Page:Charles von Hügel (1903 memoir).djvu/40



renouncing his horticultural proclivities. These pursuits awoke in him the desire to become acquainted with the richest organic life of the earth, and so, little by little, the plan was matured of a great journey through all parts of the old world, with India for its goal. With untiring zeal he elaborated this plan, and, without discontinuing his studies in natural science, he devoted himself also to those branches of psychological science which bear on the language, the history, and the political and moral development of all those ancient civilizations with which he desired to become acquainted by personal observation. For reasons which I will indicate later this scheme was carried out sooner than Hügel contemplated.

In the year 1830 Hügel started on his great journey, which for six years kept him away from home. Preparatory studies led him first to England and France. Taking his departure from Toulon, he went to Greece, Crete, and Cyprus. After an extended sojourn in the Nile country, Syria, and Palestine, he reached India in the year 1832. It would take me too far to give a complete description of his route ; I must be satisfied with mentioning a few of its principal points. He visited the Deccan, Goa, and Mysore, ascended the Blue Mountains, and went by way of Koimbattur to the coast of Malabar, thence by Travancore to Cape Comorin. Next followed a journey through Ceylon, which greatly enriched his collections. This journey occupied four months, and gave Hügel the opportunity of becoming acquainted with all parts of this island, so unusually rich in nature's treasures. Then along the coast of Coromandel he proceeded to Pondicherry and Madras, and thence sailed to the Indian Archipelago, to Australia, New Zealand, and Manilla. A new, great, and as far as