Engelbert, was born in 1651 at Lemgow in Westphalia. After studying in several towns, he went to Dantzig, where he gave the first public specimen of his proficiency in a dissertation De Majestatis Divisone. 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 Koningberg in Prussia, and stayed 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 sultan of Persia. He set out from Stock- holm with the presents for that emperor; and went through Aaland, Finland, and Ingermanland, 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 Koempfer, 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 Koempfer 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 Koempfer here applied himself chiefly to natural history. Hence he set out for Japan, in qua- lity 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. Amaranites Exoticae, 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 Hans Sloane, who purchased for a con- siderable sum of money all our author's curiosities, Koempfer 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.