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LIFE OF MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY.

and honourable position so kindly offered me near the person of your Majesty in the service of your Empire.

Connected with this subject, I beg leave to report, that of the sum placed in my hands for the purchase of seeds and instruments a balance will remain. H.B.M.'s Government has kindly ordered chinchona seeds from India, because they were required for your Majesty's service. Defraying the cost of their transportation out of this fund, I shall be glad to account for it, and pay over the balance due to any person here that may be designated.

That God may ever have your Majesties in His holy keeping is the constant prayer of your earnest well-wisher and humble friend,

M. F. Maury.

From the Emperor.

Palace of Mexico,
My dear Councillor Maury, Aug. 16th, 1866.

It was with pride that I heard of the scientific triumph just achieved, and due to your illustrious labours. The Transatlantic cable, while uniting both hemispheres, will continually recall to their minds the debt of gratitude they owe to your genius. I congratulate you with all my heart, and I am pleased at announcing to you that I have appointed you Grand Cross of the Order of Guadeloupe.

Receive the assurance of the good wishes of your very affectionate

Maximilian.

Maury succeeded in conferring one permanent blessing on Mexico, by introducing the cultivation of the febrifuge yielding chinchona tree. Before leaving England in 1865, he had conversed with Mr. Clements Markham on the subject, who is the introducer of chinchona cultivation into British India. Maury had compared the forest-covered slopes above the Tierra Caliente, with the eastern slopes of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia, which are the native habitat of the chinchona, expressing his conviction that the trees