BARROW, Sir Jinx (1764-1848). An Eng lish traveler and writer, born at Ulverston. At an early age he devoted himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy. He visited Green land with a whaler about 1784, and from 1786-91 taught mathematics at Greenwich. In 1792 he received an appointment as private secretary and keeper of accounts to Lord Macartney, Am bassador to China, and availed himself of this opportunity to learn the Chinese language, and to collect valuable materials afterwards pub lished in part in the Quarterly Reriew and in his Travels to China ( 1804 ) . When Lord Macartney became Governor of Cape Colony, Barrow made extensive excursions in the interior of the country, which he described in his Tra eels in the Interior of Southern _Africa (2 vols., 1801 03). He returned to London in 1804, and was appointed by Lord Melville Secretary to the Ad miralty, which post he continued to hold till 1845. He published A 'Voyage to Cochin-China
in the Years 1792 and 179,3 (1806) : The Life of Macartney (2 vols., 1807) : A Chronological History of 1 oyayes into the Arctic Regions (181S) ; and a series of lives of English naval officers. Under Peel's Ministry, in 18:35, he was raised to a baronetcy. In 1845 he retired from public service. Two years afterwards he pub lished An Autobiographical Memoir (1847) and Sketches of the Royal Society. More than almost any other Englishman of his time, he promoted Arctic discoveries. His name was given to Bar row Strait, Cape Barrow, and Point ];arrow. With him also originated the idea of the Royal Geographical Society, founded in 1830, of which he was- vice-president till his death.