The Invention of Nature

But no matter how successful his books were and how much his work was admired by British poets, thinkers and scientists, Humboldt had still not received permission to travel to India from the colonial administrators. The East India Company remained stubbornly uncooperative. Humboldt, however, continued to make detailed plans. He proposed to stay for four or five years in India, he told Wilhelm, and on his eventual return to Europe he would finally leave Paris. He intended to write his books about his Indian travels in English, and for that he would settle in London.

¹ The first volume of the Personal Narrative was published in 1814, the same year as the English translation of Humboldt’s Vues des Cordillères. In Britain his books were published by a consortium including John Murray, who at that time was the most fashionable publisher in London – with Lord Byron as his most commercially successful author.

² Coleridge might have read some of Humboldt’s books in German before they were translated because he had travelled and studied in Germany. Exactly ten years after Humboldt had studied at the University of Göttingen, Coleridge had enrolled there, in 1799, under the tutelage of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, the same man who had taught Humboldt about vital forces.

14

Going in Circles

Maladie Centrifuge

ON 14 SEPTEMBER 1818, the day of his forty-ninth birthday, Humboldt boarded the stagecoach in Paris to travel once again to London – his third visit in only four years. Five days later, he arrived in the middle of the night at Wilhelm’s house in Portland Place. By now he was so famous that the London papers announced his visit in the column ‘Fashionable Arrivals’. He was still trying to organize his expedition to India, and Wilhelm’s diplomatic status in London helped to open some important doors. Wilhelm, for example, facilitated a private audience with the Prince Regent who assured Alexander of his support for the venture. Humboldt also met the British government official who oversaw the activities of the East India Company – George Canning, the president of the Board of Control, who pledged help. After these meetings Humboldt was certain that any hurdles that the East India Company could ‘place in my way’ would be removed. After more than a decade of cajoling and pleading, India finally seemed to be within his reach. Convinced that the directors would give their permission, Humboldt now turned his attention to King Friedrich Wilhelm III who had mentioned in the past that he might be willing to finance the voyage.

At the time of Humboldt’s London visit, the Prussian king was conveniently at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, today’s Aachen in Germany. On 1 October 1818 the four Allied powers – Prussia, Austria, Britain and Russia – had convened in Aachen to discuss the withdrawal of their troops from France as well as a future European alliance. With Aachen only 200 miles east of Calais, travelling directly there from London would save Humboldt a dreaded visit to Berlin – a city he had not visited for eleven years – and around 1,000 miles of unnecessary travelling.

On 8 October, less than three weeks after his arrival in London, Humboldt was on his way again, but trailed by rumours. There were reports in British newspapers that Humboldt was rushing to the congress in Aachen to ‘be consulted on the affairs of South America’. The French secret police had similar suspicions, believing that Humboldt carried a detailed report about the rebelling colonies. A Spanish minister had also been dispatched to Aachen in the hope of securing European support for Spain in its battle against Simón Bolívar’s army. But by the time Humboldt arrived, it had become clear that the Allies had no interest in meddling with Spanish colonial ambitions – the balance of power in post-Napoleonic Europe was a much more pressing concern. Instead Humboldt could focus on what The Times called his ‘own affair’ – extracting money from the Prussians for his expedition to India.

In Aachen Humboldt informed the Prussian Chancellor, Karl August von Hardenberg, that the difficulties regarding his expedition had been almost entirely removed. The only hindrance for the ‘complete guarantee of my enterprise’, Humboldt claimed, was financial. Within twenty-four hours Friedrich Wilhelm III had granted Humboldt the money. Humboldt was ecstatic. After fourteen years in Europe, he would finally be able to leave. He would be able to climb the mighty Himalaya and extend his Naturgemälde across the globe.