HUMBOLDT'S "PERSONAL NARRATIVE..."

INTRODUCTION [close]

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HUMBOLDT'S INTRODUCTION
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<Time type ="abs" value = "1811/06/05/14/01"/>
Twelve years have elapsed since I left Europeto explore the interior of the New Continent.
<Emotion type="excited" modify="passionately" comment="the beauty of nature"/>
From my earliest days I was excited by studying nature, and was sensitive to the wild beauty of a landscape bristling with mountains and covered in forests.
<Emotion type="conflict" modify="frustratedly" comment="looking for a new life" />
I found that travelling out there compensated for a hard and often agitatedlife.But pleasure was not the only fruit of my decision to contribute to the progress of the physical sciences. For a long time I had prepared myself for the observations that were the main object of my journey to the torrid zone. I was equipped with instruments that were easy and convenient to use, made by the ablest artists, and I enjoyed the protection of a government that, far from blocking my way, constantly honored me with its confidence.Iwas supported by a brave and learned friend whose keenness and equanimity never let me down, despite the exhaustion and dangers we faced.
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<Emotion type="happy" modify="patiently" comment="able to collect" />
Under such favorable circumstances, and crossing regions long unknown to most European nations, including
<Position value="-03.41/+40.25" description="country, Madrid"/>Spain itself, Bonplandand I collected a considerable number of materials, which when published may throw light on the history of nations, and on our knowledge about nature.
<Emotion type="conflict" modify="cool" comment="interdisciplinary nonlinear history" />
Our research developed in so many unpredictable directions that we could not include everything in the form of a travel journal, and have therefore placed our observations in a series of separate works.
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Two main aims guided my travels, published as the Relation historique. (1) I wanted to make known the countries I visited, and to collect those facts that helped elucidate the new science vaguely named the Natural History of the World, Theory of the Earth or Physical Geography. Of these two aims, the second seemed the more important.
<Emotion type="passion" modify="euphoric" comment="the beauty of nature" />
I was passionately keen on botany and certain aspects of zoology, and flattered myself that our researches might add some new species to those already known. However, rather than discovering new, isolated facts I preferred linking already known ones together. The discovery of a new genus seemed to me far less interesting than an observation on the geographical relations of plants, or the migration of social plants, and the heights that different plants reach on the peaks of the cordilleras.
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The natural sciences are connected by the same ties that link all natural phenomena together. The classification of species, which we should consider as fundamental to botany, and whose study has been facilitated by introducing natural methods, is to plant geography what descriptive mineralogy is to the rocks that form the outer crust of the earth. To understand the laws observed in the rocks, and to determine the age of successive formations and identify them from the most distant regions, a geologist should know the simple fossils that make up the mass of mountains. The same goes for the natural history that deals with how plants are related to each other, and with the soil and air. The advancement of plant geography depends greatly on descriptive botany; it would hinder the advancement of the sciences to postulate general ideas by neglecting particular facts.
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<Emotion type="meditation" modify="aroused" comment="preparation for travels" />
Such considerations have guided my researches, and were always present in my mind as I prepared for the journey. When I began to read the many travel books, which form such an interesting branch of modern literature,
<Emotion type="sadness" modify="frustration" comment="specialized linear history" />
I regretted that previous learned travelers seldom possessed a wide enough knowledge to avail themselves of what they saw. It seemed to me that what had been obtained had not kept up with the immense progress of several sciences in the late eighteenth century, especially geology, the history and modifications of the atmosphere, and the physiology of plants and animals. Despite new and accurate instruments I was disappointed, and most scientists would agree with me, that while the number of precise instruments multiplied we were still ignorant of the height of so many mountains and plains; of the periodical oscillations of the aerial oceans; the limit of perpetual snow under the polar caps and on the borders of the torrid zones; the variable intensity of magnetic forces; and many equally important phenomena.
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Maritime expeditions and voyages round the world have rightly conferred fame on naturalists and astronomers appointed by their governments, but while these distinguished men have given precise notions of the coasts of countries, of the natural history of the ocean and islands, their expeditions have advanced neither geology nor general physics as travels into the interior of a continent should have. Interest in the natural sciences has trailed behind geography and nautical astronomy.
<Emotion type="lonely" modify="arousedly" comment="at sea" />
During long sea-voyages, a traveler hardly ever sees land; and when land is seen after a long wait it is often stripped of its most beautiful products.
<Emotion type="lonely" modify="frustratedly" comment="at sea" />
Sometimes, beyond a sterile coast, a ridge of high mountains covered in forests is glimpsed, but its distance only frustrates the traveler.
