The Invention of Nature

Chapter 6: Across the Andes

1

AH and Baudin: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.7, p.285; AH to Nicolas Baudin, 12 April 1801, Bruhns 1873, vol.1, p.292; AH to Carl Ludwig Willdenow, 21 February 1801, Biermann 1987, p.173; AH, Recollections during voyage from Lima to Guayaquil, 24 December 1802–4 January 1803, AH Diary 2003, vol.2, p.178;

National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser

, 12 November 1800.

2

‘the more I hastened’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.7, p.288.

3

‘It was very uncertain’: AH to Carl Ludwig Willdenow, 21 February 1801, Biermann 1987, p.171.

4

divided collections: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.7, p.286.

5

‘The science of two’: Joseph Banks to Jacques Julien Houttou de La Billardière, 9 June 1796, Banks 2000, p.171; see also Wulf 2008, pp.203–4.

6

seeds to Banks from Cumaná (footnote): AH to Banks, 15 November 1800, Banks to Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, 4 January 1805, Banks 2007, vol.5, pp.63–4, 406.

7

happier and healthier: AH to Carl Ludwig Willdenow, 21 February 1801, Biermann 1987, p.175.

8

‘and you, dearest’: AH to Christiane Haeften, 18 October 1800, AH Letters America 1993, p.109.

9

‘When one is young’: AH, 24 December 1802–4 January 1803, AH Diary 2003, vol.2, p.178.

10

but ‘all difficulties’: AH, Recollections during voyage from Lima to Guayaquil, 24 December 1802–4 January 1803, AH Diary 2003, vol.2, p.178.

11

AH wanted to meet Mutis: Ibid.; AH, 23 June–8 July 1801, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, p.89ff.; AH to WH, 21 September 1801, AH WH Letters 1880, p.32.

12

‘Mutis, so close!’: AH, 23 June–8 July 1801, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, pp.89–90.

13

‘signposts’: AH, 19 April–15 June 1801, ibid., pp.65–6. ’

14

journey on Río Magdalena: Ibid., pp.67–78.

15

Honda: AH, 18–22 June 1801, ibid., p.78.

16

journey to Bogotá: AH, 23 June–8 July 1801, ibid., pp.85–9.

17

arrival Bogotá: AH to WH, 21 September 1801, AH WH Letters 1880, p.35; AH, November–December 1801, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, p.90ff (AH wrote this diary entry after they had left Bogotá).

18

Mutis’s drawing school: Holl 2009, p.161.

19

Mutis’s botanical library: AH to WH, 21 September 1801, AH WH Letters 1880, p.35.

20

Bonpland fever: AH, November–December 1801, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, p.91.

21

mules from Bogotá: AH, 8 September 1801, ibid., p.119.

22

porters carrying luggage: AH, 5 October 1801, ibid., p.135.

23

servant José: AH, 23 June–8 July 1801, ibid., p.85.

24

crossing Quindío Pass: AH Cordilleras 1814, vol.1, p.63ff.; AH Cordilleren 1810, vol.1, p.17ff.; Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.170.

25

‘These are the paths’: AH, 27 November 1801, see also AH, 5 October 1801, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, pp.131, 155.

26

‘patch-worked falling’: AH, 27 November 1801, ibid., p.151.

27

progress through Andes: AH, 14 September 1801, ibid., p.124; AH Cordilleras 1814, vol.1, p.64; AH Cordilleren 1810, vol.1, p.19.

28

condor ‘mirror-like’: AH, 22 December 1801, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, p.163.

29

flames from Pasto: AH, 19 December 1801, ibid., vol.2, p.45.

30

‘I don’t get tired’: AH to WH, 21 September 1801, AH WH Letters 1880, p.27.

31

instruments over abyss: AH, 27 November 1801, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, p.155.

32

carrying and cost of barometer: Ibid., p.152; for José and barometer, see AH, 28 April 1802, AH Diary 2003, vol.2, p.83; for AH’s travel barometer, see Friedrich Georg Weitsch’s portrait of AH from 1806 (today in the Alte National Galerie in Berlin); Seeberger 1999, pp.57–61.

33

‘Lucky are those’: Wilson 1995, p.296; AH, 19 April–15 June 1801, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, p.66.

34

arrival Quito: AH, Aus Meinem Leben (1769–1850), in Biermann 1987, p.101.

35

‘since you belong to’: Goethe to AH, 1824, Goethe Encounters 1965–2000, vol.14, p.322.

36

‘he never remained’: Rosa Montúfar, Beck 1959, p.24.

37

‘a lost man’: AH to Carl Freiesleben, 21 October 1793, AH Letters 1973, p.280.

38

‘undying’ and ’fervent: AH to Wilhelm Gabriel Wegener, 27 March 1789 and AH to Carl Freiesleben, 10 April 1792, ibid., pp.46, 180.

39

‘I was tied to you’: AH to Reinhard von Haeften, 1 January 1796, ibid., p.477.

40

cried for hours: AH to Carl Freiesleben, 10 April 1792, ibid., p.180.

41

‘My plans are subordinated’: AH to Reinhard von Haeften, 1 January 1796, ibid., pp.478–9.

42

a ‘good person’: AH to Carl Freiesleben, 4 June 1799, ibid., p.680.

43

‘lack of true’: Adolph Kohut in 1871 about AH’s time in Berlin in 1805, Beck 1959, p.31.

44

‘sleeping partner’:

Quarterly Review

, vol.14, January 1816, p.369.

45

‘nothing will ever have’: CH to WH, 22 January 1791, WH CH Letters 1910–16, vol.1, p.372.

46

‘sexual irregularities’: Theodor Fontane to Georg Friedländer, 5 December 1884, Fontane 1980, vol.3, p.365.

47

Humboldt’s ‘Adonis’: José de Caldas to José Celestino Mutis, 21 June 1802, Andress 2011, p.11; Caldas asked if he could join AH, Holl 2009, p.166.

48

‘I don’t know sensual’: AH to Archibald Maclean, 6 November 1791; see also AH to Wilhelm Gabriel Wegener, 27 March 1789, AH Letters 1973, pp.47, 157.

49

‘wild urges of’: AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.6: ‘vom wilden Drange der Leidenschaften bewegt ist’. The English translation was toned down to ‘passions of men’; see also AH to Archibald Maclean, 6 November 1791, AH Letters 1973, p.157.

50

José carried barometer: AH, 28 April 1802, AH Diary 2003, vol.2, p.83.

51

climbed Pichincha: AH climbed Pichincha three times; AH, 14 April, 26 and 28 May 1802, AH Diary 2003, vol.2, pp.72ff.; 85ff.; 90ff.; AH to WH, 25 November 1802, AH WH Letters 1880, p.45ff.

52

‘No imagination would’: AH to WH, 25 November 1802, AH WH Letters 1880, p.46.

53

climbed Cotopaxi: AH, 28 April 1802, AH Diary 2003, vol.2, p.83ff.

54

‘vault of Heaven’: AH Cordilleras 1814, vol.1, pp.121, 125; AH Cordilleren 1810, vol.1, pp.59, 62.

55

shape as created by wood turner: AH, 28 April 1802, AH Diary 2003, vol.2, p.81.

56

climbed Antisana: AH, 14–18 March 1802, ibid., p.57ff.

57

‘ice needles’: Ibid., pp.57, 62.

58

‘highest dwelling place’: Ibid., p.61.

59

AH sharing bed with Montúfar: Ibid., p.62.

60

almost 18,000 feet and Condamine: Ibid., p.65.

61

‘deep wounds’ and ‘reason’: AH, 22 November 1799–7 February 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.179.