APPENDIX V.                          477

looked, is, as will be seen, somewhat different. For a facsimile drawing
of the two hundred gold mohur piece, intrinsically worth, probably,
;^45o sterling, see p. 3, Proc. As. Soc. Bengal, for 1883.
 

APPENDIX   V.

Some particulars 7'elaling to Mr. H[enry^ 0[iddinburgh'\.

For a long time I was unable to discover the name of the Translator
of the first English edition, 1671-1672, of Bernier's Travels, simply
stated as H. O. on the title-page thereof. At last, when examining
the 1684 edition. No. 10 of the Bibliography, I found out that it was
Henry Ouldinburgh.

Other investigations followed, and at length I identified the trans¬
lator as the first Secretary of the Royal Society. By the gracious per¬
mission of the President and Council of that Society I was permitted to
examine the Oldenburg (for so he spells his name) MSS. in their posses¬
sion, where in a letter-book—M. i., and indexed as 62—I found a
transcript, 6 pp. folio, of the portion of the letter from M. de Monceaux,
which is printed in the first volume of the History of the late Revo¬
lution, etc., London, 1671, as 'giving a character of the book here
Englished, and its author,' and which I have reprinted at pp. xlix.-li.
of my edition.

This transcript, in a contemporary hand, not that of Henry Olden¬
burg, however, is headed Extraict dune Lettre de \ Monsieur De
Monceaux \ A Monsieur Oldenbourg Secretaire—De la societe Royale j
and is dated Paris, 26th July 1670, not l6th as printed in the London
edition of 1671, an error which has been copied in all subsequent issues.

I am also permitted by the Council of the Royal Society to reprint
the following biographical sketch of their first Secretary, which was
compiled in i860 by Charles Richard Welch, Assistant Secretary and
Librarian, in connection with a descriptive catalogue of the portraits in
the possession of the Society :—

Henry Oldenbtirg, F. R.S., Painted by John van Cleef born at
Bremen 1626, died at Charlton, Kent, 1676.

' Oldenburg descended from the Counts of Oldenburg in Westphalia,
from whom he derived his name. He came to England as Consul for
Bremen, and on losing that appointment undertook the education of
Lord O'Brien. In 1656 he entered as student in the University of
Oxford, and while there made the acquaintance of those philosophers
who   originated  the  Royal  Society.     On  the  incorporation of this