KLUBER, Melchior, German explorer, born in Dessau in 1713; died in Gotha in 1764. He entered the ministry and became chaplain of the Prince of Lippe-Detmold in 1752. He had read the pleadings of Las Casas in behalf of the Indians, and induced the prince to send him to South America to ascertain the real condition of the Indians two centuries after the conquest. Sailing from Bremen in November, 17,56, he landed in the following January in Santo Domingo, but met there with difficulties and was for some time unable to proceed on his mission. At last he won the friendship of the lieutenant of the king in Les Cayes, who gave him French passports that opened him access to the Spanish dominions. From 1757 till 1759 Klhber visited the West Indies, Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica, Saint Christopher, Saint Thomas, and Saint Croix, going afterward to Cayenne, and crossed Brazil to Buenos Ayres in 1759-'61, returning home in July, 1761. He published "Abhandlung von einigen in Cuba gefundenen Beinen" (Gotha, 1762); "Reisen im Innern yon Cuba, Santo Domingo, Saner Thomas, und Guiana" (2 vols., Dessau, 1762);" Reisen in Sued Brazil" (Gotha, 1764); and "Hundert Tage auf Reisen in Saner Christophe" (1764).