Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Tschudi, Johann Jakob von

TSCHUDI, Johann Jakob von (choo'-de), Swiss traveller, b. in Glarus, 25 July, 1818. He studied the natural sciences and medicine in the universities of Neufchatel, Leyden, and Paris, and in 1838 sailed for Peru, where he sojourned five years, exploring the country and forming a rich collection of plants in the mountains of the interior. He went to Vienna in 1843, visited Brazil and other countries of South America in 1857-'9, and in 1860 was appointed minister of the Swiss republic to Brazil, which office he retained eight years, devoting most of that time to exploring the country and forming collections of plants for the museums of Neufchatel, Glarus, and Freiburg. In 1868 he was promoted minister to Vienna. His works include “Untersuchungen über die Fauna Perus” (St. Gall, 1844-'7): “Peruanische Reiseskizzen während der Jahre 1838-'42” (2 vols., 1846); “Die Ketchuasprache” (2 vols., Vienna, 1853); “Reise durch die Andes von Südamerika” (Gotha, 1860); “Die brasilianische Provinz Minas-Geraes” (1863); and “Reisen durch Südamerika” (5 vols., Leipsic, 1866-'9). He also edited, in association with Dr. Mariano Eduardo de Rivera, “Antigüedades Peruanas” (Vienna, 1851; translated by Rev. F. L. Hawks, New York, 1853).