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<Emotion type="tired" modify="coolly" comment="transport and scale" />
Land journeys are made very tiresome by having to transport instruments and collections, but these difficulties are compensated by real advantages. It is not by sailing along a coast that the direction, geology and climate of a chain of mountains can be discovered. The wider a continent is the greater the range of its soil and the richness of its animal and vegetable products, and the further the central chain of mountains lies from the ocean coast the greater the variety of stony strata that can be seen, which reveal the history of the earth. Just as every individual can be seen as particular, so can we recognize individuality in the arrangement of brute matter in rocks, in the distribution and relationships of plants and animals. The great problem of the physical description of the planet is how to determine the laws that relate the phenomena of life with inanimate nature.
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<Emotion type="curiosity" modify="ponderous" comment="of childhood" />
In trying to explain the motives that led me to travel into the interior of a continent I can only outline what my ideas were at an age when we do not have a fair estimate of our faculties. What I had planned in my youth has not been completely carried out. I did not travel as far as I had intended when I sailed for South America; nor did it give me the number of results I expected.
<Time type ="abs" value = "1799////"/>The Madrid Courthad given me permission in 1799 to sail on the 
Acapulcogalleon and visit the
<Position value="+120.59/+14.35" description="country, Manila"/> Philippine Islandsafter crossing its New Worldcolonies.
<Emotion type="hope" modify="frustrated" comment="travel on to Asia" />
I had hoped to return to Europeacross Asia, the
<Position value="+51.39/+26.43" description="gulf, Arabia"/>
Persian Gulfand
<Position value="+44.24/+33.2" description="city, Iraq"/>
Baghdad. With respect to the works that Bonplandand I have published,
<Emotion type="hope" modify="ponderous" comment="self criticism" />
we hope that their imperfections, obvious to both of us, will not be attributed to a lack of keenness, nor to publishing too quickly. A determined will and an active perseverance are not always sufficient to overcome every obstacle.
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Having outlined the general aim, I will now briefly glance at the collections and observations we made.
<Emotion type="conflict" modify="warfare" comment="at sea" />
The maritime war during our stay in Americamade communications with Europevery uncertain and, in order for us to avoid losses, forced us to make three different collections. The first we sent to
<Position value="-03.41/+40.25" description="country, Madrid"/>
Spainand
<Position value="+02.29/+48.49" description="country, Paris"/>
France, the second to the
<Position value="- 77.02/+38.51" description="country, Washington"/>
United Statesand
<Position value="00.00/+51.29" description="country, London"/>
England, and the third, the most considerable, remained constantly with us. Towards the end of our journey this last collection formed forty-two boxes containing a herbal of 6,000 equinoctial plants, seeds, shells and insects, and geological specimens from
<Position value="-79.31/-07.06" description="mountain, Peru"/>
Chimborazo, New Granadaand the banks of the
<Position value="-51.04/00.00" description="river, Macapa, Brazil"/>
Amazon, never seen in Europe
before. After our journey up the
<Position value="-67.28/+6.13" description="river, Puerto Paez, Venezuela"/>
Orinoco, we left a part of this collection in
<Position value="-82.21/+23.08" description="country, Havana"/>
Cubain order to pick it up on our return from
<Position value="-77.03/-12.05" description="country, Lima"/>
Peruand
<Position value="- 99.12/+19.24" description="country, Mexico City"/>
Mexico. The rest followed us for five years along the
<Position value="-75.00/00.00" description="mountain range, South America"/>
Andeschain, across New Spain, from the Pacificshores to the
<Position value="+55.29/-04.34" description="sea, ocean, Seychelles"/>
West Indian seas.
<Emotion type="conflict" modify="cool" comment="difficult transport of physical data" />
The carrying of these objects, and the minute care they required, created unbelievable difficulties, quite unknown in the wildest parts of Europe. Our progress was often held up by having to drag after us for five and six months at a time from twelve to twenty loaded mules, change these mules every eight to ten days, and oversee the Indians employed on these caravans. Often, to add new geological specimens to our collections, we had to throw away others collected long before. Such sacrifices were no less painful than what we lost through accidents. We learned too late that the warm humidity and the frequent falls of our mules prevented us from preserving our hastily prepared animal skins and the fish and reptiles in alcohol. I note these banal details to show that we had no means of bringing back many of the objects of zoological and comparative anatomical interest whose descriptions and drawings we have published. Despite these obstacles, and the expenses entailed,
<Emotion type="happy" modify="surprisedly" comment="duplicating physical data and its transport back to Europe" />
I was pleased that I had decided before leaving to send duplicates of all we had collected to Europe.
