KŒMPFER, ENGELBERT, was born in 1651 at
Lemgow in Weiphalia. After studying in several
towns, he went to Dantzick, where he gave the first
public specimen of his proficiency in a dissertation
De majestatis divisonis. He then went to Thorn; and
from thence to the university of Cracow, where he took
his degree of doctor in philosophy; after which he went
to Kœnigsberg in Prussia, and staid there four years.
He next travelled into Sweden, where he soon began
to make a figure, and was appointed secretary of the
embassy to the soughi of Persia. He set out from Stock-
holm with the presents for that emperor; and went
through Åland, Finland, and Ingemanland, to Nar-
va, where he met Mr Fabricius the ambassador, who
had been ordered to take Moscow in his way. The
ambassador having ended his negotiations at the Russian
court, set out for Persia. During their stay, two years,
at Isfahan, Dr Kœmpfer, whose curious and inquisitive
disposition suffered nothing to escape him unobserved,
made all the advantages possible of remaining so long
in the capital of the Persian empire. The ambassador, to-
wards the close of 1685, preparing to return into Eu-
rope, Dr Kœmpfer chose rather to enter into the ser-
vice of the Dutch East India Company, in quality of
chief surgeon to the fleet, then cruising in the Persian
gulf. He went aboard the fleet, which, after touching
at many Dutch settlements, came to Batavia in Septem-
ber 1689. Dr Kœmpfer here applied himself chiefly
to natural history. Hence he set out for Japan, in
quality of a physician to the embassy which the Dutch East
India Company send once a year to the Japanese court.
He quitted Japan to return to Europe in 1692. In
1694 he took his degree of doctor of physic at Leyden;
on which occasion he communicated, in what are called
Inaugural Theses, ten very singular and curious observa-
tions made by him in foreign countries. He intended
to digest his memoirs into proper order; but was pre-
vented, by being made physician to the count de
Lippe. He died in 1716. His principal works are,
1. Amenitates Exotice, in 4to; a work which includes
many curious and useful particulars in relation to the
civil and natural history of the countries through which
he passed. 2. Herbarium Ultra-Gangeticum. 3. The
history of Japan, in German, which is very curious and
much esteemed; and for which the public is indebted
to the late Sir Haus Sloane, who purchased for a con-
siderable sum of money all our author's curiosities,
both natural and artificial, as likewise all his drawings
and manuscript memoirs, and prevailed with the learn-
ed Dr Scheuchzer to translate the Japanese history into
English.