DRAKENBERO, CHRISTIAN JACOBSEN, one of the most extraordinary instances of longevity on record, was born on the 19th of November 1626, at Blomsholm in Norway. The son of a sea-captain, he went in his thirteenth year to sea, and continued a seafaring life WI 1894, when in his sixty-eighth year he was captured on a voyage from Hamburg to Spain by Algerine pirates. He continued in slavery at Algiers, Tripoli, and elsewhere till 1710, when, by the assistance of an Englishman named John Smith, he and five other slaves made their escape from Aleppo, and arrived in safety iu Smith's vessel at Bor deaux, where Drakenberg heard there was war between Denmark and Sweden, and went home to take part in it In 1712, Drakenberg, when at Christiania, in a quarrel with Lieutenant Wessel for not taking off his hat to him, was struck by that officer with his sword, on which ho wrenched the sword from the lieutenant's hand, and threw it over a house. Ile was put in irons, but released after an hour's confinement, the officer probably not feeling very well satisfied with himself at having assaulted a man of eighty-six. It was this Lieutenant Weasel who afterwards became, under the name of Admiral Tordeuskigld, the most distinguished seaman Denmark has produced.
Drakenberg took his leave of the sea in 1717, on account of weak ness of sight, hut was still able to do work ou land, and in 1723 was taken into the service of Count Dauneskjold Samsoe, with whom he afterwards went to Copenhagen. In August 1732, as ho was waiting behind the count's chair at table, his master told some of the foreign ministers who were his guests of his servant's being more than a hundred years old ; but they refused to believe him. As the con versation was carried on in French they thought Drakeoberg did not understand them ; hut he was acquainted with that language, and was seized with such indignation that he went out of the room, and, with out saying a word to any one, set off on foot through Sitelland on his way to Norway. On the 2nd of December, in the same year, he
procured his baptismal certificate, and in tho next February made his reappearance at Copenhagen, after a long journey on foot through Sweden, with the proof that he was then 106 years old.. In 1735 he was presented to the King of Denmark; and in 1737, being then in his 111th year, he was married to a widow of sixty, who died a few years after. About 1759 he went to live at Aarhuus, and still continued to take long exercises on foot; but his eyelids were then grown so heavy that ho could not lift them, and was therefore obliged to have some one to lead him. Ile died very quietly, after thirteen days' illness, on the 9th of October 1772, at the age of a hundred and forty-five years and more than ten months. His strength was so remarkable that, it is said, on an officer once observing to him, "You are a hundred and twenty years old, I believe," Drakenberg took him by the baud, and pressed it so hard that the officer suck on his knee. " Now, you see," said Drakenberg, "that I am twenty years old ; the hundred I have thrown away." Ile was of middle size, and very red in the face, but otherwise good-looking. In his food ho was dainty, but he was never known to be drunk. Ho was in disposition lustful, prone to anger, and vindictive.
Ile was buried in the cathedral of Aarhuus, whore Sohytte, the author of a description of the building, remarks, iu 1835, that his body remained after sixty-three years In excellent preservation, a kind of natural mummy, and was made a show of to visitors.