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Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SIR ROBERT HERMANN SCHOMBURGK (1804-1865), British traveller, was born at Freiburg, Prussian Saxony, on the 5th of June 1804, the son of a Protestant minister. In 1829 he went to the United States, but in 1830 left for Anegada, one of the Virgin Isles. He surveyed the island at his own expense, and sent to the Royal Geographical Society, London, a report which created such an impression that, in 1835, he was entrusted by that body with the conduct of an exploring expedition to British Guiana. He fulfilled his mission with great success, incidentally discovering the Victoria Regia lily. In 1841 he returned to Guiana to survey the colony and fix the boundary for the British Government. The result was the provisional boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela known as the "Schomburgk Line," for which see the articles on those two countries. On his return to England he was knighted. In 1848 he was appointed British consul to St Domingo, and, in 18J7, British consul to Bangkok. While holding these posts he continued his geographical surveys. He retired from the public service in 1864, and died at Berlin on the nth of March 1865. He was the author of a Description of British Guiana and a History of Barbadoes.