NIKBUHH, CABSTEN. 



NIEBUHB, BARTHOLD UEORQE. 



who hid r*omed some proof* of hi* disinterestedness in pecuniary 

 (bin. added the responsible office of treuurar to tho rniwion. It* 

 other luembm were Frednio Christiern TOD Haven, as profeseor of 

 the Oriental languages, Peter Forskal as uaturalitt, Chrutieru Charlei 

 Cramer u physician, cod George William Baureufeind u peiuter or 

 draughtsman. By the royal instructions for the expedition, a perfect 

 equality w* established among the fire members ; and they were 

 enjoined to decide every difference of opinion regarding their course 

 by plurality of voiots, or, if votes should be equal, by lot. 



The expedition failed from Copenhagen, in January 1761, in a 

 frigate of the Danish royal navy, and arrived, not without some 

 accidents, at Constantinople ; whence, after a short residence, the 

 travellers proceeded in a merchant vessel to Alexandria, ascended 

 the Nile, and reached Cairo in November 17C1. Having carefully 

 explored the pyramids and other antiquities of Lower K^ypt, they 

 [iiijseiiil the desrrt to Mount Siuai and Suet, embarked at that port in 

 an Arab vessel, and lauded at Loheia, iu Arabia Felix, the destined 

 aeat of their mission, in December 1762. They crossed the country, 

 mounted on ataen, the usual conveyance, and after visiting several 

 places of interest, finally arrived at Mocha, where the philologist 

 Von Haven unfortunately died, in May 17C3. The surviving travellers 

 proceeding from thence to Sai.a, the capital of Yemen, were favourably 

 received by the Imanm ; but they had meanwhile lost another of their 

 number, the naturalist Forskal, who died on the road. Ilia com- 

 panions returning to Mocha, there embarked in an KnglL-.li vessel for 

 l!ombay, on the yoyage to which place the painter Baureufuiud 

 expired ; and at Bombay, Niebuhr had the affliction to bury tho lost 

 of his fellow-travellers, the physician Cramer. The fact is admitted by 

 Niebuhr, that hi* ill-fated friends persisted in living after the European 

 manner under the burning sun of Arabia; and it may be surmised 

 that they lost their lives through that disregard to necessary habits of 

 abstinence for which the Danes iu their tropical colonies are remark- 

 able, even above all other northern people. Niebuhr himself, who had 

 suffered severely from illness with the rest of his party, after their 

 decease adopted the same diet as the natives of the countries in 

 which he was travelling, and thenceforth enjoyed excellent health. 

 Sailing from Bombay, he visited Persia, including the ruins of Perse- 

 polis ; ascended the Euphrates ; proceeded by way of Baghdad and 

 Aleppo to thu Syrian coast ; embarked for Cyprus, returned from 

 that island to the continent ; saw Jerusalem and Damascus; passed 

 through Aleppo, and over Agin Minor to Constantinople; and finally 

 returned to Copenhagen, iu November 1767. iThe whole of the 

 travels of the mim-ion, which occupied six years, and extended over so 

 many countries, is said, by the good management and conscientious 

 ruouomy of Niebuhr, who indeed defrayed every expense that could 

 be considered personal to himself out of his own narrow income, to 

 have cost the Danish government only the incredibly small sum of 

 about four tboiuhud pounds. 



uhr was welcomed iu Denmark OB he deserved. The govern- 

 ment undertook at iU charge tho engraving of all the plates of his 

 travel*, which were to be presented to him as a free gift ; and he was 

 left to publiah the result of hU labours at his own cost and for his 

 own profit. iftsolving to commence with the ' Description of Arabia,' 

