Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Lottenschiold, Mathias

LOTTENSCHIOLD, Mathias (lot'-ten-ske-old), German explorer, b. in Greifenberg, Pomerania, in 1729; d. in Arolsen, Waldeck, in 1782. He was a Jesuit, and was employed for fifteen years in the missions of Uruguay and Paraguay, where he had special charge of the manufacturing that was done by the Indians for the company. After the expulsion of the order in 1767, he remained in the country as a teacher, and severed his connection with his former colleagues, becoming converted to Protestantism toward the close of his career. As he was in comfortable circumstances, he devoted several years to the exploration of South America before returning home, visited Peru, Chili, and Central America in 1770-'4, and published “Metallurgische Reisen durch Amerika” (2 vols., Leipsic, 1776); “Geognostische Bemerkungen über die basaltischen Gebilde der Cordilleren von Peru” (Dresden, 1779); “Reise auf dem La Plata- und Paraguay-Flusse” (2 vols., Leipsic, 1780); “Umgebungen von Rio de Janeiro” (1780); “Geschichte der Entdeckung von Paraguay” (1781): “Geschichte und Zustände der Indianer in Süd-Amerika” (2 vols., 1782); and several less important works.