"The center of the world"

"Far from being only a quaint tourist destination Ecuador has a history of scientific expeditions and cultural missions.While California and your local toystore may be the place to look to identify trends like outsourcing or robotics, Ecuador has always been a place to find things that are far more important, permanent and sometimes very fragile or fleeting."-Terry

1930's Pan Am Poster

Humboldt and the Origins of Romantic Biology

Darwin is destined for life as a country parson. But before settling into such a quiet life, he yearns to have an adventure in the tropics. He reads and rereads Alexander von Humboldt's inspiring account of his expeditions through the rain forest.

"All the while I am writing now my head is running about the Tropics: in the morning I go and gaze at Palm trees in the hot-house and come home and read Humboldt: my enthusiasm is so great that I cannot hardly sit still on my chair ... I never will be easy till I see the peak of Teneriffe and the great Dragon tree; sandy, dazzling plains, and gloomy silent forest are alternately uppermost in my mind ... I have written myself into a Tropical glow."

Humboldt's Personal Narrative is more than just an exciting travelogue. It touches on some of the most important scientific questions of the time, and hints that the answers can be found through an exploration of nature.

COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe
Volume One of Kosmos at the Gutenberg Project

The first two volumes of the Kosmos were published, and in the main composed, between the years 1845 and 1847. The idea of a work which should convey not only a graphic description, but an imaginative conception of the physical world which should support generalization by details, and dignify details by generalization, had floated before his mind for upwards of half a century. It first took definite shape in a set of lectures delivered by him before the university of Berlin in the winter of 1827-1828.

These lectures formed, as his latest biographer expresses it, "the cartoon for the great fresco of the Kosmos." The scope of this remarkable work may be briefly described as the representation of the unity amid the complexity of nature. In it the large and vague ideals of the 18th are sought to be combined with the exact scientific requirements of the 19th century. And, in spite of inevitable shortcomings, the attempt was in an eminent degree successful.

A certain heaviness of style, too, and laborious picturesqueness of treatment make it more imposing than attractive to the general reader. But its supreme and abiding value consists in its faithful reflection of the mind of a great man. No higher eulogium can be passed on Alexander von Humboldt than that, in attempting, and not unworthily attempting, to portray the universe,

Frank Edwin Church-Cotopaxi

Cotopaxi soars almost 20,000 feet above sea level. Through the teachings of the great German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, whose extensive South American explorations and publications awakened the outside world to the wonders of the American tropics, its status as the highest active volcano on earth was well known to the audience gathered at Goupil's Gallery.

"The form of Cotopaxi is the most beautiful and regular of the colossal summits of the high Andes," Humboldt had written, but it "is also the most dreadful volcano of the kingdom of Quito and it's explosions the most frequent and disastrous"

Humboldt's description of its exotic beauty and latent powers of destruction proved fascinating to Church, who drew and painted it frequently. Church's interest in the subject was so closely linked with the great explorer's name that upon the exhibition of Cotopaxi in 1863, it was announced that he had vindicated "his claim to be considered as the artistic Humboldt of the new world."

Chimborazo: Ecuadors highest peak

Read more about Frank Edwin Church here.

Joseph Conrad

Nostromo Online

Conrad's foresight and his ability to pluck the human adventure from complex historical circumstances were such that his greatest novel, Nostromo -- though nearly one hundred years old -- says as much about today's Latin America as any of the finest recent accounts of that region's turbulent political life. Insistently dramatic in its storytelling, spectacular in its recreation of the subtropical landscape, this picture of an insurrectionary society and the opportunities it provides for moral corruption gleams on every page with its author's dry, undeceived, impeccable intelligence.

Charles Marie de la Condamine:
Explorer, Mathematician, and Scientist

Charles Marie de la Condamine and the French Geodesic Mission to Measure the Equator(Jan. 28, 1701-Feb. 4, 1774),

Condamine was a French mathematician, physicist, explorer, and geographer. La Condamine was sent to Ecuador in 1735 to measure the Earth at the equator. He also scientifically explored and mapped the Amazon region as he rafted to the mouth of the Amazon. Earlier in his life, La Condamine took exploratory trips to Algiers, Alexandria, Palestine, Cyprus, and Constantinople. At the time, there was a debate as to whether the Earth was wider around the equator or around the poles. The King of France and the French Royal Academy of Sciences sent two expeditions to determine the answer; one was sent to Lapland (this expedition included the Swedish physicist Anders Celsius) and another to Ecuador.

