The Invention of Nature (55 page)

36 ‘have had greater difficulties’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.1, p.2.

37 AH contacted Swedish consul: Ibid., p.8; AH to Carl Ludwig Willdenow, 20 April 1799, AH Letters 1973, p.662.

38 passport from Banks: AH to Banks, 15 August 1798, BL Add 8099, ff.71–2.

39 AH’s passport: Bruhns 1873, vol.1, p.394.

40 AH in Marseille: Ibid., p.239; AH to Carl Ludwig Willdenow, 20 April 1799, AH Letters 1973, p.662.

41 ‘hopes were shattered’: AH to Carl Ludwig Willdenow, 20 April 1799, AH Letters 1973, p.661.

42 ‘the world is closed’: AH to Joseph Franz Elder von Jacquin, 22 April 1798, ibid., p.631.

43 Spanish granted permission: AH to David Friedländer, 11 April 1799; AH to Carl Ludwig Willdenow, 20 April 1799; AH to Carl Freiesleben, 4 June 1799, ibid., pp.657, 663, 680; see also AH’s passport, 7 May 1799, Ministerio de Cultura del Ecuador, Quito; Holl 2009, pp.59–60.

44 ‘My head is dizzy’: AH to Carl Freiesleben, 4 June 1799, AH Letters 1973, p.680.

45 AH’s instruments: AH Personal Narrative 1814–1829, vol.1, pp.33–9; Seeberger 1999, pp.57–61.

46 ‘My mood was’: AH, 5 June 1799, AH Diary 2000, p.58.

47 ‘all forces of nature’: AH to David Friedländer, 11 April 1799, AH Letters 1973, p.657; in another letter AH wrote about the ‘interaction of the forces’, AH to Karl Maria Erenbert von Moll, 5 June 1799, ibid., p.682.

48 ‘the good and the great’: AH to Carl Freiesleben, 4 June 1799, ibid., p.680.

49 ‘edible liquid full’: AH, 6 June 1799, AH Diary 2000, p.424.

50 arrival Tenerife: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.1, p.110ff.

51 ‘fir torches’ and no tents: Ibid., pp.153–4.

52 face frozen, feet hot: Ibid., pp.168, 189–90.

53 ‘magical’ transparency: Ibid., pp.182, 188; see also AH to WH, 20–25 June 1799, AH WH Letters 1880, p.10.

54 no lights on board: AH, Mein Aufbruch nach America, in Biermann 1987, p.82.

55 his ‘earliest youth’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.2, p.20.

56 arrival at Cumaná: Ibid., p.183ff.

57 thermometer into sand: Ibid., p.184.

58 Spanish control of colonies: Arana 2013, p.26ff.

59 ‘inspiring some personal’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.2, pp.188–9.

60 ‘announced the grand’: Ibid., p.184.

1 landscape held spell: AH to WH, 16 July 1799, AH WH Letters 1880, p.11.

2 fauna and flora Cumaná: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.2, pp.183–4; AH to WH, 16 July 1799, AH WH Letters 1880, p.13.

3 ‘we run around like’: AH to WH, 16 July 1799, ibid., p.13.

4 ‘mad if the wonders’: Ibid.

5 difficult to find rational method: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.2, p.239.

6 carrying plants: Ibid., vol.3, p.72.

7 ‘impression of the whole’: AH to WH, 16 July 1799, AH WH Letters 1880, p.13.

8 trees Cumaná like Italian pines: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.2, p.183.

9 cacti and grasses: Ibid., p.194.

10 valley like Derbyshire: Ibid., vol.3, pp.111, 122.

11 caverns like Carpathian Mountains: Ibid., p.122.

12 AH happy and healthy: AH to Reinhard and Christiane von Haeften, 18 November 1799, AH Letters America 1993, p.66; AH to WH, 16 July 1799, AH WH Letters 1880, p.13.

13 meteor shower: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, p.332ff.

14 huge spiders: AH to Reinhard and Christiane von Haeften, 18 November 1799, AH Letters America 1993, p.66.

15 instruments in Cumaná: Ibid., p.65.

16 ‘horses in a market’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.2, p.246.

17 earthquake in in Cumaná: Ibid., vol.3, pp.316–17; AH, 4 November 1799, AH Diary 2000, p.119.

18 ‘we mistrust for the’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3., p.321.

19 money problems: AH, November 1799, AH Diary 2000, p.166.

20 José de la Cruz: AH wrote in his diary in June 1801 that José had accompanied them since August 1799; AH, 23 June–8 July 1801, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, p.85.

21 chartered boat: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, pp.347, 351–2.

22 packed up in Cumaná: AH, 18 November 1799, AH Diary 2000, p.165.

23 ‘Hispano–Americans’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, p.435.

