FITCH, Ralph

FITCH, Ralph. 1550? — London (?) 1611. English Merchant and Traveller in India. In February 1583 left London with other merchants of the Levant Company (with John Newberry as leader) with the purpose of opening trade with India. They travelled through Tripolis, Aleppo (May), Baghdad and Basra to Ormuz (September),…

Continue reading

FINCH, William

FINCH, William. 15?? — Baghdad ?.8.1613. British Merchant and Traveller in India. Native of London. He came to Surat with Hawkins in 1608 and had to stay there because of an illness, but joined later Hawkins in spring 1610 at Jahangir’s court and spent one and a half year in…

Continue reading

FILCHNER, Wilhelm

FILCHNER, Wilhelm. Munich (or Bayreuth?) 13.9.1877 — Zürich 7.5.1957. German Geodesist and Explorer. Son of Eduard F. (1836-1882), Lazarettverwaltungsinspektor in Bayreuth, and Rosine von Leistner (1855-1908), Catholic. Lost early his father and lived in Munich with his mother and uncle. After school entered military career. As a second lieutenant he…

Continue reading

FEDERICI, Cesare de

FEDERICI, Cesare de (Fedrici). Erbanno (Brescia) c. 1530 — 1600/03. Italian (Venetian) Merchant and Traveller in India. Left Venice in 1567 (Charpentier & Lach 1563, long stay in the Near East), travelled via Aleppo and Basra to Ormuz, by ship to Diu and Goa. From Goa he went by land…

Continue reading

FALCONER, Hugh

FALCONER, Hugh. Forres, Moray 29.2.1808 — London 31.1.1865. British (Scottish) Physician, Botanist, Palaeontologist, Geologist and Traveller in India. Son of David Falconer and Isabel Mackrae, educated at Forres and Aberdeen University. M.D. 1829 Edinburgh. Joined the E.I.C.’s medical service in Bengal in 1830, succeeded Royle in 1832 as Superintendent of…

Continue reading

EVANS-WENTZ, W. Y.

EVANS-WENTZ, Walter Yeeling (born Wentz, added his mother’s surname c. 1910). Trento, N.J. 2.2.1878 — Encinitas, Calif. 17.7.1966. U.S. Traveller, Anthropologist and Tibetologist. Son of Christopher Wentz, a wealthy estate owner from New Jersey with German origin, and Mary Evans Cook, of Irish descent. Originally Baptist, his father turned to…

Continue reading

ELPHINSTONE, Mountstuart

ELPHINSTONE, Mountstuart. Dumbarton, Scotland 6.10.1779 — Hookwood, Surrey 20.11.1859. British (Scottish) Civil Servant in India. Son of John, the 11th Baron E., and Anne Ruthven. Educated in Edinburgh and Kensington. From 1795 writer in E.I.C.’s service, was sent to Benares, where he soon learned Persian and Hindi and barely escaped…

Continue reading

ELIAS, Ney

ELIAS, Ney. Widmore, Bromley, Kent 10.2.1844 — London 31.5.1897. British Diplomat and Explorer. Son of Ney Elias, a merchant with Jewish background, and his wife Sophia, educated in London, Paris and Dresden. “Went to Shanghai in a merchant’s firm in 1866, led an expedition in 1868 to examine the channels…

Continue reading

DUTREUIL DE RHINS, Jules-Léon

DUTREUIL DE RHINS, Jules-Léon. Saint-Étienne (Loire) 2.1.1846 — Tong-mbon-ndo in Kham 5.6.1894. French Marine Officer, Cartographer, Traveller and Explorer. Son of Jean-Denis D. de R. and Jeanne Félicité Blondart. Born in the Loire area, joined early the navy. In the 1870s captain. In 1876 he commanded the detachment of sixty…

Continue reading

DUFF (Mrs. Rickmers), C. Mabel

DUFF (Mrs. Rickmers), Christian Mabel. Calcutta 7.12.1866 — Munich 24.12.1939. British (Scottish) Traveller and Indologist. Daughter of William Pirie Duff, a merchant in Calcutta, granddaughter of the pioneer of Scottish mission in India, Dr. Alexander Duff (1806–1876). Educated in London and Berlin, she studied Sanskrit at Kiel under Deussen. From…

Continue reading