Bci>2njn'n(^s of Nafiira/ History in A})ierica. 3<S3 



The achievements of Prince Maurice of Nassau (1). 1604, d, 1679), the 

 conqueror of Brazil, ckiring his residence in that country from 1636 to 

 1644, were far more important than those of any one man in the seven- 

 teenth century, and entitled the Netherlands to a leading place in the 

 early history of American scientific explorations. The notes and figures 

 which were collected by him and his scientific assistants, Marcgrave, 

 Piso, and Cralitz, were published in part under the editorship of Golius 

 and Laet, and have been frequently used by naturalists of the present 

 century. An atlas of colored drawings from the hand of Prince Maurice 

 is still preserved in the Royal Library in Berlin. Here are depicted 34 

 species of mannnals, 100 of birds, 55 of reptiles, 69 of fishes, and 77 of 

 insects, besides many of plants. 



Marcgrave's Historia Rerum Naturalium Brasilite was printed in 

 Amsterdam in 1648, four years after his untimely death while exploring 

 the coast of Guinea. 



Piso's Medicina Braziliensis, 1648, and his Natural History and Medi- 

 cine of both Indies, 1658, were also results of Prince Maurice's expedi- 

 tion. 



Among other contributions made by the Netherlands to the natural 

 history of America were the Relation du Voyage de Isle Tobago, Paris, 

 1606, and the Histoire Naturelle et Morale des lies Antilles, Rotterdam, 

 165S,' written by N. Rochefort, a Protestant missionary to the West 

 Indies, and Jan Nieuhof's See und Landreize benessens een bondege 

 Beschreyving van gantsch Nederland Brazil so van Landschappen Steden, 

 deren Gewaffen, etc., printed in 1682. 



Jan Jacob Hartsinck, a Dutch traveler in Guiana, printed a book of 

 scientific travels at Amsterdam in 1770. 



Philippe F'ermin, a Dutch naturalist, resident for many years in Suri- 

 nam, pul)lished in Amsterdam two important works upon the natural 

 history of that region, in 1765 his Histoire Naturelle de la Hollande 

 E(iuinoxiale, and in 1769 his Description de vSurinam. I refer to these 

 works as important, not because the}' are of great value to zoological 

 writers of to-day, but because they, in their day, marked distinct 

 advances in knowledge. 



The Scandinavians. — Danish enterprise at an early day sent explorers 

 to the Western Continent, and the scholarly tendencies of the Scandina- 

 vian mind were soon manifest in a literature of geographical and scientific 

 observations. 



Hans Egede, a missionary who went to Greenland at least as early as 

 1 7 15, published in 1741 his comprehensive work upon Greenland, of 

 which so many editions have been published. 



Otho Falmcius [b. 1744, d. 1822], another missionary, long resident 

 in Greenland, published in 1780 his Fauna Groenlandica, a work which 



' First edition without name of author ; others, Paris, 1665; Lyons, 1667; Amster- 

 dam, 1716. 



