LOUIS-ANTOINE OF BOUGAINVILLE and La BOUDEUSE

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Comte Louis-Antoine of Bougainville was born on November 12th, 1729 in Paris. Officer of the French navy and explorer, it was officially the first French to realize the world tour in 1766.

Having crossed the Magellan Strait aboard the ship « La BOUDEUSE » (along with the ship « L’ÉTOILE »), he passed in March 1768, the Tuamotu Archipelago. He discovered the atolls of Vahitahi and Akiaki, and also saw the island of Hao, discovered previously by Fernandez de Quiros. On April 2nd, he entered the bay of Matavai in Tahiti, discovered earlier by Samuel Wallis. It dropped anchor in Hitia'a bay, where he met Ahutoru a native of Raiatea, and under the insistence of the chief Ereti, he did the journey to Paris where Bougainville who presented him to the king and the Parisian society. Unfortunately, it is during his return journey, after a stopover in Mauritius Island that he contracted smallpox. He died on November 7th, 1771. At dawn, after the prayer for the dead, its body was immersed with the honors of the royal navy in front of Fort Dauphin. By means of Ahutoru, Bougainville was able during its journey to exchange and to discover the native peoples of the Pacific islands and Philibert Commerson botanist aboard “L’ÉTOILE” will have taken advantage of his knowledge in botany. The trickery of the botanist was moreover discovered as that his domestic was in fact his partner disguised as boy that’s how Jeanne Baret was the first woman who did round the world. Bougainville published in 1772 " Journey around the world " in which he redrew his adventure in particular his invaluable geographical, ethnographical, and scientific observations, but at this time will hold only the myth of the " South Pacific paradise ". Having gone through the war for independence of the United States and the fall of king Louis XVI, he withdrew to dedicate himself to his passion, horticulture. Note that the bougainvillea discovered in Brazil was named in his honor by the botanist Commerson. Napoleon Bonaparte named him as a senator in 1799, then a grand officer of the Legion of honor in 1804, a comte of Empire in 1808. Finally, his last function was to chair the French council of war.

He died on August 31st, 1811, in Paris. His heart rests in the Montmartre Cemetery, and its body in the Pantheon of Paris.

More info is given on: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7657&p=17582#p17582

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French Polynesia 2018 250Fr. sg?, scott?