Engelbert, a celebrated naturalist and scientific traveller, was born in 1651 at Lemgo, in the principality of Lippe Detmold in Westphalia, where his father was rector of the church of St Nicholas. Trained at first by his father, he went to prosecute his studies at Hameln in Saxony, and afterwards at the schools of Luneburg, Hamburg, and Lubeck. In all these places he distinguished himself by the ardour and success with which he studied history and geography, and the languages both living and dead. After graduating as Ph. D. at the University of Cracow in Poland, he removed to Königsberg in Prussia, where he spent four years chiefly in the study of medicine and the natural sciences. His early training, whether accidentally or by design, seems to have been fitted exactly to make him what he afterwards became, the most enlightened traveller of his age, and the worthy forerunner of the Pallas's, Tourneforts, and Humboldt's of a later age. In 1681 Kaempfer visited Upsal in Sweden, and many tempting proposals were made to him if he would consent to settle in that country. His desire for foreign travel, however, led him to decline these offers; but he gladly agreed to accompany as secretary the embassy which Sweden was at that time preparing to send through Russia to Persia. Setting out from Stockholm on the 20th of March 1683, they passed through Moscow, where they were sumptuously entertained, and arrived at Astrakhan on the shores of the Caspian Sea. There they embarked for Persia, and landing at Nizabad pursued their way to Isfahan, which they entered in a little more than a year from the day they set out on their travels. Kaempfer was the first naturalist that ever set foot in the more sequestered spots of Georgia, and the strange aspects and operations of nature that met him at every step are described in some of the most interesting chapters of his Amoenitates Exoticæ. With his appetite for foreign travel thus whetted, Kaempfer refused to return to Europe with the embassy. Various reasons, most of them very absurd, have been assigned by his biographers for his conduct. His real motive was to pursue his scientific investigations in the rich and fresh field of the East. A residence of two years in the Persian capital enabled him to master the natural history and botany of the surrounding country. At the end of that period he entered the service of the Dutch East India Company as head surgeon of their fleet which was then cruising in the Persian Gulf. An illness with which he was seized at Gomron disabled him for active service for two years, and, indeed, nearly proved fatal. In 1688, however, he set sail in the Dutch fleet for Batavia, touching at various points of interest on the coasts of Hindustan, Ceylon, and Sumatra. Arriving at his destination in 1689, he spent the winter of that year in investigating the natural history of Java, and in the month of May following set out to Japan, as physician to the embassy which the Dutch used to send yearly to that island. He embarked in a ship which was to touch at Siam, and had thus an opportunity of visiting Ayuthia, which has since been supplanted by Bang-kok as the capital of the country. In the September of 1690, he landed at Nagasaki, where he was allowed to remain for fully two years, during which he twice visited Jeddah, the capital. His adroitness, insinuating manners, and medical skill overcame the habitual jealousy of the natives, and enabled him to elicit much valuable information which he has embodied in his History of Japan. Returning to Europe in 1693, and graduating as doctor of medicine at Leyden in the following year, he settled quietly down in his native city, there to spend the remainder of his days. His design was to edit and publish his travels at his leisure; but being appointed physician to the Count of Lippe, he soon found himself involved in the cares of an extensive medical practice. In 1712 he gave to the world his Amoenitates Exoticæ, intended, as he remarks in the preface, as a kind of prelude to a complete edition of his works. Unfortunately, however, he did not live to carry out his plan. An unfortunate marriage, and other domestic calamities following thick upon each other, broke down his health, already sufficiently impaired by his travels. He died on the 2d of November 1716, in the sixty-sixth year of his age.

The original of Kaempfer's History of Japan has never been published, for what reason is unknown. Sir Hans Sloane bought from his heirs a MS. copy which was translated into English by J. G. Scheuchzer, and published in 2 vols. fol. in 1727. From this English version the work has been translated into French and German. This work of Kaempfer's is probably unique among books of travels. After an interval of nearly two centuries, it remains as true and applicable to the actual condition of Japan as when its author first set foot on the island. Subsequent travellers have acknowledged the conscientious accuracy of his descriptions of the civil and religious, as well as physical, condition of Japan. To the general reader it is intensely interesting for the rare information which it gives. The great work of the American expedition does not even yet supersede that of the German naturalist.