Луи Антуан де Бугенвиль: Французский адмирал и исследователь

French admiral and explorer

Louis Antoine, Comte de Bougainville ('/b//uː//ɡ//ən//v//ɪ//l/, /USalso/,/b//uː//ɡ//æ̃/'/v//iː//l/, lwi ɑ̃twan də buɡɛ̃vil; 12 November 1729 – 31 August 1811) was a French admiral and explorer. A contemporary of the British explorer James Cook, he took part in the Seven Years' War in North America and the American Revolutionary War against Britain. Bougainville later gained fame for his expeditions, including a circumnavigation of the globe in a scientific expedition in 1763, the first recorded settlement on the Falkland Islands, and voyages into the Pacific Ocean. Bougainville Island of Papua New Guinea as well as the Bougainvillea flower are named after him.

Bougainville was born in Paris, the capital of the Kingdom of France, the son of notary Pierre Yves de Bougainville (1688–1756), on 12 November 1729. In early life, he studied law, but soon abandoned the profession. In 1753, he entered the French Army in the corps of Musketeers of the Guard. At the age of twenty five he published a treatise on integral calculus, as a supplement to Guillaume de l'Hôpital's treatise, Des infiniment petits. In 1755 he was sent to England as secretary to the French embassy in London, where he was made a member of the Royal Society.

In 1756 Bougainville was stationed in Canada as captain of dragoons and aide de camp to the Marquis de Montcalm. He took an active part in the capture of Fort Oswego in 1756 and the 1757 Battle of Fort William Henry. He was wounded in 1758 at the successful defence of Fort Carillon. He sailed back to France the following winter, under orders from the marquis to obtain additional military resources for the colony. During this crossing, he continued to learn about the ways of the sea, skills that would later serve him well. Having distinguished himself in the war against Britain, Bougainville was rewarded with the Cross of St Louis and promoted to colonel. When he returned to Canada the following year, he had gained few supplies. The metropolitan officials had decided that, "When the house is on fire, one does not worry about the stables". During the pivotal year of 1759 (see Seven Years' War and French and Indian War), Bougainville participated in the defence of fortified Quebec, the capital of New France. With a small elite troop under his command, among which were the Grenadiers and the Volontaires à cheval, he patrolled the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, upstream from the city; he prevented the British several times from landing and cutting communications with Montreal. He did not have sufficient time, however, to rally his troops and attack the British rear when they successfully ascended the Plains of Abraham and attacked Quebec on 13 September. Following the death of the Marquis de Montcalm and the fall of Québec on 18 September 1759 – after the colonel's aborted attempt to resupply the besieged city – Bougainville was dispatched to the western front by his new commanding officer, the Chevalier de Lévis. He attempted to stop the three pronged attack against Montréal from his entrenchments at Île aux Noix. He was among the officers who accompanied Lévis to Saint Helen's Island off Montreal for the last French stand in North America before the general capitulation of September 1760. Of the war, Bougainville wrote in his journal: "It is an abominable kind of war. The very air we breathe is contagious of insensibility and hardness". Shipped back to Europe along with the other French officers, all deprived of military honours by the victors, Bougainville was prohibited by the terms of surrender from any further active duty against the British. He spent the remaining years of the Seven Years' War (1761 to 1763) as a diplomat, helping to negotiate the Treaty of Paris. Under this France ceded most of New France east of the Mississippi River to the British Empire.

After the peace, the French decided to colonise the "Îles Malouines" (Falkland Islands). These islands were at that time almost unknown. At his own expense, Bougainville undertook the task of resettling Acadians who had been deported to France by the British because of their refusal to sign loyalty oaths. On 15 September 1763, Bougainville set out from France with the frigate L'Aigle (Eagle) (captained by Nicolas Pierre Duclos Guyot) and the sloop Le Sphinz (Sphinx) (captained by François Chenard de la Giraudais). This expedition included the naturalist and writer Antoine Joseph Pernety (known as Dom Pernety), the priest and chronicler accompanying the expedition, together with the engineer and geographer Lhuillier de la Serre. The expedition arrived in late January 1764 in French Bay (later renamed Berkeley Sound). They landed at Port Louis named after King Louis XV. A formal ceremony of possession of the Islands was held on 5 April 1764, after which Bougainville and Pernety returned to France. Louis XV formally ratified possession on 12 September 1764.</blockquote>

