however, both here and elsewhere, had medicine and natural history for their object; and that his researches were neither barren nor frivolous is demonstrated by his "Amœnitates Exoticæ," one of the most instructive and amusing books which have ever been written on the East.
Towards the conclusion of the year 1686, M. Fabricius, having successfully terminated his negotiations with the Persian court, prepared to leave Ispahan; but Germany being still, says Kæmpfer, engaged in war with France and the Ottoman Porte, he preferred relinquishing his office of secretary to the embassy, and pushing his fortunes in the remoter countries of the East, to the idea of beholding, and perhaps involving himself in the calamities of his native land, which, however he might deplore, he had no power to remedy or alleviate. He therefore took his leave of the ambassador, who did him the honour to accompany him with all his retinue a mile out of Ispahan, and proceeded towards Gombroon, or Bander-Abassi, having, by the friendship of Father du Mons, and the recommendations of M. Fabricius, obtained the office of chief surgeon to the fleet of the Dutch East India Company, then cruising in the Persian Gulf. He long hesitated, he says, whether he should select Egypt or the "Farther East" for the field of his researches; and had not circumstances, which frequently stand in the place of destiny, interposed, it is probable that the charms of the Nile would have proved the more powerful. To a man like Kæmpfer, the offer of becoming chief physician to a Georgian Prince, "with considerable appointments," which was made him about this time, could have held out but small temptation, as he must have been thoroughly acquainted, not only with the general poverty of both prince and people, but likewise with the utter insecurity of person and property in that wretched country.
It was during this journey that he visited the cele-