<Emotion type="conflict" modify="warfare" comment="at sea" />
It is worth repeating that in seas infested with pirates a traveler can only be sure of what he takes with him. Only a few duplicates that we sent from Americawere saved, most fell into the hands of people ignorant of the sciences. When a ship is held in a foreign port, boxes containing dried plants or stones are merely forgotten, and not sent on as indicated to scientific men. Our geological collections taken in the Pacifichad a happier fate.
<Emotion type="conflict" modify="warfare" comment="in Europe" />
We are grateful for their safety to the generous work of Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society of
<Position value="00.00/+51.29" description="city, England"/>
London, who, in the middle of Europe's political turmoils, has struggled ceaselessly to consolidate the ties that unite scientific men of all nations.
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<Emotion type="patience" modify="stable" comment="analyzing, mapping and publishing" />
The same reasons that slowed our communications also delayed the publication of our work, which has to be accompanied by a number of engravings and maps.
<Emotion type="conflict" modify="frustrated" comment="personal finances" />
If such difficulties are met when governments are paying, how much worse they are when paid by private individuals. It would have been impossible to overcome these difficulties if the enthusiasm of the editors had not been matched by public reaction.
<Emotion type="hope" modify="powerful" comment="productive publishing" />
More than two thirds of our work has now been published. The maps of the
<Position value="-67.28/+6.13" description="river, Puerto Paez, Venezuela"/>
Orinoco, the
<Position value="-66.11/+02.39" description="river, Venezuela"/>
Casiquiareand the
<Position value="- 73.49/+07.47" description="river, Columbia"/>
Magdalenarivers, based on my astronomical observations, together with several hundred plants, have been engraved and are ready to appear. I shall not leave Europeon my Asian journey before I have finished publishing my travels to the New World.
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In our publications Bonplandand I have considered every phenomenon under different aspects, and classed our observations according to the relations they each have with one another. To convey an idea of the method followed, I will outline what we used in order to describe the volcanoes of
<Position value="-78.8/-00.29" description="volcano, Equador"/>
Antisanaand 

<Position value="-78.36/-00.01" description="volcano, Equador"/>
Pichincha, as well as
<Position value="-54.00/+19.09" description="AvHs measurement, volcano, Mexico"/>
Jorullo, which on the night of the 20th of September 1759 rose 1,578 feet up from the plains of
<Position value="- 99.12/+19.24" description="country, Mexico City"/>
Mexico. We fixed the position of these remarkable mountains in longitude and latitude by astronomical observations. We took the heights of different parts with a barometer, and determined the dip of the needle and magnetic forces. We collected plants that grew on the slopes of these volcanoes, and specimens of different rocks. We found out the exact height above sea-level at which we made each collection. We noted down the humidity, the temperature, the electricity and the transparency of the air on the brinks of
<Position value="-78.36/-00.01" description="volcano, Equador"/>
Pichinchaand
<Position value="- 54.00/+19.09" description="AvHs measurement, volcano, Mexico"/>
Jorullo; we drew the topographical plans and geological profiles of these volcanoes by measuring vertical bases and altitude angles. In order to judge the correctness of our calculations we have preserved all the details of our field notes.
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We could have included all these details in a work devoted solely to volcanoes in
<Position value="-77.03/-12.05" description="country, Lima"/>
Peruand New Spain.
<Emotion type="excited" modify="happily" comment="in his narrative method" />
Had I written the physical description of a single province I could have incorporated separate chapters on geography, mineralogy and botany, but how could I break the narrative of our travels, or an essay on customs and the great phenomena of general physics, by tiresomely enumerating the produce of the land, or describing new species and making dry astronomical observations? Had I decided to write a book that included in the same chapter everything observed from the same spot, it would have been excessively long, quite lacking in the clarity that comes from a methodical distribution of subject matter.
<Emotion type="sadness" modify="guilt" comment="self criticism" />
Despite the efforts made to avoid these errors in this narration of my journey, I am aware that I have not always succeeded in separating the observations of detail from the general results that interest all educated minds. These results should bring together the influence of climate on organized beings, the look of the landscape, the variety of soils and plants, the mountains and rivers that separate tribes as much as plants.
