Schomburgk, Sir Robert Hermann

Schomburgk, Sir Robert Hermann (shŏm`bərk), 1804–65, English traveler and explorer, b. Germany. Under the direction of the Royal Geographical Society he went on a trip of botanical and geographical exploration to British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1835. For the British government he later (1841–43) surveyed that colony, outlining the Schomburgk line, a boundary that played a prominent part in subsequent border disputes with Venezuela. Knighted in 1844, Schomburgk was appointed British consul at Santo Domingo (1848) and at Bangkok (1857). He wrote books on British Guiana and Barbados and edited (1848) Walter Raleigh's journal of his second voyage to Guiana.