Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Niemeyer, Conrade Jacob de

NIEMEYER, Conrade Jacob de (ne-mire), Brazilian engineer, b. in Lisbon, Portugal, 28 Oct., 1788; d. in Rio Janeiro in 1862. He entered the regiment of artillery at Lisbon as a cadet in February, 1803, but in 1833 obtained his retirement with the rank of colonel and gave himself entirely to geographical studies. In 1846 Niemeyer published and dedicated to the Historical and geographical society of Rio Janeiro, of which he had been a member since 1839, his “General Chart of the Empire,” which gained him the diploma of honorary fellow of that society and of the Geographical society of Berlin. In 1856 he was charged with preparing a chorographic chart of the empire, and, notwithstanding his advanced age, he finished his difficult task to the full satisfaction of the provincial governments. The chart was published in Rio Janeiro in 1860.