Martin Dobrizhoffer

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Martin Dobrizhoffer (born September 7, 1717 in Graz, Styria; died July 17, 1791) was an Austrian Roman Catholic missionary.

He joined the Society of Jesus in 1736, and in 1749 proceeded to Paraguay, where for eighteen years he worked devotedly first among the Guaranis, and then among the Abipones. Returning to Europe on the expulsion of the Jesuits from South America, he settled at Vienna, obtained the friendship of Maria Theresa, survived the extinction of his order and composed the history of his mission.

The lively if rather garrulous book on which his title to remembrance rests, appeared at Vienna in 1784, in the author's own Latin, and in a German translation by Professor Krail of the University of Pest. Of its contents some idea may be obtained from its extended title:

Historia de Abipnibus, Equestri Bellicosaque Paraguariae Natione, locupletata Copiosis Barbararum Gentium, Urbium, Fluminum, Ferarum, A mphibicrum, Insectorum, Serpentium praecipuorum, Piscium, Avium, A rborum, Plant arum aliarumque ejusdem Provinciae Pro prietatum Observationibus

In 1822 there appeared in London an anonymous translation sometimes ascribed to Southey, but really the work of Sara Coleridge, who had undertaken the task to defray the college expenses of one of her brothers. A delicate compliment was paid to the translator by Southey in the third canto of his Tale of Paraguay, the story of which was derived from the pages of Dobrinhoffer's narrative.

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.