Johann Baptist Von Spix - Expedition To Brazil

Expedition To Brazil

In 1817 Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius travelled to Brazil with a group of Austrian naturalists who accompanied Maria Leopoldina of Austria. First they went to Rio de Janeiro, but soon they left the Austrian group and travelled on their own through Brazil. Spix and Martius travelled from south Rio to north São Paulo. During this part of their journey they where accompanied by the Austrian painter Thomas Ender. Then they continued to Belo Horzinte and Diamantina, where they described the mining of diamants. From there they went further into the continent and then back to the coast of Salvador.

They crossed the dry Caatinga in northeast Brazil, suffered from different severe diseases and several times almost died of thirst. During the whole journey they collected and described animals and plants, but also everything else of scintific interrest. They also described indigenous people and their habits, as well as anything of possible economocal importance. They also investigated the giant Bendegó meteorite. They discovered fossile fishes of the Santana Formation.

The last part of the expedition was the journey up to the Amazonas river. There Spix and Martius went on separate routes to explore more. Spix went up to Tabatinga, to the border of Peru, and from Manaus upwards the Rio Negro. Martius shipped the Yupurá and there he brought to Munich two Indian children from two different tribes, the Juri and Miranha. The children where baptized Johannes and Isabella. They returned in 1820 to Munich with specimens of thousands of plants, animals and ethnological objects. These formed the basis of the collection of the Natural History Museum in Munich.