<Emotion type="happy" modify="passionately" comment="concerning interdisciplinary research" />
I do not regret lingering on these interesting objects for modern civilization can be characterized by how it broadens our ideas, making us perceive the connections between the physical and the intellectual worlds. It is likely that my travel journal will interest many more readers than my purely scientific researches into the population, commerce and mines in New Spain.
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After dividing all that belongs to astronomy, botany, zoology, the political description of New Spain, and the history of the ancient civilizations of certain New World
nations into separate works, many general results and local descriptions remained left over, which I could still collect into separate treatises. I had prepared several during my journey; on races in South America; on the
<Position value="-67.28/+06.13" description="river, Puerto Paez, Venezuela"/>
Orinocomissions; on what hinders civilization in the torrid zone, from the climate to the vegetation; the landscape of the
<Position value="75.00/00.00" description="mountain range, South America"/>
Andescompared to the
<Position value="+08.06/+46.32" description="mountain range, Europe"/> Swiss Alps; analogies between the rocks of the two continents; the air in the equinoctial regions, etc.
<Emotion type="power" modify="respectful" comment="of Enlightened scientific methods" />
I had left Europewith the firm decision not to write what is usually called the historical narrative of a journey, but just to publish the results of my researches. I had arranged the facts not as they presented themselves individually but in their relationships to each other. Surrounded by such powerful nature, and all the things seen every day, the traveler feels no inclination to record in a journal all the ordinary details of life that happen to him.
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During my navigation up the South American rivers, and over land, I had written a very brief itinerary where I described on the spot what I saw when I climbed the summit of a volcano or any other mountain, but I did not continue my notes in the towns, or when busy with something else. When I did take notes my only motive was to preserve those fugitive ideas that occur to a naturalist, to make a temporary collection of facts and first impressions.
<Emotion type="conflict" modify="mistrustful" comment="to integrate personal narrative with scientific record" />
But I did not think at the time that these jotted-down notes would form the basis of a work offered to the public. I thought that my journey might add something to science, but would not include those colorful details that are the main interest in journeys.
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<Emotion type="conflict" modify="mistrustful" comment="self criticism" />
Since my return the difficulties I experienced trying to write a number of treatises and make certain phenomena known have overcome my reluctance to write the narrative of my journey. In doing this I have been guided by a number of respectable people.
<Emotion type="happy" modify="surprisedly" comment="to integrate personal narrative with scientific records" />
I realized that even scientific men, after presenting their researches, feel that they have not satisfied their public if they do not also write up their journal.
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A historical narrative covers two quite different aims: whatever happens to the traveler; and the observations he makes during his journey. Unity of composition, which distinguishes good work from bad, can be sought only when the traveler describes what he has seen with his own eyes, and when he has concentrated on the different customs of people, and the great phenomena of nature, rather than on scientific observations. The most accurate picture of customs is one that deals with man's relationships with other men. What characterizes savage and civilized life is captured either through the difficulties encountered by a traveler or by the sensations he feels. It is the man himself we wish to see in contact with the objects around him. His narration interests us far more if a local coloring informs the descriptions of the country and its people.
<Emotion type="excited" modify="passionately" comment="concerning travelogues" />
This is what excites us in the narrations of the early navigators who were driven more by guts than by scientific curiosity and struggled against the elements as they sought a
New Worldin unknown seas.
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<Emotion type="conflict" modify="cool" comment="concerning interdisciplinary research" />
The more travelers research into natural history, geography or political economy, the more their journey loses that unity and simplicity of composition typical of the earlier travelers. It is now virtually impossible to link so many different fields of research in a narrative so that what we may call the dramatic events give way to descriptive passages. Most readers, who prefer to be agreeably amused to being solidly instructed, gain nothing from expeditions loaded with instruments and collections.
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<Emotion type="power" modify="respectful" comment="integrating personal narrative with scientific records" />
To give some variety to my work I have often interrupted the historical narrative with straightforward descriptions. I begin by describing the phenomena as they appeared to me, then I consider their individual relations to the whole.
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I have included details about our everyday life that might be useful to any who follow us in the same countries. I have retained only a few of those personal incidents that offer no interest to readers, and amuse us only when well written.
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Concerning the country I have traveled through, I am fully aware of the great advantages enjoyed by those who travel to
<Position value="+23.43/+37.58" description="country, Athens"/>
Greece,
<Position value="31.02/29.52" description="country, Cairo"/>
Egypt, the banks of the
<Position value="+38.32/+35.51" description="river source, Asia"/>
Euphrates, and the
<Position value="- 162.13/-14.15" description="islands, Cook Islands, Pacific"/>
Pacific Islandsover those who travel to America.