 he printed, in the year 1772, his volume under this title, which 

 became the text-book of every writer, from the hintorian Gibbon 

 almost down to the pieeent day, who had occasion to treat of the 

 ancient and modern aspect of that country. The depth of research, 

 the fidelity of delineation, and the accuracy of detail which it exhibits 

 on the geography of Arabia, and the enduring character and condition 

 of its inhabitant*, have rendered this work of Niebuhr classical. He 

 has sometime* been compared, and the comparison is just and 

 appropriate, with the historian of Holicarnatsus : both travellers 

 were characterised by accuracy of observation, strict veracity, and 

 a simplicity of narrative which art alone can never attain. [Htuo- 

 DOTUS.] The appearance of this work was followed in 1774-78, by 

 two volume* of equal merit and intereit, narrating his ' Travels iu 

 Arabia and circumjacent Countries.' To these volumes it was hi* 

 intention to add a third, enriched with tlie result of hi* inquiries 

 into tbo state of the Mohammedan religion and Turkish empire, and 

 containing his astronomical observations : but some causes, not suffi- 

 ciently explained, delayed this publication, until n fire, which in 179J 

 destroyed the king's palace at Copenhagen, and with it the original 

 plates both of his published and inedited works, put ait end to hi* 

 design. Thia third volume was however published in 1837, owing to 

 the liberality of the bookseller 1'erthea of Hamburg, and the affection 

 of Niebuhr* family, particularly of hi* daughter, under the title of 

 'iieuebeechreibung naoh Arabieu und audern umliegeudcu Uiuderu : ' 

 it contain* hi* remark* on Aleppo, his voyage to Cyprus, and hi* visit 

 to Jaffa and Jerusalem, hi* return to Aleppo, and journey thence 

 through K.iniyeh to Constantinople, and an abridged account of his 

 route through Bulgaria, \Vallachia, Poland, and Germany, to Den- 

 mark. After the publication of the first two volumes of hi* travels, 

 be contributed to a German periodical journal, among other papers, 

 two on the ' Interior of Africa ' and the ' Political and Military State of 

 the Turki.h Kini/ire.' lli* principal work*, which were published in 

 German at Copenhagen, have been translated into French and Dutch, 

 and reprinted at Amsterdam and Utrecht Niebuhr himtelf likewise 

 edited and publi,hed, in hi* usual generous pirit, at his own co*t, 



the contributions to natural history (' Deacriptiones Animalium ' and 

 Flora Egyptiaoo-Arabica ') of his deceased friend Forskal, which 

 were also among the fruits of the mission to Arabia. 



Niebuhr, whose life was prolonged to a great age, survived his 

 return from hi* Oriental travel* for nearly half a century, lie had, 

 about 1772, some thoughts of undertaking another journey of dis- 

 covery, at the instance of the Tripoliue ambassador at Copenhagen, 

 into the interior of Africa : but a happy marriage induced him to 

 abandon this project ; and tired of military service and a residence at 

 Copenhagen, he obtained, in 1778, a civil situatiou under the govern- 

 ment at Meldorf in Uolstein, to which he withdrew, and where he paused 

 the long remainder of his existence. He did not however suffer his 

 mind to be idle iu retirement ; for he maintained au extensive corre- 

 spondence with tho learned in several countries of Europe, and 

 continued so active a public officer, that, at the age of seventy two 

 years, notwithstanding the failure of lag eye-night, he assisted in a 

 new territorial survey ordered by the Danish government. HU long 

 services were reworded with the cross of Dauebrog and the title of 

 counsellor of state ; and wheu he became quite blind, the government 

 liberally refused to accept his resignation, and appointed a friend to 

 assist him in his duties until the end of his life, which terminated on 

 the 26th of April 1815. 



