The Sun.
London, England, 1821-09-22 00:00:00

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

(No. XLI.)

VOYAGE aux REGIONS EQUINO.X.IALES du NOU-
VAAU CONTINENT : i. e. Travels in the Equinoctial
Regions of the New Continent, performed in and from 1799
to 1804, by ALEX.DE HUMBOLDT And A. DE BONPLAND ;
with two Atlases, one containing Views of the Cordilleras
and Monuments of the Indigenous Inhabitants of America,
and the other containing Geographical and Physical Maps
and Plans. Vol. IV. 4to. Paris. 1821.
I.Continued from Monday's Paper.]

This great and beautiful work, this true encyclo-
pcedia of the New World, is the subject of a
question, the solution of which demands all the
reader's attention. I have heard it thus propos-
ed and resolved in the form of criticism and re-
proach :—Does M. de Humboldt now present to
the public a real journey ? Is this the Itine-
rary which his friends advised him to write, and
which he announces himself in his preface ? Is
it not rather a Pantheon which he raises and
dedicates to the .whole body of the sciences,
after having raised and dedicated a particular
temple to each of them ? To speak plainly,
in short, is not this pretended journey too learn-
ed, and has not M. tie Humboldt lost sight of the
maxim "saperc ad sobrielatem ? I should not
have taken part in this discussion, if it were not
a convenient channel of bringing before the rea-
der a portion of the objects' comprised in this
fourth volume : I say a portion, for the observa-
tions are so numerous and miscellaneous, that to
connect them one with, another, and to bring them
forward again in their whole, it would frequently
be necessary to add to the text instead of cur-
tailing it, and the supposed analysis would resem-
ble a paraphrase.
For my part, I confess that I have found too
much science i❑ these Travels in the Equinoctial
regions. I have often murmured in pelt° against
the unmerciful savant who stopped me when I
wished to hasten forward, and presented me with.
a discussion when I expected a beautiful picture.
I have really lost all patience with him, when
following him into the steppes of New Anda-
lusia, dying of heat and thirst, and wishing to
quicken my pace to find shelter from a scorching
sun, I saw my natural philosopher plunge a ther-
mometer into the burning sand, -and wait with

the most perfect indifference until

`•er had reached its maximum.

The barbarous

man thought to console me by inforrtiug me that
my annoyance was as high as fifty degrees and a
fraction ! What mental ejaculations, and not of
the most gentle kind, have I not addressed to
him when, led by him near :the raudale,y of the
Oronoco, he compelled me to breathe an atmos-
phere infested by countless myriads of muskitos,
jejen, zancudos, and tempraderys, and by all the
race of gnats, and aerial tipuli and vampires !
Who can describe my despair 'when the savant
who could not breathe without swallowing hun-

dreds of these winged monsters, who had his nose,

his eyes, and hands assailo by thousands of
bites and stings, thought proper to calculate that
a cubic foot of air coutailibd a million of these
children of Beizebub, and the same
time, that a cubic foot consisted of two.million
nine hundred and eighty-five:thousand nine hun-,
dred and eighty-four cubic lines ! I felt, I confess, a
malicious joy when this hero of science, wishing tO
arrange his instrunients for an observation, was
so teased by the dipterous phalanx, that he never
could adjust his astronomical apparatus, and was
forced to abandon the field of battle.
I have ha'd a hundred times occasion to renew
the same complaints, and cause for exclaiming :
Science chokes me! This is, it appears to me,

•
lie frank expression of the sensations which agi-
ated me when I was reading this long narrative

of a long journey ; which, 'nevertheless, by an
unaccountable charm, forced me to redouble my

attention, and 'attached me to its perusal by an
interest paramount to my impatience. I soon
satisfied my mind relative to the apparent con-
tradiction of these two opposite impressions which
I received from the same cause. When I saw
the author arrive at Angostura, recovered from
the fatigue of his long periplus, and relieved
from the anxiety occasioned by the serious ill-
ness of IVI. Bonpland, I took a review of all the
objects which M. de Humboldt had made me
see, all the observations he had communicated,
and all the information he had given. On each
of these points, I asked myself, whether I would
consent to make a sacrifice of them ; and I en-
deavoured to determine from what part of this
narrative it might be advisable to make curtail-
ments. My embarrassment was extreme ; I for-
got the stings of the zancudos, the heats of the
torrid zone ; I congratulated myself on the
knowledge I had acquired, and I ranged myself
under the banners of M. de Humboldt against
all the profane who wished to mutilate his work.
Let us confegs honestly, whether we could re-
quire such a man as M. de Humboldt to travel
like a young Englishman who makes his tour,
or like that Frenchman who, travelling over
Egypt, roves around its harems, to pick up the
subject of a gallant anecdote? Is not this didac.;
tic abundance, which terrified my ignorance, the
essential and indispensible part of these Travels
into the Equinoctial Regions of America ? The
author was expected to present to us a multitude
of results which are different from all our pre-
vious habits and ideas; he must shock, or at
least frequently confute our opinions, our pre-
possessions, and our prejudices ; and if he had
merely recited facts stripped of all their deve-
lopements, explanations, and proofs, we must
frankly admit that, in spite of our esteem for
his character and our admiration of his vast ac-
quirements, we should not have given credit to
his verbal statements. There is always something
hostile in the attention of even the most good-
natured reader ; we only yield the victory when
we are completely captivated or subdued. It
was, therefore, incumbent on M. de Humboldt
to make use of all his means of producing con-
viction ; asid I now acknowledge that you can-
not abridge his demonstrations, without dimin-
ishing, in an equal ratio, the confidence inspired
by his recital.
There is yet another consideration still more
conclusive. Suppose a whole institute were to
set out on a-journey, travel over the immense
American Continent, and give collectively to the
public the result of their observations in all kinds
of science, should we be shocked to see the as-
tronomer ascertain longitudes by the observation
of celestial phenomena; the botanist describe
new plants and class them in families, orders,
genera, species, and varieties : the chytnist busy
himself with experiments and analyses ; or the
geologist point out the nature of rocks and the
direction of strata ? Should we deprive the na-
tural philosopher of his indispensable companions,
the barometer, the thermometer, hygrometer,
anemometer, photometer, and cyanometer ? and
would the geographer, the politician, and the
anthropologist be condemned to silence ? No,
doubtless no ; we should complain, on the con-
trary, if a single science were neglected, and
left a blank in so important a work. Well !
since M. de Humboldt unites all these acquire-
ments to the science of the anatomist, the zoolo-
gist, and the physician, which I omitted in my
nomenclature ; since this traveller is, properly
speaking, an ambulatory institute, why should
he be reproached for doing that which we should
regard as an indispensable duty from a great
many observers ? and why should he be denied the
right of considering every object in all its va-
rious bearings, and the. privilege of presenting all
their appearances and relations in a synoptic
table ?
In the course of his navigation of five hundred
leagues on•different rivers, to prove the commu-
nication between the Amazon and the Oronoco,
a multitude of objects worthy the meditation of
a philosopher came under his consideration, which
he could not neglect. On his arrival at the ra-
pids of the Oronoco he was informed that fevers,
particularly fatal to Europeans) attack, during a