Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent

The Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was one of the most famous explorers of his generation. Charles Darwin called him 'the greatest scientific traveller who ever lived'. In 1799, Humboldt and the botanist Aimé Bonpland secured permission from the Spanish crown for a voyage to South America. They left from Madrid and spent five years exploring the continent. Humboldt reported his findings in a total of thirty volumes, published in French over a period of more than twenty years beginning in 1805. This English translation by Helen Maria Williams of one important component of Humboldt's account, the Relation historique du voyage (1814-1825), consists of seven volumes and was published in London between 1814 and 1829. Volume 6 (1826) summarises many of Humboldt's findings about the North-East of South America, its topography and geology, and compares the societies of the mainland with those of the West Indies.… (more)

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LibraryThing member ChrisConway

A fascinating journey to the new world, with abundant descriptions and rich anecdotes. For example: "Francisco Lozano, a labourer who lived in this village, presented a curious physiological phenomenon that struck our imagination...This man breast feed a child with his own milk. When the mother

fell ill, the father, to pacify the child, took it to bed and pressed it to his nipples. Lozano, then thirty two years old, had never noticed before that he had milk, but the irritation of the nipple sucked by the child caused liquid to accumulate. The milk was thick and very sweet." And then there's this one..."It was at the cataracts that we first heard talk about the hairy man of the jungle, called salvaje, who rapes women, builds huts, and sometimes eats human flesh. Neither Indians nor missionaries doubt the existence of this man-shaped monkey, which terrifies them. Father Gili seriously related the story of a lady from San Carlos who praised the gentle character of the man of the jungle. She lived several years with him in great domestic harmony..."

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