MEliUHK, BARTUOLD GEORGE, son of the preceding, wa 

 born at Copenhagen, on the 27th of August 1776. His father had 

 returned from the East about nine years before that time, and was 

 residing at Copenhagen as a captain of engineers ; however, two year* 

 after Barthold's birtb, he received the appointment of laud-surveyor, 

 \\liicli made him remove to Meldorf, a town of Dithiuar*h, iu lloUtein, 

 the native province of the Niebuhrs. It was here thai Barthold 

 Niebuhr spent the whole of his infancy and boyhood, living in great 

 retirement, and necessarily contracting studious habits, as well from 

 the absence of all outward interruptions, as because a weakly consti- 

 tution, produced by a marsh-fever, had incapacitated him for the 

 boisterous amusements of more robust children, lie derived great 

 advantages from the society of Bojes, then well kuown iu the literary 

 world, who came to settle at Meldorf as landvogt in the year 1781. 

 The wife of Bojes taught him French, his father in>tru< ted him in 

 geography, in the English language, iu tho elements of mathematics, 

 and in the Latin accidence. He begun to learu music in 1783, but 

 never made any great progress iu it. In other branches of knowledge 

 so great was hU proficiency that Bojes describes him as a juvenile 

 prodigy iu 17i>3, when Niebuhr was ouly seven years old, and when he 

 was sent to the public school of the place, iu 17b'., he was placed at 

 once in tho first class. He also gave considerable assistance to bis 

 father about the same time in making some long calculations cou- 

 nei Ud with Lis office of surveyor. After having been a* school from 

 Easter 1V>.', to Michaelmas 1790, he became the private pupil of the 

 hcad-mai-tiT, Dr. Jiiger, with whom he read for au hour every day till 

 Easter, 1794, with the exception of three mouths which he spent at 

 Hamburg, in 17U2, at a kind of commercial school kept by his lather's 

 friend Professor Busuh. He also received some advice with regard to 

 the prosecution of his classical studies from the celebrated J. H. VOM, 

 who paid occasional visit* to hi* father, and he acknowledges with 

 gratitude tho benefit which he had derived, in common with all 

 Uermaus, from Vow's excellent translation. 



Carsteu Niebuhr's wish was that his son should engage in some 

 active business ; he even entertained tue hope for sonic tim- that his 

 son might follow iu his own footsteps, and become celebrated as an 

 Eastern traveller. But Barthold'* tendencies were from tiie tint in 

 favour of a studious life, and his father was unwilling to oppose hi* 

 inclinations. It was resolved then that after spending t*o years at 

 Kiel, he should go to Guttiugen, and study under Hey no. He had 

 already had communication with the last-named scholar, and had 

 collate 1 for him some manuscripts after his return from Hamburg, 

 in 1792. He studied at Kiel from Easter 1794, to the spring of 1796. 

 Here he formed an intimacy with the family of Dr. Hensler, profesior 

 of medicine, which had the greatest influence on bis subsequent 

 career. Tu widow of Dr. llenslrr's son, a lady from Dithmarsh, was 

 residing in his house, aud Niebuhr's acquaintance- with her ripened 

 into a friendship which lasted till hi* death. By far the greater part 

 of hi* numerous letters are addressed to her. Niebuhr wished to 

 marry her, but finding that she adhered to a resolution formed on 

 her husband's death not to marry again, he requested her to recom- 

 mend a wife to him. After some consideration shu named her sister, 

 Amalie Belirens, to whom Niebuhr toon became greatly attached, and 

 who subsequently became his first wife. 



In January 1796 Count Schimmeliuanu, the Danish minuter^ of 

 finance, proposed to Niebuhr to become his private secretary. Hi* 

 father accepted the offer for him, and thus Niebuhr was introduced 

 into the beat circle* of hi* native city. HU bashfulness and studious 

 habits however rendered him unhappy in this situation, aud he soon 

 exchanged it for that of supernumerary-secretary to tho Royal Library, 

 which he entered upon in May 1797, and held till April 1798, when 

 he paid a visit of two months to hi* family in Holstein, and then sailed 

 for England. He resided in London and Edinburgh for about a year 

 and a half, and returned to HoUteiu towards the end of 1799. About 

 the middle of April 1800 he went to Copenhagen, aud after a stay of 

 a few week* obtained the appointment of assessor iu the college of 



