Falkner, Thomas
Thomas Falkner (October 6, 1707 - January 30, 1784) was an English Jesuit missionary, explorer and physician. He was born in Manchester to an apothecary father. In about 1731 was ship's surgeon aboard Assiento, a slave vessel operatiing between Guinea and Buenos Aires, but his poor health led the ship's captain to leave him in Buenos Aires to recuperate. His convalescence was in the hands of the superior of the Jesuit College there, and upon regaining his health Falkner converted to Catholicism, and became a Jesuit priest. He spent forty years in the Patagonia region of South America, assisting in missions to the indigenous population there. As a result he became a primary explorer for the southern extremes of South America. His experiences informed the report of the region in The Description of Patagonia, written by William Combe and published in 1774 after Falkner's return to England in around 1772. The book provided an important record of the history and the flora and fauna of that part of the world. He is credited for recording the first fossil in Argentina (identified by him as a large armadillo, later to be identified as belonging to a glyptodon.) Falkner's reports also informed the map drawn by Thomas Kitchin for inclusion in The Description of Patagonia.
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