KNOX, Robert. London 8.2.1641 — Wimbledon, London 19.6.1720. British (Scottish) Traveller. In South Asia in 1657-94 (1659-79 prisoner in Ceylon). Son of Robert Knox, a Puritan and commander in E.I.C.’s service. Grew up in Wimbledon, Surrey. After mother’s death sailed with his father in January 1657 to Fort George. On…
KLEMENC (Klementz), Dmitrij Aleksandrovič. Gorjaino, gub. Samara 14.12.1848 — Moscow 8.1.1914. Russian Central Asian Scholar and Traveller. Born in a land owner family belonging to minor nobility. Educated in Samara and Kazan, studies at physico-mathematical faculties at Kazan and from 1870 at St.Petersburg. In his youth he was a noted…
KLAPROTH, Heinrich Julius von. Berlin 11.10.1783 — Paris 28.8.1835. German Oriental Scholar in Russia and France. Son of the mineralogist and chemist (discoverer of uranium) Martin-Heinrich Klaproth (1743–1817) and Christine Sophie Lehmann (1748–1803). Gymnasium in Berlin. As a fifteen years old schoolboy he started the study of Chinese from Bayer’s…
KETELAAR, Joan Josua (Johann Joshua K., Kettler, Kessler). Elbing, East Prussia (now Elbląg in Poland) 25.12.1659 — Gamroon (Bandar Abbās) 12.5.1716. German Traveller. The eldest son of Josua Kettler, a bookbinder, apprenticed to the same craft, but accused for stealing and attempted murder of his master had to escape to…
KEPHALAS, Nikolaos (Nicola Chiefala di Zante; Νικόλαος Κεφαλᾶς). Zakynthos 1763 or 1770 — Constaninople 1847 or Thessaloniki 1850. Greek Traveller in India. Born in a noble, but poor family in Zakynthos, Ionian Islands, then Venetian domain. Captain, participated in the Greek revolution from its very beginning (but also said to…
HUTH, Georg. Krotoschin, Posen (now Krotoszyn in Poland) 25.2.1867 — Berlin 1.6.1906. German Indologist and Tibetologist. Born in a Jewish family in the then Prussian part of Poland, where his father Aron Huth (d. 1893) was Rector of a Jewish school, mother Keile Pincus (thus Vogel & ancestry.com, Knüppel has…
HUS (Hosti) Rasinjanin, Juraj (Latin Georgius Huszthius). Rasinja 1510 (or earlier?) — Požun 1566 (or later?). Croatian Traveller. He was forcibly enlistened by Turks in 1532 and lived in Constantinople. Freed in 1536 he took service as a trumpeter by an Egyptian see captain and participated in the expedition sent…
HUMBOLDT, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von. Berlin 14.9.1769 — Berlin 6.5.1859. German Geographer and Explorer. Son of the Prussian Kammerherr and Major Alexander Georg von Humboldt (1720–1779, his father Johannes Paul von Humboldt had obtained the Prussian title of nobility in 1738) and Marie Elisabeth von Holwede (a widow, née von…
HÜGEL, Carl Alexander Anselm, Freiherr von. Regensburg 25.4.1796 — Brussels 2.6.1870. Austrian Diplomat, Traveller, Naturalist and Horticulturist. Son of Johann Aloys Josef, Freiherr von Hügel (1753–1825), a diplomat and statesman, and Susanne von Holthoff. Began law studies at Heidelberg, but soon, in 1811, joined Austrian army and served in Napoleonic…
HUC, Évariste-Régis. Caylus (Tarn-et-Garonne) 1.8.1813 — Paris 31.3.1860. French Lazarist Missionary in China. Son of Jacques-François-Régis Huc and Marie-Rose Maleterre. Seminary in Toulouse. In the age of 24 joined the Vincentian order (C.M.) in Paris, 1838 ordained priest and arrived in China in 1839. Worked in Macao and Peking and…