The Invention of Nature

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.

57

AH fascinated by indigenous people: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.532ff.

58

‘barbarism of civilised man’: Ibid., vol.5, p.234.

59

‘indolent indifference’: Ibid., vol.4, p.549, vol.5, p.256.

60

‘chased by demons’: AH, March 1801, AH Diary 1982, p.176.

61

night in jungle: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, p.443.

62

‘illuminated by the rays’: Ibid., pp.2, 218; AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, pp.216, 224, 231; AH Views 2014, pp.121, 126, 129; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, pp. 263, 276, 285.

63

‘What speaks to the’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.134.

64

AH and Casiquiare: Ibid., vol.5, pp.399–400, 437, 442.

65

living ‘palisade’: Ibid., p.441.

66

Casiquiare and Orinoco: Ibid., p.448.

67

‘had been invented’: AH, May 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.297.

68

Angostura: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.5, pp.691–2.

69

AH and Bonpland fever: Ibid., p.694ff.

70

animals in cages: Ibid., vol.6, p.7.

71

slow progress: Ibid., pp.2–3.

72

‘Infinity of space’: Ibid., p.69.

73

rainy season Llanos: AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, p.19ff.; AH Views 2014, p.38ff.; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.29ff.

74

‘air turned into’: AH, March 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.231. Although this is an entry for March, AH was referring here to his later experience in July, an entry that he added later.

75

‘observed with astonishment’: AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.6, p.7.

76

feeling of ‘coolness’: Ibid., vol.4, p.334.

77

‘spreads life around’: Ibid., vol.6, p.8.

78

‘tree of life’: AH Views 2014, p.36; AH Aspects 1849, vol.1, pp.15, 181; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.1, p.23.

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