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iv. education and mental culture.
"Historia de Gentibus Sept.entrionalibus", printed in Rome in 1555, attracted
very great attention in the rest of Europe. During the succeeding years, still
increased attention was paid to the North of Europe by reason of frontier disputes.
The first detailed map of North Sweden was issued in 1611 by A. Bureus
(1571—1646). Lappland was the destination of the first scientific’ expedition
from Sweden, despatched by King Charles XI in 1695; J. Bilberg (1646—1717)
and A. Spole (1630—99), astronomers, and the renowned Olof Rudbeck, the
younger (1660—1740), botanist, participated in it.
During the Epoch of Greatness in Sweden, the range of the people’s
vision was extended beyond the boundaries of their own 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. Nor did attempts
to found colonies in this epoch, such as that of New Sweden, on the Delaware
River, which existed from 1638 to 1655, or that of Cabo Corso on the coast of
the Gulf of Guinea, where a new settlement lasted from 1650 to 1663, succeed
in materially increasing the geographical knowledge of those far distant parts.
The descriptions, however, that were given by Swedish pastors, who, even
after political ties with the mother country had been severed, continued to
be sent thither, are by no means of little value. The wars of Charles XII
brought Sweden into closer contact with the East. By order of the King,
Kornelius Loos (died 1738) visited Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor in 1710—11,
bringing back from his travels maps, plans, and sketches; M. Eneman (1676—
1714) also traversed the same regions in 1711—13, principally for the pursuit of
linguistic studies. The numerous Swedish prisoners conveyed to Siberia after
the battle of Poltava greatly contributed to the knowledge of that country and
the interior of Asia. Foremost among that band of geographical pioneers by force
of circumstance stands J. F. von Stralenberg (1676—1747), who constructed
a large map of Siberia; J. B. Muller contributed descriptions of ethnographical
interest of East Yakuts, A. Molin gave an account of the peoples inhabiting
the most easterly regions of Asia, among others of the Chukchi, while L. Lange,
after having entered the Russian service, visited China four times between the
years 1715 and 1737.
When Linné had revived the study of the natural sciences, expeditions of
discovery on a comprehensive scale were undertaken, on his initiative, to various
parts of the globe. In 1732, he himself made a journey into Lappland; P.
Kalm (1716—79) travelled in North America, 1748—51; F. Hasselqvist (1722—
52) made journeys in Egypt and Palestine, 1749—52; P. Osbeck (1723—1805)
went to China, 1750—52; P. Lofling (1729—56) was in Spain and South
America, 1754—56; A. Martin (1729—86) 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
A. Sparrman (1748—1820) accompanied him on his second, 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 included in the plan of these journeys, but the results that
were attained have been of very great moment for many branches of modern
geography, and by their means the foundation was laid for scientific explorations
of later date from Sweden.
Of greater importance in this respect than any of those yet named was,
however, O. 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 such other important
observations, especially in botany, that he has been accredited, along with Humboldt,
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