. Frederic Schlegel and Vater have made use; the former in his
Considerations on the Hindoos, the latter in his Continuation of the
Mithridates of Adelung, in the Ethnographical Magazine, and in his
Inquiries into the Population of the New Continent. These materials are

now in the hands of my brother, William von Humboldt, who, during
his travels in Spain, and a long abode at Rome, formed the richest
collection of American vocabularies in existence. His extensive
knowledge of the ancient and modern languages has enabled him to
trace some curious analogies in relation to this subject, so important to
the philosophical study of the history of man. A part of his labours will
find a place in this narrative.
Of the different works which I have here enumerated, the second and
third were composed by M. Bonpland, from the observations which he
made in a botanical journal. This journal contains more than four
thousand methodical descriptions of equinoctial plants, a ninth part
only of which have been made by me. They appear in a separate
publication, under the title of Nova Genera et Species Plantariem. In
this work will be found, not only the new species we collected, which,
after a careful examination by one of the first botanists of the age,
Professor Willdenouw, are computed to amount to fourteen or fifteen
hundred, but also the interesting observations made by M. Bonpland on
plants hitherto imperfectly described. The plates of this