To John Washington [14 October 1839]
12 Upper Gower St
Monday Evening
Dear Washington
I return you the proof sheets with a very few & unimportant remarks on the margin.— Mr French, shows, evidently, I think, that he has full knowledge to describe all the rocks he saw correctly.— It strikes me as a very interesting & good paper.—1
I am delighted to hear you have sent for the Annales Maritim.—
I have not any volume of D’Urville,2 nor indeed any property of the Geograph. (excepting Horsburgh)3 as I returned everything before I went into the country.
If I had any modesty I should be ashamed to notice the extract you sent me from Humboldt,4 but my admiration for Humboldt has been of so long standing, that I confess few things in my life have gratified me more, than hearing of his approbation, although I should have swallowed the dose quite as readily if it had been a little less strong: even a young author cannot gorge such a mouthful of flattery—
Believe me | Ever Yours | Chas. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Dumont d’Urville, Jules Sébastien César, ed. 1830–5. Voyage de la corvette l’Astrolabe. Histoire 5 vols. 1830-5; Zoologie 4 vols. 1830–4; Botanique 1 vol. 1832; Entomologie 2 pts in 1 vol. 1832–5; Philologie 1 vol. 1833. Paris: J. Tastu, éditeur-imprimeur.
French, John Oliver. 1839. On the province of La Rioja in South America to accompany a map. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 9: 381–406.
Horsburgh, James. 1809–11. Directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent ports; compiled chiefly from original journals at the East India House, and from journals and observations, made during twenty-one years experience navigating in those seas. 2 pts. London: printed for the author by Black, Parry, and Kingsbury.
Humboldt, Alexander von. 1839. On the longitude of Valparaiso and Callao, in a letter from Baron Alexander von Humboldt. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 9: 502–6.
Summary
Returns proofs of J. O. French’s article ["Account of the province of La Rioja: S. America", J. R. Geogr. Soc. 9 (1839): 381–406].
Gratified by Humboldt’s praise of Journal of researches [J. R. Geogr. Soc. 9 (1839): 502].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-537
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Washington; Royal Geographical Society
- Sent from
- London, Upper Gower St, 12
- Source of text
- Royal Geographical Society
- Physical description
- 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 537,” accessed on 11 April 2021, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-537.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 2