Nicholas MiklouhoMaclay was a Russian explorer, ethnologist, anthropologist and biologist, who became famous as the first scientist to settle among and study people who had never seen a European. The Sinhalese endowed him with a second surname, Maclay, which means giver of food, as well as the honorific Slamat, which means good.
MiklouhoMaclay was born in a temporary workers camp in Borovichi county , Novgorod Governorate in Russia, a son of a civil engineer working on the construction of the MoscowSt. Petersburg Railway. His Ukrainian father, Nikolai Illich Myklukha, was born in 1818, in Starodub, Chernigov Governorate, and descended from Stepan Myklukha, a Zaporozhian Cossack who was awarded the title of noble of the Empire by Catherine II for his military exploits during the RussoTurkish War , which included the capture of the Ochakov fortress. In fact, his Cossack lineage was extensive and also included the Otaman of Zaporizhian Host Okhrim Maklukha, who later became the prototype of Nikolai Gogols main character Taras Bulba. His paternal grandparents were friends of Gogols. About his origins, MiklouhoMaclay wrote
Source: Wikipedia