Robert Hermann Schomburgk
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-born explorer
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
for Great Britain who carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies, and also fulfilled diplomatic missions for Great Britain in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
.
Biography
Schomburgk was born at FreyburgFreyburg, Germany
Freyburg is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Unstrut, 9 km northwest of Hanseatic Naumburg, 63 km from Leipzig and 231 km from Berlin...
, Prussian Saxony, the son of a Protestant minister. In 1820, while staying with his uncle, he learned botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
from a professor.
He entered commercial life, and in 1826 came to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he worked for a time as a clerk in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and Philadelphia.
In 1828 he was requested to supervise a transport of Saxon sheep to the American state of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, where he lived for a time. The same year, he became a partner in a tobacco-manufactory at Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. The factory was burned, and Schomburgk was ruined. He suffered further setbacks on the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
island of St. Thomas
Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of...
, where he lost all his belongings in a fire. Consequently he ceased his business activities.
In 1830 he left for Anegada
Anegada
Anegada is the northernmost of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands which form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It lies approximately north of Virgin Gorda. Anegada is the only inhabited British Virgin Island formed from coral and limestone, rather than being of volcanic...
, one of the Virgin Isles
British Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...
, notorious for its shipwrecks. Although he did not possess the special knowledge that is required for such a work, he surveyed the island at his own expense and sent to the Royal Geographical Society (London)
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
a report which created such an impression that, in 1835, he was entrusted by that body with conducting an expedition of exploration of British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
.
He fulfilled his mission (1835-1839) with great success, incidentally discovering the giant Victoria Regia
Victoria (waterlily)
Victoria is a genus of water lilies, in the plant family Nymphaeaceae, with very large green leaves that float on the water's surface. Victoria amazonica has a leaf that is up to 3 m in diameter, on a stalk 7–8 m in length...
water lily, in 1837, and many new species of orchids, one genus of which, Schomburgkia
Schomburgkia
Schomburgkia is a genus of plants belonging to the family Orchidaceae. This genus is named for Richard Schomburgk, a German botanist who explored British Guiana during the 19th century. Species in this genus are either ephiphytic or lithophytic in their growth habit...
, was named for him. In 1841 he returned to Guiana, this time as a British Government official to survey the colony and fix its eastern and western boundaries. The result was the provisional boundary between British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
known as the "Schomburgk Line", and the boundary with the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
colony of Surinam
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
. He also made further geographical and ethnological observations, and was joined there by his brother, Moritz Richard
Moritz Richard Schomburgk
Moritz Richard Schomburgk was a German botanist.In 1844 he went on the Prussian-British expedition to Guyana and Brazil, led by his brother Robert. He collected for the Museum of the University of Berlin. After the political turmoil in Europe in 1848, he emigrated to Gawler, South Australia...
. He repeatedly urged fixing the boundary with Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, motivated by his encounters with Brazilian enslavement
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
of local Indian tribes, most of which no longer exist. Schomburgk's survey later played a role in the arbitration of the southern boundary between British Guiana and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, with arbitration by the King of Italy
King of Italy
King of Italy is a title adopted by many rulers of the Italian peninsula after the fall of the Roman Empire...
in 1904.
On the brothers' return to London in June 1844, Schomburgk presented a report of his journey to the Geographical Society, for which he was knighted by Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
in 1845, and continued in other official capacities. In 1846 he was stationed in Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, where he gathered information to compile a geographical and statistical description of the island, later to be published as the History of Barbados published in 1848 by Cass as a library series of West Indian studies.
In 1848 he was appointed British consul
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
to the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
. In 1850 he signed an advantageous commercial treaty for Great Britain, and also secured a truce from Soulouque in behalf of the Dominican government. During the following years, he contributed valuable papers upon the physical geography of the island to the journal of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1857, he was promoted to the position of British Consul-General of Siam
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, based in Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, where he also continued his geographical surveys. He retired from the public service in 1864, hampered by health problems, and died in Schöneberg
Schöneberg
Schöneberg is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg....
on 11 March 1865.
Schomburgk was a member of various European, American, and Asiatic learned societies, and was a knight of the Legion of Honor and of the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle.
Works
- Voyage in Guiana and upon the Shores of the Orinoco during the Years 1835-'39 (London, 1840; translated into GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
by his brother Otto, under the title Reisen in Guiana und am Orinoco in den Jahren 1835-'39, Leipsig, 1841, with a preface by Alexander von HumboldtAlexander von HumboldtFriedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
) - Researches in Guiana, 1837-'39 (1840)
- Description of British Guiana, Geographical and Statistical (London, 1840)
- Views in the Interior of Guiana (1840)
- Baubacenia Alexandrine et Alexandra imperatris (Brunswick, 1845), monograph on plants discovered in British Guiana
- Rapatea Frederici Augusti et Saxo-Frederici regalis (1845), monograph on plants discovered in British Guiana
- History of Barbadoes (London, 1847)
- The Discovery of the Empire of Guiana by Sir Walter Raleigh (1848)
- Peter Rivière (ed.), The Guiana Travels of Robert Schomburgk 1835-1844, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate for the Hakluyt Society, 2006).