In 1766, Bougainville received from Louis XV permission to circumnavigate the globe. He would become the 14th navigator, and the first Frenchman, to sail around the world (though some are led to believe that Richard of Normandie, who was part of the fleet of Ferdinand Magellan during his circumnavigation, was the first Frenchman to do so). Completion of his mission bolstered the prestige of France following its defeats during the Seven Years' War. This was the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe with professional naturalists and geographers aboard. Bougainville left Nantes on 15 November 1766 with two ships: Boudeuse (captain : Nicolas Pierre Duclos Guyot) and the Étoile (commanded by François Chenard de la Giraudais). This was a large expedition, with a crew of 214 aboard Boudeuse and 116 aboard Étoile. Included in the party was the botanist Philibert Commerçon (who named the flower Bougainvillea) and his valet. Commerson's valet was later revealed to be a woman Jeanne Barret (also Baré or Baret); she would become the first woman known to circumnavigate the globe. Other notable people on this expedition were the astronomer Pierre Antoine Veron; the surgeon of Boudeuse Dr. Louis Claude Laporte; the surgeon of the Étoile Dr. François Vives; the engineer and cartographer aboard the Étoile Charles Routier de Romainville; and the writer and historian Louis Antoine Starot de Saint Germain. Bougainville brought to France a Tahitian named Ahutoru who volunteered to come with him. In France, Bougainville introduced Ahutoru to the high society, including introducing him to the King and Queen at Versailles. Bougainville also underwrote part of the costs for Ahutoru's return to Tahiti after a two year absence. The voyage took place under Marion Dufresne, but Ahutoru died en route of smallpox in October 1771.

In 1771, Bougainville published his travel log from the expedition under the title Le voyage autour du monde, par la frégate La Boudeuse, et la flûte L'Étoile (a. k. a. Voyage autour du monde and A Voyage Around the World). The book describes the geography, biology and anthropology of Argentina (then a Spanish colony), Patagonia, Tahiti and Indonesia (then a Dutch colony). The book was a sensation, especially the description of Tahitian society. Bougainville described it as an earthly paradise where men and women lived in blissful innocence, far from the corruption of civilisation. Bougainville's descriptions powerfully expressed the concept of the noble savage, influencing the utopian thoughts of philosophers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau before the advent of the French Revolution. Denis Diderot's book Supplément au voyage de Bougainville retells the story of Bougainville's landing on Tahiti, narrated by an anonymous reader to one of his friends. Diderot used his fictional approach, including a description of the Tahitians as noble savages, to criticise Western ways of living and thinking.

After several years of absence, Bougainville again accepted a naval command. In 1777, he was captain of the 74 gun Bien Aimé. He took part in the War of American Independence, playing a crucial part in the French victory at the Battle of the Chesapeake. At the Battle of the Saintes, Bougainville commanded the 80 gun Auguste. He managed to rally eight ships of his own division, and bringing them safely into Saint Eustace after the defeat of Comte de Grasse. He was promoted to chef d'escadre. When he re entered the Army, he was commissioned as maréchal de camp. After Peace of Paris in 1783, Bougainville returned to Paris. He obtained the place of associate of the Académie de Marine. He proposed a voyage of discovery to the North Pole, but did not gain the support of the French government.

In 1787, he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He obtained the rank of vice admiral in 1791. In 1794, having escaped from the Reign of Terror, he retired to his estate in Normandy. Returning to Paris, he was one of the founding members of the Bureau des Longitudes. In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte, at the time serving as First Consul of the Republic, made him a senator. He died in Paris on 31 August 1811, during Napoleon's reign of the First French Empire.

Bougainville's name is given to the largest eastern island of Papua New Guinea; and to the strait which divides it from the island of Choiseul. It is also applied to the strait between Mallicollo and Espiritu Santo islands of the New Hebrides group. In the Falklands, Port Louis, and "Isla Bougainville" (Lively Island's Spanish name) commemorate him. The genus of South American climbing shrubs with colourful bracts, Bougainvillea, is named after him. 1804, he was made a Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur in 1804. 1808, Napoleon gave him the title of count (the Comte de Bougainville). Thirteen ships of the French Navy have been named in his honour, see French ship Bougainville.