1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Heuglin, Theodor von

​HEUGLIN, THEODOR VON (1824–1876), German travellerin north-east Africa, was born on the 20th of March 1824 atHirschlanden near Leonberg in Württemberg. His father wasa Protestant pastor, and he was trained to be a mining engineer.He was ambitious, however, to become a scientific investigatorof unknown regions, and with that object studied the naturalsciences, especially zoology. In 1850 he went to Egypt wherehe learnt Arabic, afterwards visiting Arabia Petraea. In 1852he accompanied Dr Reitz, Austrian consul at Khartum, on ajourney to Abyssinia, and in the next year was appointedDr Reitz’s successor in the consulate. While he held thispost he travelled in Abyssinia and Kordofan, making avaluable collection of natural history specimens. In 1857he journeyed through the coast lands of the African side of theRed Sea, and along the Somali coast. In 1860 he was chosen ​leader of an expedition to search for Eduard Vogel, his companionsincluding Werner Munzinger, Gottlob Kinzelbach,and Dr Hermann Steudner. In June 1861 the party landed atMassawa, having instructions to go direct to Khartum and thenceto Wadai, where Vogel was thought to be detained. Heuglin,accompanied by Dr Steudner, turned aside and made a widedetour through Abyssinia and the Galla country, and in consequencethe leadership of the expedition was taken from him.He and Steudner reached Khartum in 1862 and there joined theparty organized by Miss Tinné. With her or on their ownaccount, they travelled up the White Nile to Gondokoro andexplored a great part of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, where Steudnerdied of fever on the 10th of April 1863. Heuglin returned toEurope at the end of 1864. In 1870 and 1871 he made a valuableseries of explorations in Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya; but1875 found him again in north-east Africa, in the country ofthe Beni Amer and northern Abyssinia. He was preparingfor an exploration of the island of Sokotra, when he died, atStuttgart, on the 5th of November 1876. It is principally byhis zoological, and more especially his ornithological, laboursthat Heuglin has taken rank as an independent authority.