<Emotion type="conflict" modify="cool" comment="between nations" />
In the Old Worldthe nuances and differences between nations form the main focus of the picture.
<Emotion type="power" modify="respectful" comment="concerning nature and indigenous peoples" />
In the New World, man and his productions disappear, so to speak, in the midst of a wild and outsize nature.
<Emotion type="sadness" modify="desperate" comment="for humankind and the natural world" />
In the New Worldthe human race has been preserved by a few scarcely civilized tribes, or by the uniform customs and institutions transplanted on to foreign shores by European colonists. Facts about the history of our species, different kinds of government and monuments of art affect us far more than descriptions of vast emptinesses destined for plants and wild animals.
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If Americadoes not occupy an important place in the history of mankind, and in the revolutions that have shattered the world, it does offer a wide field for a naturalist.
<Emotion type="passion" modify="euphoric" comment="for natural world" />
Nowhere else does nature so vividly suggest general ideas on the cause of events, and their mutual interrelationships. I do not mean by this solely the overpowering vegetation and freshness of organic life, the different climates we experience as we climb the cordillerasand navigate those immense rivers, but also the geology and natural history of an unknown continent.
<Emotion type="hope" modify="lucky" comment="for scientific research" />
A traveler can count himself lucky if he has taken advantage of his travels by adding new facts to the mass of those previously discovered!
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<Time type ="abs" value = "1799/06/05/14/02"/>
<Emotion type="love" modify="intimite" comment="on the road and rivers" />
Connected by the most intimate bonds of friendship over the five years of our travels (and since then), Bonplandand I have jointly published the whole of our work. (2)
<Emotion type="sadness" modify="guilt" comment="self criticism" />
I have tried to explain what we both observed but, as this work has been written from my notes on the spot, all errors that might arise are solely mine. In this introduction
<Emotion type="happy" modify="powerfully" comment="with associated scientists" />
I would also like to thank Gay- Lussacand Arago, my colleagues at the Institute, who have added their names to important work done, and who possess that high-mindedness which all who share a passion for science should have.
<Emotion type="love" modify="trusting" comment="with associated scientists" />
Living in intimate friendship I have consulted them daily on matters of chemistry, natural history and mathematics.
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<Time type ="abs" value = "1804/08/25/06/00"/>
<Emotion type="conflict" modify="warfare" comment="in the Spanish colonies" />
Since I have returned from Americaone of those revolutions that shake the human race has broken out in the Spanish colonies, and promises a new future for the 14 million inhabitants spread out from
<Position value="-61.32/+07.13" description="town, Venezuela"/>
La Platato the remotest areas in
<Position value="-99.12/+19.24" description="country, Mexico City"/>
Mexico. Deep resentments, exacerbated by colonial laws and maintained by suspicious policies, have stained with bloodshed areas that for three centuries once enjoyed not happiness but at least uninterrupted peace. Already in
<Position value="-78.32/-00.13" description="city, Equador"/>
Quitothe most educated citizens have been killed fighting for their country.
<Emotion type="sadness" modify="angry" comment="friends who died due to warfare" />
While writing about certain areas I remembered the loss of dear friends. (3)
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<Emotion type="conflict" modify="warfare" comment="South America versus United States" />
When we reflect on the great political upheavals in the New Worldwe note that Spanish Americans are in a less fortunate position than the inhabitants of the
<Position value="+77.02/+38.51" description="country, Washington"/>
United States, who were more prepared for independence by constitutional liberty. Internal feuds are inevitable in regions where civilization has not taken root and where, thanks to the climate, forests soon cover all cleared land if agriculture is abandoned.
<Emotion type="fear" modify="of warfare" comment="in South America" />
I fear that for many years no foreign traveler will be able to cross those countries I visited. This circumstance may increase the interest of a work that portrays the state of the greater part of the Spanish colonies at the turn of the nineteenth century. I also venture to hope, once peace has been established, that this work may contribute to a new social order.
<Emotion type="hope" modify="of peace" comment="and prosperity and growth on the New Continent" />
If some of these pages are rescued from oblivion, those who live on the banks of the
<Position value="-67.28/+06.13" description="river, Puerto Paez, Venezuela"/>
Orinoco or Atabapomay see cities enriched by commerce and fertile fields cultivated by free men on the very spot where during my travels I saw impenetrable jungle and flooded lands.
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<Position value="+02.29/+48.49" description="city, France"/>
Paris, February 1812.
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</chapter>

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