From Asia, or at least its eastern part, two species have been described. One of them, L. melanuroides, differs only from L. aegocephala in its smaller size, and is believed to breed in Amurland, wintering in the islands of the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia. The other, L. uropygialis, is closely allied to and often mistaken for L. lapponica, from which it chiefly differs by having the rump barred like the tail. This was found breeding in the extreme north of Siberia by Dr von Middendorff, and ranges to Australia, whence it was, like the last, first described by Gould. (A. N.)
GOEBEN, AUGUST KARL VON (1816–1880), Prussian
general of infantry, came of old Hanoverian stock. Born at
Stade on the 10th of December 1816, he aspired from his earliest
years to the Prussian service rather than that of his own country,
and at the age of seventeen obtained a commission in the 24th
regiment of Prussian infantry. But there was little scope there
for the activities of a young and energetic subaltern, and, leaving
the service in 1836, he entered the Carlist army campaigning in
Spain. In the five campaigns which he made in the service of
Don Carlos he had many and various vicissitudes of fortune.
He had not fought for two months when he fell, severely wounded,
into the hands of the Spanish Royal troops. After eight months’
detention he escaped, but it was not long before he was captured
again. This time his imprisonment was long and painful, and
on two occasions he was compelled to draw lots for his life with
his fellow-captives. When released, he served till 1840 with
distinction. In that year he made his way back, a beggar
without means or clothing, to Prussia. The Carlist lieutenant-colonel
was glad to be re-admitted into the Prussian service as a
second lieutenant, but he was still young, and few subalterns
could at the age of twenty-four claim five years’ meritorious
war service. In a few years we find him serving as captain on the
Great General Staff, and in 1848 he had the good fortune to be
transferred to the staff of the IV. army corps, his immediate
superior being Major von Moltke. The two “coming men”
became fast friends, and their mutual esteem was never disturbed.
In the Baden insurrection Goeben served with distinction on the
staff of Prince William, the future emperor. Staff and regimental
duty (as usual in the Prussian service) alternated for some years
after this, till in 1863 he became major-general commanding the
26th infantry brigade. In 1860, it should be mentioned, he
was present with the Spanish troops in Morocco, and took part
in the battle of Tetuan.
In the first of Prussia’s great wars (1864) he distinguished himself at the head of his brigade at Rackebüll and Sonderburg. In the war of 1866 Lieutenant-General von Goeben commanded the 13th division, of which his old brigade formed part, and, in this higher sphere, once more displayed the qualities of a born leader and skilful tactician. He held almost independent command with conspicuous success in the actions of Dermbach, Laufach, Kissingen, Aschaffenburg, Gerchsheim, Tauber-Bischofsheim and Würzburg. The mobilization of 1870 placed him at the head of the VIII. (Rhineland) army corps, forming part of the First Army under Steinmetz. It was his resolute and energetic leading that contributed mainly to the victory of Spicheren (6th August), and won the only laurels gained on the Prussian right wing at Gravelotte (18th August). Under Manteuffel the VIII. corps took part in the operations about Amiens and Bapaume, and on the 8th of January 1871 Goeben succeeded that general in the command of the First Army, with which he had served throughout the campaign as a corps commander. A fortnight later he had brought the war in northern France to a brilliant conclusion, by the decisive victory of St Quentin (18th and 19th January 1871). The close of the Franco-German War left Goeben one of the most distinguished men in the victorious army. He was colonel of the 28th infantry, and had the grand cross of the Iron Cross. He commanded the VIII. corps at Coblenz until his death in 1880.
General von Goeben left many writings. His memoirs are to be found in his works Vier Jahre in Spanien (Hanover, 1841), Reise-und Lagerbriefe aus Spanien und vom spanischen Heere in Marokko (Hanover, 1863) and in the Darmstadt Allgemeine Militärzeitung. The former French port (Queuleu) at Metz was renamed Goeben after him, and the 28th infantry bears his name. A statue of Goeben by Schaper was erected at Coblenz in 1884.
