You see, dear friend, that in spite of many little cavils of Mr. d’Avezac, who has learned to quote from Malte-Brun, your cousin does you much honor.
But it is incomprehensible that Mr. d’Avezac knows nothing at all of the map of Juan de la Cose, of 1500, published by me in 1830, six years before the death of Colon, and of a work in large quarto, under the title “Geschichte des Seefahrers Ritter Martin Behaim, von W. Ghillany and Alex. Humboldt, 1853,” where the origin of the name of “America” is discussed.
A. Ht.
The ravages of a single night. The noble, youthful old man, Vecchio della Montagna.
Accompanying the book, “Considerations Géographiques sur l’Histoire du Brézil, Examen critique d’une nouvelle histoire générale du Brézil, par M. Francois Adolphe de Varnhagen. Rapport fait par M. d’Avezac, Paris, 1857–58.”
221.
HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin, March 7th, 1858.
I presume that you, dear friend, have not seen the indiscreet, almost talentless, book of Normanby. I shall not return it to Lady Bloomfield without offering it to you. Skip over it according to the index, and send it kindly back to me in four or five days. It depicts a badly played comedy.
My reverence to your amiable niece. Your most attached
A. v. Humboldt.