24 ‘were vile slaves’: Juan Vicente de Bolívar, Martín de Tobar and Marqués de Mixares to Francisco de Miranda, 24 February 1782, Arana 2013, p.21.

25 double-domed Silla: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, p.379.

26 ‘Memories of Werther’: AH, 8 February 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.188.

27 tinkle of a cow bell: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, p.90.

28 ‘Nature every where’: Ibid., p.160.

29 ‘a balm of miraculous’: AH, 22 November 1799–7 February 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.179.

30 mountain range instead Casiquiare: Holl 2009, p.131.

31 AH and money: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, p.307; the English edition doesn’t mention the money but the French edition does: AH, Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, vol.4, p.5.

32 letters to be published in newspapers: AH to Ludwig Bolmann, 15 October 1799, Biermann 1987, p.169.

33 43 letters from La Coruña: AH Letters America 1993, p.9.

34 mules and equipment: AH, 7 February 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.185.

35 ‘smiling valleys’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.107.

36 description Aragua: Ibid., p.132.

37 falling water levels: Ibid., p.131ff.; AH, 4 March 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.215ff.

38 outlet lake: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.141.

39 sand on islands: Ibid., p.140.

40 average evaporation: Ibid., p.145ff.

41 destruction of forests: Ibid., p.142.

42 water for irrigation: Ibid., pp.148–9.

43 consequences of deforestation: AH, 4 March 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.215.

44 deforestation outside Cumaná: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, pp.24–5.

45 ‘imprudently destroyed’: Ibid., vol.4, p.63.

46 ‘Forest very decimated’: AH, 7 February 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.186.

47 ‘closely connected’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.144.

48 diminished the evaporation: Ibid., p.143.

49 AH and climate change: See AH’s writings but also Holl 2007–8, pp.20–25; Osten 2012, p.61ff.

50 ‘When forests are destroyed’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, pp.143–4.

51 AH and timber for mines: Weigel 2004, p.85.

52 ‘We had better be’: Evelyn 1670, p.178.

53 ‘France will perish’: Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Schama 1996, p.175.

54 ‘timber will soon’: Bartram, John, ‘An Essay for the Improvements of Estates, by Raising a Durable Timber for Fencing, and Other Uses’, Bartram 1992, p.294.

55 ‘loss for wood’: Benjamin Franklin to Jared Eliot, 25 October 1750; Benjamin Franklin, ‘An Account of the New Invented Pennsylvanian FirePlaces’, 1744, Franklin 1956–2008, vol.2, p.422 and vol.4, p.70.

56 effect on future generations: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.143.

57 Lombardy and Peru: Ibid., p.144.

58 forest and ecosystem: AH, September 1799, AH Diary 2000, p.140; AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.477.

59 ‘The wooded region acts’ (footnote): AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, pp.126–7; AH Views 2014, p.82; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.158. [

60 tree and oxygen: AH, September 1799, AH Diary 2000, p.140.

61 ‘incalculable’ and ‘brutally’: AH, 4 March 1800, ibid., p.216.

62 shrinking turtle population: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4. p.486; AH, 6 April 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.257.

63 depleted pearl oyster: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.2, p.147.

64 ‘Everything … is interaction’: AH, 2–5 August 1803, AH Diary 2003, vol.2, p.258.

65 ‘nature has made’: Aristotle, Politics, Bk.1, Ch.8.

66 ‘all things are made’: Carl Linnaeus, Worster 1977, p.37.

67 ‘replenish the earth’: Genesis 1:27–8.

68 ‘the world is made’: Francis Bacon, Worster 1977, p.30.

69 ‘the lords and’: René Descartes, Thomas 1984, p.33.

70 ‘howling wilderness’: Rev. Johannes Megapolensis, Myers 1912, p.303.

71 ‘rendered the earth’: Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, London, 1750, p.391.

72 ideal of nature: Chinard 1945, p.464.

73 ‘the idea of destruction’: de Tocqueville, 26 July 1833, ‘A Fortnight in the Wilderness’, Tocqueville 1861, vol. 1, p.202.

74 Williamson and deforestation: Hugh Williamson, 17 August 1770, Chinard 1945, p.452.

75 ‘drying up the marshes’: Thomas Wright in 1794, Thomson 2012, p.189

76 ‘subduing of the’: Jeremy Belknap, Chinard 1945, p.464.

77 Buffon and wilderness: Judd 2006, p.4; Bewell 1989, p.242.

78 ‘cultivated nature … beautiful’: Buffon, Bewell 1989, p.243; see also Adam Hodgson, Chinard 1945, p.483.

79 ‘Man can only act’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.37; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.36.

80 humankind could destroy environment: AH, 4 March 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.216.

