WRANGEL, CARL QUSTAF. 



WRAXALL, SIR NATHANIEL. 



821, 



or plundering scenes ; and in [skies, in foliage, and in the foregrounds, 

 both in composition and colouring, which is always remarkably trans- 

 parent, he leaves nothing to be wished for, and has had few rivals, and 

 perhaps no superiors, in the same style of works. His figures also, of 

 which he was by no means sparing, are always admirably designed and 

 coloured, and most appropriately introduced; they are also distin- 

 guished by the same rich transparency of colouring which characterises 

 the landscape part of his pictures. 



Wouwerman's pictures are very valuable, and, notwithstanding his 

 short life, are very numerous : one or more specimens are in almost 

 every good collection in the northern parts of Europe : our own 

 National Gallery does not however possess one of his pictures. His 

 brother Peter's pictures are often attributed to him, but though very 

 similar to Philip's, they are less transparent in colouring, and their 

 horses are very inferior. He had another brother, John, who was a 

 good landscape-painter. John died in 1666, and Peter in 1683. 



WRANGEL, CARL GUSTAF, son of the Swedish general Her- 

 mann Wrangel, governor of Livonia, who died December 10, 1644, 

 and more eminent than his father as a military commander, was born 

 at Skokloster on Lake Malarn, December 13, 1613. Sent abroad at an 

 early age to acquire foreign languages, he passed a whole year in 

 Holland, where he gained considerable insight into nautical matters 

 and ship-building, which afterwards availed him in his capacity of 

 admiral. Being taken into the service of Gustavus Adolphus, he was 

 at the battle of Liitzen (November 1632) and was foremost among those 

 who helped to secure the victory over the Imperialists, after the fall of 

 that prince. From that period his rise was rapid, and he distinguished 

 himself on many important occasions, first under Banier, then under 

 Torstenson, the latter of whom despatched him (1644) to the rescue 

 of the Swedish admiral Clas Flemming, who was blockaded by the 

 Danish fleet, after a severe engagement with them. Flemming, being 

 mortally wounded, gave the command of the Swedish fleet to Wrangel, 

 who conducted it in safety to Stockholm. He afterwards joined the 

 Dutch, and obtained a complete naval victory over the Danes at 

 Femern, made himself master of Bornholm, and would have taken 

 possession of all their other islands, had not the treaty of Brsemsebro 

 put a stop to hostilities. It was about this time that he succeeded 

 Torstenson, then disabled by his age and infirmities, in the command 

 of the Swedish army in Germany, where he distinguished himself by 

 a series of successes till they were terminated by the peace of West- 

 phalia. These services obtained for him both honours and rewards ; 

 and when Christina's successor, Charles Gustavus, undertook an expe- 

 dition against Poland, he gave the command of the fleet to Wrangel, 

 who blockaded Danzig. After that he signalised himself against the 

 Danes, made a descent upon Jutland, and took the fortress of Fredrik- 

 sudde (1657), which action gave the Swedes a decided advantage, and 

 obtained for himself the dignity of high admiral. He next took the 

 castle of Cronenborg, after a siege of three weeks. In the same year 

 (1658) he obtained a victory over the Dutch admiral Opdam, who had 

 come to the assistance of the Danes, and took some of the Danish 

 islands. On the peace of 1660 he was raised to the dignity of grand- 

 marshal of Sweden, and generalissimo, and also appointed by Charles 

 Gustavus one of the guardians to his son Charles XL In 1675 he 

 undertook the command of the Swedish troops in Pomerania, but 

 was then so disabled by age and infirmities, that he could do very 

 little personally, being the greater part of the time confined to his 

 bed, and was therefore at some distance from the army during its 

 reverses at Havelberg and Fehrbellin, in the June of that year. He 

 accordingly retired to his estate in the isle of Riigen, where he was 

 residing when an alarm being given of the approach of some enemy's 

 vessels, he could not bo prevented from proceeding to the spot to 

 ascertain the danger. His exertion upon that occasion cost him his 

 life, for it proved too much for his bodily strength, and he died in 

 consequence of "it, in July 1676, leaving the reputation of one of the 

 bravest and most skilful commanders, both by sea and land, that 

 Sweden had ever possessed. 



* WRANGEL, FERDINAND PETROVICH VON, a distinguished 

 Arctic navigator, is descended from an old Esthonian family, and was 

 born in that province about 1795. He was educated at the academy 

 for naval cadets at St. Petersburg, and in 1817 served as an officer 

 under Captain Golovnin in his voyage round the world in the sloop 

 Kamschatka. The talent and activity he then manifested recom- 

 mended him two years after to the command of a surveying and 

 exploring expedition to the Russian Polar seas, in which he was en- 

 gaged from 1820 to 1824. An opinion had gained ground, founded on 

 rumours prevalent among the natives at Indigirka and Kolyma, that 

 a. large tract of land existed to the north of the Polar Sea. The great 

 feature of Von Wrangel's survey consisted in two expeditions in 

 search of this land made by him on the polar ice, with equal daring 

 and sagacity, in sledges drawn by dogs. His first journey commenced 

 in March 1822, lasted forty-six days, and brought him as far north as 

 two minutes above the seventy-second degree without discovering 

 land. On the second, in February 1823, he was compelled to return 

 also without success from a point at 70 51' north, and 175 27' east. 

