knighted him in 1845. After a few months' rest, he was given an appointment in the colonial department, and sent to make researches upon the idioms of the aborigines of South America. In 1848 he read before the British association a paper in which he proposed an alphabetical system for the Indian dialects. That same year he was appointed consul-general and chargé d'affaires in the Dominican republic, signed in 1850 an advantageous commercial treaty for Great Britain, and also secured a truce from Soulouque in behalf of the Dominican government. During the following years he contributed to the journal of the Geographical society valuable papers upon the physical geography of the island. He was promoted in 1857 consul-general at Bangkok, Siam, and resided there till 1864, when declining health compelled him to resign. Schomburgk was a member of various European, American, and Asiatic learned societies, and was a knight of the Legion of honor, and of the Prussian order of the Red Eagle. His works include “Voyage in Guiana and upon the Shores of the Orinoco during the Years 1835-'39” (London, 1840; translated into German by his brother Otto, under the title “Reisen in Guiana und am Orinoco in den Jahren 1835-'39,” Leipsic, 1841, with a preface by Alexander von Humboldt); “Researches in Guiana, 1837-'39” (1840); “Description of British Guiana, Geographical and Statistical” (1840); “Views in the Interior of Guiana” (1840); “Baubacenia Alexandrine et Alexandra imperatris” (Brunswick, 1845); “Rapatea Frederici Augusti et Saxo-Frederici regalis” (1845), being monographs of plants discovered by the author in British Guiana; “History of Barbadoes” (London, 1847); and “The Discovery of the Empire of Guiana by Sir Walter Raleigh” (1848). — Schomburgk's brother, Moritz Richard, published an account of the expedition in 1840-'4, under the title “Reisen in Britisch Guiana in den Jahren 1840-'44” (3 vols., Leipsic, 1847-'8).
SCHOOLCRAFT, Lawrence, soldier, b. in
Albany county, N. Y., in 1760; d. in Verona, Oneida
co., N. Y., 7 June, 1840. His grandfather, James,
came from England in the reign of Queen Anne,
settled in Albany county as a surveyor, and in
later life was a teacher, and adopted the name of
“Schoolcraft” in the place of his original family
name of Calcraft. The grandson served during
the Revolutionary war, and as a colonel in the second
war with Great Britain. He was the superintendent
of a large glass-factory ten miles west of
Albany.—His son, Henry Rowe, ethnologist, b. in
Albany county, N. Y., 28 March, 1793; d. in
Washington, D. C., 10 Dec., 1804, was educated at
Middlebury college, Vt., and at Union, where he
pursued the studies of chemistry and mineralogy,
learned the art of glass-making, and began a treatise
on the subject entitled “Vitreology,” the first
part of which was published (Utica, 1817). In
1817-'18 he travelled in Missouri and Arkansas,
and returned with a large collection of geological
and mineralogical specimens. In 1820 he was
appointed geologist to Gen. Lewis Cass's exploring
expedition to Lake Superior and the head-waters of
Mississippi river. He was secretary of a commission
to treat with the Indians at Chicago, and, after
a journey through Illinois and along Wabash and
Miami rivers, was in 1822 appointed Indian agent
for the tribes of the lake region, establishing
himself at Sault Sainte Marie, and afterward at Mackinaw,
where, in 1823, he married Jane Johnston,
granddaughter of Waboojeeg, a noted Ojibway
chief, who had received her education in Europe.
In 1828 he founded the Michigan historical society,
and in 1831 the Algic society. From 1828 till
1832 he was a member of the territorial legislature
of Michigan. In 1832 he led a government
expedition, which
followed the Mississippi
river up to
its source in Itasca
lake. In 1836
he negotiated a
treaty with the
Indians on the
upper lakes for
the cession to the
United States of
16,000,000 acres
of their lands.
He was then
appointed acting
superintendent of
Indian affairs, and
in 1839 chief
disbursing agent for
the northern
department. On his
return from
Europe in 1842 he
made a tour through western Virginia, Ohio, and
Canada. He was appointed by the New York
legislature in 1845 a commissioner to take the census of
the Indians in the state, and collect information
concerning the Six Nations. After the performance of
this task, congress authorized him, on 3 March, 1847,
to obtain through the Indian bureau reports relating
to all the Indian tribes of the country, and to
collate and edit the information. In this work he
spent the remaining years of his life. Through his
influence many laws were enacted for the protection
and benefit of the Indians. Numerous scientific
societies in the United States and Europe elected
him to membership, and the University of Geneva
gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1846. He was
the author of numerous poems, lectures, and
reports on Indian subjects, besides thirty-one larger
works. Two of his lectures before the Algic
society at Detroit on the “Grammatical Construction
of the Indian Languages” were translated into
French by Peter S. Duponceau, and gained for
their author a gold medal from the French institute.
His publications include “A View of the
Lead-Mines of Missouri, including Observations on
the Minerology and Geology of Missouri and
Arkansas” (New York, 1819); a poem called
“Transallegania, or the Groans of Missouri” (1820);
“Journal of a Tour in the Interior of Missouri and
Arkansas” (1820); “Travels from Detroit to the
Sources of the Mississippi with an Expedition
under Lewis Cass” (Albany, 1821); “Travels in the
Central Portions of Mississippi Valley” (New York,
1825); “The Rise of the West, or a Prospect of the
Mississippi Valley,” a poem (Detroit, 1827);
“Indian Melodies,” a poem (1830); “The Man of
Bronze” (1834); “Narrative of an Expedition
through the Upper Mississippi to Itasca Lake”
(New York, 1834); “Iosco, or the Vale of Norma”
(Detroit, 1834); “Algic Researches,” a book of
Indian allegories and legends (New York, 1839);
“Cyclopædia indianensis,” of which only a single
number was issued (1842); “Alhalla, or the Land
of Talladega,” a poem published under the pen-name
“Henry Rowe Colcraft” (1843); “Oneota,
or Characteristics of the Red Race of America”
(1844-'5), which was republished under the title of
“The Indian and his Wigwam” (1848); “Report
on Aboriginal Names and the Geographical
Terminology of New York” (1845); “Plan for Investigating