Chapter 5: The Llanos and the Orinoco

1 AH in Llanos: Unless otherwise referenced AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.273ff.; AH, 6 March–27 March 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.222ff.

2 ‘plunged into a vast’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.263.

3 ‘everything seems motionless’: Ibid., p.293.

4 AH clothes: Painting of AH by Friedrich Georg Weitsch from 1806, today at the Alte National Galerie in Berlin.

5 small farm in Llanos: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.319ff.; AH, 6–27 March 1800, AH Diary 2000, pp.223–34.

6 ‘fills the mind’: AH Views 2014, p.29; AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, p.2; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.4; AH Ansichten 1808, p.3.

7 electric eels and following description: AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, pp.22–3; AH Views 2014, pp.39–40; AH Ansichten 1849, pp.32–4; Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.347ff.

8 ‘flow forth from’: AH Views 2014, p.40; AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, p.23; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.34.

9 description journey to Orinoco: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.390ff. and vol.5.

10 provisions and food: AH, 30 March 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.239.

11 brother-in-law of governor: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.419.

12 no distraction from studies: AH to WH, 17 October 1800, AH WH Letters 1880, p.15.

13 Bonpland always cheerful: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, p.310.

14 crocodiles: AH, 30 March–23 May 1800, AH Diary 2000, pp.241–2.

15 bathing in Orinoco: Ibid., p.255.

16 nightly camps: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, pp.433, 436, 535, vol.5, p.442.

17 snake under animal skin: Ibid., vol.5, p.287.

18 Bonpland and cat: AH, 30 March–23 May 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.244.

19 AH and jaguar: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.446; AH, 2 April 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.249.

20 curare poison: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, p.528.

21 ‘flute-like tones’: AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, p.270; AH Views 2014, p.146; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.333.

22 ‘many voices proclaiming’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.505.

23 ‘man did not disturb’: AH, 31 March 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.240.

24 study animals in their environment: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, pp.523–4.

25 titi monkey: Ibid., p.527.

26 catching titi: AH, 30 March–23 May 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.266.

27 ‘active, organic powers’: AH Views 2014, p.147; AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, p.272; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.337.

28 ‘swallow a horse’: AH to Baron von Forell, 3 February 1800, Bruhns 1873, vol.1, p.274.

29 ‘man is nothing’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, p.290.

30 animals at night: AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, p.270ff.; AH Views 2014, pp.146–7; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, pp.333–5; AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.436ff.

31 ‘a long-extended’: AH Views 2014, p.146; AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, p.270; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.334.

32 ‘some contest’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.437.

33 capybaras, jaguars, flying fish: Ibid., vol.2, p.15.

34 ‘limited only by’: AH Views 2014, p.36; AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, p.15; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.23.

35 Linnaeus and harmonious balance: Worster 1977, p.35.

36 ‘golden age has’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.421.

37 ‘destructive hand of man’: AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, p.15; AH Views 2014, p.37; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.23.

38 AH measured width of Orinoco: AH, 30 March–23 May 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.262.

39 Atures and Maipures rapids: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, p.1ff.; AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, p.219ff.; AH Views 2014, p.123ff.; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.268ff.

40 ‘majestic scenes of’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, p.139.

41 almost capsized boat: Ibid., vol.4, p.496; AH, 6 April 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.258.

42 ‘Do not worry’: Bonpland to AH, 6 April 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.258.

43 displayed ‘that coolness’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.496.

44 AH and mosquitos: Ibid., vol.5, pp.87, 112; AH, 15 April 1800, AH Diary 2000, pp.260–61.

45 a ‘third hand’: AH, 15 April 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.261.

46 hornitos: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, pp.103–4.

47 ‘pleasure cruise’: AH, 15 April 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.262.

48 Father Bernardo Zea: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.510.

49 ‘travelling menagerie’: Ibid., vol.4, pp.534–6 and vol.5, p.406; AH, 15 April 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.260.

50 difficult to find camps: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, p.441.

51 food provisions and water: Ibid., vol.4, p.320; vol.5, pp.363, 444; AH, 15 April 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.260; AH to WH, 17 October 1800, AH WH Letters 1880, p.17.

52 Brazil nuts: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, pp.365, 541; Humboldt later named it Bertholletia excelsa after the French scientist Claude Louis Berthollet.

53 blossoms in canopy: Ibid., p.256.

54 ‘count their teeth’: AH, April 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.250. ’

55 river water ‘delicious’: AH, April–May 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.285; see also pp.255, 286.

56 ‘excellent geographers’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, p.309; for worship of nature see vol.3, p.213; for best observers of nature, see AH, ‘Indios, Sinneschärfe’, Guayaquil, 4 January–17 February 1803, AH Diary 1982, pp.182–3.