La Condamine was in the Ecuadorian group, which included Louis Godin and the mathematician Pierre Bouguer. The Ecuadorian expedition left France in May 1735. They landed in Colombia and traveled overland to Panama, then sailed to Ecuador. La Condamine traveled through rainforests with Pedro Vincente Maldonado, a local governor and scientist-mathematician. They sailed up the Esmeraldas River and then climbed up the Andes Mountains. They arrived in Quito, Ecuador, on June 4, 1736.

They finished their measurements by 1739, measuring the length of an arc of one degree at the equator, but they got word that the Lapland expedition had already finished their work and had proven that the Earth is flattened at the poles. La Condamine remained in South America for four more years, doing scientific work and mapping some of the Andes and much of the Amazon River. He returned to France by climbing the Andes Mountains and rafting down the Amazon River. He arrived in Paris in 1745, 10 years after he left France.

"Some people think Darwin discovered the theory of evolution. The Frenchman Lamarque did. What Darwin discovered was the mechanism of evolution-Natural selection. Of equal importance was the effect of this discovery or series of discoveries on civilization. It placed all scientific inquiry on an equal footing with nature more or less permanently. The rest of the world is still catching up.

During my own visit to the Galapagos Islands I noticed the same thing as Darwin. the tameness of the animals. Below is an excerpt from Darwin's diaries that discussed the significance of this discovery. Animals learn fear of man. Instinctually. In the world that Darwin came from, religion with it's unique worldview described fear as the opposite of faith itself. Faith and light oppose fear and leads to informed action. Religion then is a kind of sense instead of a force like nature. This is what Darwin and his colleagues missed or set into opposite motion that our senses and instincts are formed in opposition to one another." TM

The Voyage of the Beagle journal(click on image)

"I will conclude my description of the natural history of these islands, by giving an account of the extreme tameness of the birds. This disposition is common to all the terrestrial species; namely, to the mocking-thrushes, the finches, wrens, tyrant- flycatchers, the dove, and carrion-buzzard. All of them are often approached sufficiently near to be killed with a switch, and sometimes, as I myself tried, with a cap or hat.

"A gun is here almost superfluous;"

for with the muzzle I pushed a hawk off the branch of a tree. One day, whilst lying down, a mocking-thrush alighted on the edge of a pitcher, made of the shell of a tortoise, which I held in my hand, and began very quietly to sip the water; it allowed me to lift it from the ground whilst seated on the vessel: I often tried, and very nearly succeeded, in catching these birds by their legs.

Formerly the birds appear to have been even tamer than at present. Cowley (in the year 1684) says that the "Turtledoves were so tame, that they would often alight on our hats and arms, so as that we could take them alive, they not fearing man, until such time as some of our company did fire at them, whereby they were rendered more shy." Charles darwin-Voyage of the Beagle

Francisco Orellana and the Search for El Dorado

The legend of El Dorado, The Golden King or The Gilded Man, was born in Quito at the very beginning of 1541. Spaniards were returning from Venezuela and Colombia with wild tales of a land richer than either Mexico or Peru. This, they said, was a land of gold that was ruled by a Golden King. The historian Gonzalo Fern·ndez de Oviedo traveled to Quito and he questioned those who been on these expeditions:

"I made an inquiry of those Spaniards who had been there, why this prince, chief or king, was called Dorado. They tell me that what they have learned from the Indians is that the great lord or prince goes about continually covered in gold dust as fine as ground salt. He feels that it would be less beautiful to wear any other ornament.

It would be crude and common to put on armour plates or hammered or stamped gold, for other rich lords wear these when they wish. But to powder oneself with gold is something exotic and unusually novel, and more costly, for he washes away at night what he puts on each morning, so that it is discarded and lost, and he does this every day of the year."The prince, the men told Oviedo, was very great and fabulously rich:"

Every morning he anoints himself with a kind of resin or gum to which the gold dust easily adheres, until his entire body is covered, from the soles of his feet to his head.

