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SCIENTIFIC TRAVELS. GEOGRAPHY.
489
country; but their attention was too fully engrossed on European battlefields to
admit of any thought being given to countries farther distant and still unexplored.
Thanks to private travelers and to embassies despatched to the rulers of remote
lands, some acquaintance with the manners and customs prevailing there was for
a certain spread in our country, but as regards geographical investigation, the
results of those expeditions may be said to have been inappreciable or none at
all. Attempts to found colonies, such as that of New Sweden, on the Delaware
River, that existed from 1638 to 1655, or that of Cabo Corso on the coast of
the Gulf of Guinea, that lasted from 1650 to 1663, did not succeed either in
increasing materially the knowledge of those far distant parts in the mother country
of Sweden. The descriptions, however, that were set down by Swedish pastors,
who, even after political ties with Sweden had been severed, continued to journey
thither to work among the population, are by no means of little value. The
wars of Charles XII brought Sweden into contact with the East. By order of
the King, Kornelius Loos (died 1738) visited in 1710/11 Egypt, Syria, and
Asia Minor, bringing back from his travels maps, plans, and sketches; M.
Ene-tnan (1676/1714) also visited the same parts in 1711 13, principally for the
sake of language study. The numerous Swedish prisoners conveyed to Siberia
after the battle of Poltava greatly contributed to spread some knowledge of that
country and the interior of Asia. Foremost among that band of geographical
pioneers by force of circumstance stands F. J. von Strahlenberg (1676/1747),
who drew up a large map of Siberia; J. B. Midler contributed descriptions of
ethnographical interest of Ust Yansk, A. Molin gave an account of the peoples
inhabiting the most easterly portion of Asia, among others of the Chukchi, while
L. Lange, who entered the Russian service, visited China four times between the
years 1715 and 1737.
When Linné had succeeded in reviving the study of the natural scienccs,
exploratory expeditions were undertaken on his initiative to various parts of the
globe. In 1732, he himself made a journey into Lappland; P. Kalm (1716/79)
traveled in North America 1748 51, F. Hasselqvist (1722/52) was in Egypt
and Palestine 1749/52, P. Osbeck (1723/1805) went to China 1750/52, P.
Löf-ling (1729/56) was in Spain and South America 1754/56, A. Martin went to the
Arctic Ocean in 1758, P. Forskål (1732/63), to Arabia 1761/63, K. P. Thunberg
(1743 1828), to the Cape of Good Hope, Java, and Japan 1770/79; D. Solander
(1735/82) was with James Cook on his first voyage round the world 1768,71 and
.-1. Sparrman (1748/1820) accompanied him on his second voyage round the world
1772 75. Here should be mentioned, too, O. Swartz (1760/1818), who visited the
West Indies and portions of the American continent in 1783/85. Purely
geographical discoveries were not part and parcel of the plan of these journeys, but the
results that were attained have been of very great moment for many of the different
branches of modern geography.
Of greater import in this department than any of those yet named was,
however, G. Wahlenberg (1780/1851). On four journeys in Lappland (1800/10)
and on expeditions in Switzerland and among the Carpathian Mountains he made
numerous and reliable calculations of altitude and, moreover, noted down such
important observations, more especially in the field of botany, that he has been
accredited, along with Humboldt, with having created the science of plant-geography.
In the first half of the 19th century, the number of explorers going to various
parts of the world from Sweden in the interests of natural science was already
quite a large one. Foremost among them stood J. A. Wahlberg (1810/56), who
chose South Africa as his field of study. On his first journey he visited Natal,
Znluland, and what is now the Transvaal; on a later journey in 1854 he started
for the interior from Walfish Bay and penetrated as far as 17° 41’ S. Lat., but
was killed by an elephant on March 6, 1856.
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