See G. Zernin, Das Leben des Generals August von Goeben (2 vols., Berlin, 1895–1897); H. Barth, A. von Goeben (Berlin, 1906); and, for his share in the war of 1870–71; H. Kunz, Der Feldzug im N. und N.W. Frankreichs 1870–1871 (Berlin, 1889), and the 14th Monograph of the Great General Staff (1891).
GOEJE, MICHAEL JAN DE (1836–1909), Dutch orientalist,
was born in Friesland in 1836. He devoted himself at an early
age to the study of oriental languages and became especially
proficient in Arabic, under the guidance of Dozy and Juynboll,
to whom he was afterwards an intimate friend and colleague.
He took his degree of doctor at Leiden in 1860, and then studied
for a year in Oxford, where he examined and collated the Bodleian
MSS. of Idrīsī (part being published in 1866, in collaboration
with R. P. Dozy, as Description de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne).
About the same time he wrote Mémoires de l’histoire et de la géographie orientales,
and edited Expugnatio regionum. In
1883, on the death of Dozy, he became Arabic professor at Leiden,
retiring in 1906. He died on the 17th of May 1909. Though
perhaps not a teacher of the first order, he wielded a great
influence during his long professoriate not only over his pupils,
but over theologians and eastern administrators who attended
his lectures, and his many editions of Arabic texts have been of
the highest value to scholars, the most important being his great
edition of Ṭabarī. Though entirely averse from politics, he took
a keen interest in the municipal affairs of Leiden and made a
special study of elementary education. He took the leading part
in the International Congress of Orientalists at Algiers in 1905.
He was a member of the Institut de France, was awarded the
German Order of Merit, and received an honorary doctorate of
Cambridge University. At his death he was president of the
newly formed International Association of Academies of Science.
Among his chief works are Fragmenta historicorum Arabicorum
(1869–1871); Diwan of Moslim ibn al-Wālid (1875); Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum
(1870–1894); Annals of Ṭabari
(1879–1901); edition of Ibn Qutaiba’s biographies (1904);
of the travels of Ibn Jubaye (1907, 5th vol. of Gibb Memorial).
He was also the chief editor of the Encyclopaedia of Islam (vols.
i.-iii.), and contributed many articles to periodicals. He wrote
for the 9th and the present edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
GOES, DAMIÃO DE (1502–1574), Portuguese humanist, was born of a patrician family at Alemquer, in February 1502. Under King John III. he was employed abroad for many years from 1523 on diplomatic and commercial missions, and he travelled over the greater part of Europe. He was intimate with the leading scholars of the time, was acquainted with Luther and other Protestant divines, and in 1532 became the pupil and friend of Erasmus. Goes took his degree at Padua in 1538 after a four years’ course. In 1537, at the instance of his friend Cardinal Sadoleto, he undertook to mediate between the Church and the Lutherans, but failed through the attitude of the Protestants. He married in Flanders a rich and noble Dutch lady, D. Joanna de Hargen, and settled at Louvain, then the literary centre of the Low Countries, where he was living in 1542 when the French besieged the town. He was given the command of the defending forces, and saved Louvain, but was taken prisoner and confined for nine months in France, till he obtained his freedom by a heavy ransom. He was rewarded, however, by a grant of arms from Charles V. He finally returned to Portugal in 1545, with a view of becoming tutor to the king’s son, but he failed to obtain this post, owing to the denunciations of Father Simon Rodriguez, provincial of the Jesuits, who accused Goes of favouring the Lutheran doctrines and of being a disciple of Erasmus. Nevertheless in 1548 he was appointed chief keeper of the archives and royal chronicler, and at once introduced some much-needed reforms into the administration of his office.
In 1558 he was given a commission to write a history of the reign of King Manoel, a task previously confided to João de Barros, but relinquished by him. It was an onerous undertaking for a conscientious historian, since it was necessary to expose
