" bound for
the Spanish possessions in the New World. Spain had discovered America
in the gross two hundred years before, but what this country really
contained in way of possibilities, Spain had most certainly never
discovered.

Humboldt's mind had conceived the idea of a Scientific Survey, and in
this he was the maker of an epoch. In this undertaking he secured the
assistance of the Prime Minister, who secretly issued passports and
letters of recommendation to Humboldt, first cautioning him that if the
Court of Madrid should know anything about this proposed voyage of
discovery it could never be made, so jealous and ignorant were the
officials.

Only one thing did Spain have in abundance, and that was religion.

At that time the Spanish Colonies included Louisiana, Florida, Texas,
California, Mexico, Cuba, Central America, most of the West Indies, and
most of South America, not to mention the Philippines. These colonies
covered a territory stretching over five thousand miles from North to
South. Twice a year Spain sent out her trading-ships, convoyed by armed
cruisers. Trade then was monopoly and extortion. The goods sent out were
as cheap and tawdry as could be palmed off; all that were brought back
were bartered for at the lowest possible prices.

Cheating in count, weight and quality was then considered perfectly
proper, and as the Government officials at home got a goodly grab into
all transactions in way of perquisites, all went swimmingly--or fairly
so.

For a Spaniard to trade with any other nation was treason, and if
caught, his property was confiscated and probably his head forfeited.

No foreigners were allowed in the colonies, and exclusion was the rule.
To hold her dependencies Spain thought she must keep them under close
subjection; and she seemed beautifully innocent of the fact that she was
the dependent, not they. She did not believe in Free Trade.

The Government was absolutely under military rule. Of the botany,
zoology, geology, not to mention the topography, of her American
possessions, the officials of Spain knew nothing save from the tales of
sailors.

Such were the Spanish conditions when Humboldt got himself smuggled on
board the "Pizarro," and sailed away, June Fourth, Seventeen Hundred
Ninety-nine. With Humboldt was one companion, Bonpland, a Swiss by
birth, and a rare soul.

Humboldt was a naturalist and a philosopher; by nature he was a
traveler. But he lacked that intrepid qual