Arainc scholar, but it was finally extended to include a mathematician for purposes of astronomical and geo- graphical observation (and for this place Niebuhr was chosen), a naturalist, a draughtsman, and a phj'sician. Niebuhr delayed the expedition eighteen months in order to fit himself properly for the task, and, as the result proved, this step was truly proper, for he alone lived to return from the expedition, and from him alone we have obtained the valuable results of tliat liberal act of the Danish king, Frederic Y, and his learned minister, count von Bernstorff — most noble patrons of learning. The other members of the expedition to which Niebuhr belonged were the noted Orientalist of that day, professor Frederick Christian von Haven, Pe- ter Forskal as naturalist, Christian Charles Cramer as physician, and George William Baurenfeind as jiainter or draughtsman. By the royal instructions for the ex- pedition, a perfect equality was established among the five members; and they were enjoined to decide every difference of opinion regarding their course by plurality of voices, or, if votes should be equal, by lot. Tliey sailed from Copenhagen in January, 17G1, in a frigate of the Danish royal navy, and arrived, not without some accidents, at Constantinople, whence, after a short residence, the travellers proceeded in a merchant vessel to Alexandria, ascended the Nile, and reached Cairo in November, 1761. Having carefully explored the Pyra- mids and other antiquities of Lower Egypt, they crossed the desert to Mount Sinai and Suez, embarked at that port in an Arab vessel, and landed at Loheia, in Arabia Felix, the destined seat of their mission, in December, 1762. They crossed the country, mounted on asses, the usual conveyance, and, after visiting several places of interest, finally arrived at Mocha, where the philol- ogist Yon Haven unfijrtunately died, in May, 1763. The surviving travellers, proceeding from thence to Sana, the capital of Yemen, were favorably received by the imam; but they had meanwhile lost another of their number, the naturalist Forskal, who died on the road. His companions returning to Mocha, there em- barked in an English vessel for Bombay, on the voyage to which place the painter Baurenfeind expired ; and at Bombay Niebuhr had the affliction of burying the last of his fellow-travellers, the physician Cramer. The fact is admitted by Niebuhr that his ill-fated friends persisted in living after the European manner under the burning sun of Arabia; and it may be surmised that they lost their lives through that disregard to necessary habits of abstinence for which the Danes in their tropical colonies are remarkable, even above all other people. Niebuhr himself, who had suffered se- verely from illness with the rest of his party, after their decease adopted the same diet as the natives of the countries in which he was travelling, and thenceforth enjoyed excellent health. Sailing from Bombay, he visited Persia, including the ruins of Pcrsepolis; as- cended the Euphrates; proceeded by way of Bagdad and Aleppo to the Syrian coast; embarked for Cyprus, returned from that island to the continent; saw Jerusa- lem and Damascus; passed through Aleppo, and over Asia Minor to Constantinople ; and finally returned to Copenhagen in November, 1767. Niebuhr was wel- comed in Denmark as he deserved. The government imdertook at its charge the engraving of all the plates of his travels, which were to be presented to him as a free gift ; and he was left to publish the result of his labors at his own cost and for his own profit. Resolving to commence with the description of Arabia, he print- ed, in the j-ear 1772, his volume under the title 7ie. schreibung von Arubien, and it became the text-book of every writer, from the historian Gibbon almost down to the present day, whoever has had occasion to treat of the ancient and modern aspect of that country. The depth of research, the fidelity of delineation, and the accuracy of detail which it exhibits on the geography of Arabia, and the enduring character and condition of its inhabitants, have rendered this work of Niebuhr
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classical. He has sometimes been compared, and the comparison is just and appropriate, with the historian of Halicarnassus : both travellers were characterized by accuracy of observation, strict veracity, and a simplic- ity of narrative which art alone can never attain. The appearance of this work was followed in 1774-78 by two volumes of equal merit and interest, narrating his Rdsen in Arabieii und den angrdnzenden Ldndern. To tliese volumes it was his intention to add a third, enriched with the result of his inquiries into the state of the Mo- hammedan religion and Turkish empire, and containing his astronomical observations; but some causes, not suf- ficiently explained, delayed this publication, until a lire, which in 1795 destroyed the king's palace at Copenha- gen, and with it the original plates both of his pub- lished and unedited works, put an end to the design. The third volume was, however, published in 1837, ow- ing to the liberality of the bookseller Perthes of Ham- burg, and the affection of Niebuhr's family, particularly of his daughter, under the title of Reiseheschreihunf) nach A rahien und andern umliegenden Ldndern. It contains his remarks on Aleppo, his voyage to Cyprus, and his visit to Jaffa and Jerusalem, his return to Aleppo, and journey thence through Koniyeh to Constantinople, and an abridged account of his route through Bulgaria, Wal- lachia, Poland, and Germany, to Denmark. After the publication of the first two volumes of his travels he con- tributed to a German periodical journal, among other papers, two on the Interior of Africa and the Political and Military State of the Turkish Empire. His princi- pal works, which were published in German at Copen- hagen, have been translated into French and Dutch, and reprinted at Amsterdam and Utrecht, Niebuhr himself likewise edited and published, in his usual generous spirit, at his own cost, some of the reports of his travel- ling companions. He lived for a long period after his return, and even at one time projected an expedition into Africa; but his wife dissuaded him from the proj- ect, and he retired to quiet life in the little village of Meldorf, where he performed the duties of a civil func- tionary. It was during this period of his life that Bar- thold Gcorg was born to him. (See the preceding ar- ticle.) Karsten Niebuhr died April 26, 1815, leaving the character of being at once one of the most truthful and scientifically exact tra\'ellers of modern times. See Brit, and F.or. Rev. 1843, p. 480 sq. ; 1844, p. 83 sq. ; Biblical Repository, vol. viii ; Chi-istian Examiner, 1852, p. 413 sq. ; English Cyclopadia ; and the biographical sketch published by his son (Kiel, 1817).