 The Russians remark that his exertions on this occasion placed him 

 on a level with Parry, the Rosses, and Franklin, and an account of the 

 expedition, translated by Mrs. Sabine from the German of Engelhardt, 

 is accompanied with a preface by her husband, himself familiar with 



Arctic perils, in which he speaks in the highest terms of the labours 

 of the Russian navigator. The account by Engelhardt, drawn up from 

 Von Wrangel's journals, and the English translation of it, published 

 in 1840, had both appeared and attracted general attention before any 

 Russian narrative of the expedition was given to the public. The 

 omission was repaired in 1841, by the appearance of Von Wrangel's 

 own narrative, ' Puteshestvie po sievernuim beregam Sibiri i po ledo- 

 vitomu Moryu ' (Journey on the northern coaats of Siberia and the 

 Icy Sea), 2 vols., with a supplement, which, in 1843, was translated 

 into French by Prince Emmanuel Galitzin, while in 1844 Sabine's 

 translation of Engelhardt ran to a second edition. This delay in pub- 

 lication arose from the appointment of Von Wrangel in 1825 to the 

 command of a voyage round the world in the ship Krotky, which 

 occupied him till 1827, and of which, we believe, no narrative has yet 

 been made public. Soon after his return he was appointed governor 

 of the Russian possessions on the north-west coast of America, for 

 which he set out iu 1829, accompanied by his wife, by the eastern 

 route through Siberia and Kamschatka. After remaining in command 

 for five years, he returned to Russia by the Isthmus of Panama and 

 the United States, and his first published book was an account of this 

 last journey, ' Ocherk Puti iz Sitki v S. Peterburg ' (Sketch of a Journey 

 from Sitka to St. Petersburg), St. Petersburg, 1836. His 'Statistical 

 and Ethnographical Notices on the Russian possessions in America,' 

 were printed in German in 1839 in Baer and Helmersen's ' Beitrii^c 

 zur Kenntniss des Russischeu Reiches.' One of the principal features 

 of his government of these inclement regions was his endeavour to 

 promote the cultivation of potatoes. After his return home he was 

 elevated to the rank of admiral, and was for some time at the head of 

 the ship-timber department in the Russian marine, but in 1849 retired 

 from the government service, and has since been a director of the 

 privileged company for trading with Russian America. 



WRAXALL, SIR NATHANIEL WILLIAM, BART., was born at 

 Bristol on the 8th of April 1751. His father was a merchant, and 

 after having received a suitable education in his native town, he 

 entered the civil service of the East India Company, and proceeded to 

 Bombay in 1769. In 1771 he accompanied the expeditions against 

 Guzerat and Baroche as judge-advocate and paymaster. In 1772 he 

 quitted India, and, returning to Europe, landed at Lisbon, where he 

 remained some time, and then occupied himself during the next seven 

 years in travelling over the Continent, most parts of which he visited, 

 from Portugal and Italy to Lapland. For a part of this period how- 

 ever, in 1774-75, he was employed, as he himself states, in a confi- 

 dential mission from the Queen of Denmark, Caroline Matilda, then 

 residing at Zell, to her brother, George III. The subject of his 

 mission, he asserts, was very interesting, and that he was acquainted 

 with the contents of the despatches with which he was entrusted; 

 that the king, through Lord North, presented him with 1000 guineas 

 for his services, but vaunts of his fidelity in not making the nature of 

 them public. In 1775 he published his first work, ' Cursory Remarks 

 made in a Tour through some of the Northern Parts of Europe, par- 

 ticularly through Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Petersburgh,' and its 

 light anecdotal gossipy style carried it rapidly through several 

 editions. In 1777 he essayed history: 'Memoirs of the Kings of 

 France of the House of Valois, interspersed with interesting anec- 

 dotes, to which is added a Tour through the Western, Southern, and 

 Interior Provinces of France, in a series of Letters.' It is a work of 

 little value, either as a history or a tour ; but the Tour was translated 

 into French in 1784, and in 1785 a new edition was published, en- 

 larged, with dates supplied to the events of the ' Memoirs,' that title 

 being changed into 'History.' In 1780 he became a member of parlia- 

 ment, at first as the supporter of Lord North ; but votiug against the 

 India Bill iu 1783, he afterwards was an adherent of Pitt. During his 

 continuance in parliament he published nothing ; but in 1795 he 

 issued, in 3 vols. 4to, ' The History of France from the Accession of 

 Henry the Third to the Death of Louis the Fourteenth, preceded by a 

 View of the Civil, Military, and Political State of Europe bet ,veen the 

 middle and the close of the Sixteenth Century,' which reached a 

 second edition in 1814, and received the approbation of Professor 

 Smyth in his Cambridge lectures. In 1796 appeared what he called 

 a translation of a correspondence between a traveller and a minister of 

 state, of which the ' Monthly Review ' at the time asserted that the 

 letters were genuine, but no dependence can be placed on them. In 

 1799 he published 'Memoirs of the Courts of Berlin, Dresden, War- 

 saw, and Vienna,' in which are a number of anecdotes that he probably 

 received on no sufficient authority. But his credulity and weakness 

 of judgment were most conspicuously displayed in his ' Historical 

 Memoirs of my own Time : part the first from 1772 to 1780; part the 

 second from January 1781 to March 1782; part the third from March 

 1782 to March 1784,' in 3 vols. 8vo, published in 1815. Soon after the 

 appearance of the work an action for libel was brought against him 

 by Count Woronzow, the Russian ambassador, who had been accused 

 of being privy to the making away with the wife of the Crown 

 Prince of Wiirtemberg. He was found guilty, sentenced to pay a 

 fine of 5QQI., and to suffer six months' imprisonment, which punish- 

 ment was however remitted after an imprisonment of about three 

 months. The ' Edinburgh Review,' the ' Quarterly Review,' and the 

 ' British Critics ' also made violent attacks on the integrity of his 

 representations, against which Wraxall made a very unsuccessful 