So his looks are as resplendent as a gold object worked by the hands of a great artist." In fact, the tale appeared to be based on an actual ceremony of the Chibcha people of Colombia. Each year the Chibcha would anoint a new king, covering him with gold dust and then cleansing him in the waters of a sacred lake, Guatavita, (Gwa-ta-vee-ta). Though the ritual was no longer practiced by the time of the Spaniards' arrival, the story had been passed on by the Indians and had blossomed into the myth of El Dorado which would captivate men for several centuries to come.

Blowing Gold Dust on an Indian Chieftain After His Body Had Been Anointed With Balsam
Credit: Theodor de Bry, British Library

The legend of El Dorado continued to inspire artists, poets and authors for centuries after the initial expeditions to the golden kingdom. British poet George Chapman wrote his epic poem "De Guiana" in 1596, glorifying Sir Walter Raleigh's journey. Over 150 years later, Voltaire sends his protagonist to a utopian El Dorado, the best of all possible worlds, in his satirical work "Candide." And, following centuries of European obsession with the fabulous land of gold, Edgar Allen Poe darkly portrayed the futility of such mania in his poem, "Eldorado." "De Guiana" Guiana, whose rich feet are mines of gold,

Whose forehead knocks against the roof of stars, Stands on her tiptoes at fair England looking, Kissing her hand, bowing her mighty breast, And every sign of submission making,To be her sister and the daughter, both,Of our most sacred maid, whose barrenessIs the true fruit of virtue, that may get,Bear and bring forth anew in all perfection,What heretofore savage corruption heldIn barbarous chaos.

Poem excerpt: George Chapman, "De Guiana," 1596 "Eldorado"

Gaily bedight, A gallant knight,In sunshine and in shadow,Had journeyed long, Singing a song,In search of Eldorado. But he grew old - This knight so bold - And o'er his heart a shadow Fell, as he found No spot of groundThat looked like Eldorado. And, as his strengthFailed him at length,He met a pilgrim shadow - "Shadow," said he, "Where can it be - This land of Eldorado?" "Over the Mountains Of the Moon Down the Valley of the Shadow,Ride, boldly ride," The shade replied, - "If you seek for Eldorado!"

Poem: Edgar Allan Poe, "Eldorado," Flag of Our Union (Boston), April 21, 1849 "Candide" Chapter 18 - What They Saw in the Country of El Dorado .

While supper was preparing, orders were given to show them the city, where they saw public structures that reared their lofty heads to the clouds; the marketplaces decorated with a thousand columns; fountains of spring water, besides others of rose water, and of liquors drawn from the sugarcane, incessantly flowing in the great squares, which were paved with a kind of precious stones that emitted an odor like that of cloves and cinnamon. Candide asked to see the High Court of justice, the Parliament; but was answered that they had none in that country, being utter strangers to lawsuits. He then inquired if they had any prisons; they replied none.

But what gave him at once the greatest surprise and pleasure was the Palace of Sciences, where he saw a gallery two thousand feet long, filled with the various apparatus in mathematics and natural philosophy. After having spent the whole afternoon in seeing only about the thousandth part of the city, they were brought back to the King's palace. Candide sat down at the table with His Majesty, his valet Cacambo, and several ladies of the court. Never was entertainment more elegant, nor could any one possibly show more wit than His Majesty displayed while they were at supper. Cacambo explained all the King's bons mots to Candide, and, although they were translated, they still appeared to be bons mots.

Of all the things that surprised Candide, this was not the least."All we shall ask of Your Majesty," said Cacambo, "is only a few sheep laden with provisions, pebbles, and the clay of your country." The King smiled at the request and said, "I cannot imagine what pleasure you Europeans find in our yellow clay; but take away as much of it as you will, and much good may it do you." He immediately gave orders to his engineers to make a machine to hoist these two extraordinary men out of the kingdom. Three thousand good machinists went to work and finished it in about fifteen days, and it did not cost more than twenty millions sterling of that country's money.

Candide and Cacambo were placed on this machine, and they took with them two large red sheep, bridled and saddled, to ride upon, when they got on the other side of the mountains; twenty others to serve as sumpters for carrying provisions; thirty laden with presents of whatever was most curious in the country, and fifty with gold, diamonds, and other precious stones. The King, at parting with our two adventurers, embraced them with the greatest cordiality. Text excerpt: "Candide," Voltaire, 1752

Natives mining gold inside a mountain. Credit: Theodor de Bry, British Library