Page:EB1911 - Volume 04.djvu/330

 In reply to Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason, he published the Age of Revelation (1790); he also published a volume entitled A Star in the West, or a Humble Attempt to Discover the Long Lost Ten Tribes of Israel (1816), in which he endeavours to prove that the American Indians may be the ten lost tribes. Boudinot died at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 24th of October 1821.

 BOUÉ, AMI (1794–1881), Austrian geologist, was born at Hamburg on the 16th of March 1794, and received his early education there and in Geneva and Paris. Proceeding to Edinburgh to study medicine at the university, he came under the influence of Robert Jameson, whose teachings in geology and mineralogy inspired his future career. Boué was thus led to make geological expeditions to various parts of Scotland and the Hebrides, and after taking his degree of M.D. in 1817 he settled for some years in Paris. In 1820 he issued his Essai géologique sur l’Écosse, in which the eruptive rocks in particular were carefully described. He travelled much in Germany, Austria and southern Europe, studying various geological formations, and becoming one of the pioneers in geological research; he was one of the founders of the Société Géologique de France in 1830, and was its president in 1835. In 1841 he settled in Vienna, and became naturalized as an Austrian. He died on the 21st of November 1881. To the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna he communicated important papers on the geology of the Balkan States (1859–1870), and he also published Mémoires géologiques et paléontologiques (Paris, 1832) and La Turquie d’Europe; observations sur la géographie, la géologie, l’histoire naturelle, &c. (Paris, 1840).

 BOUFFLERS, LOUIS FRANÇOIS,, comte de Cagny (1644–1711), marshal of France, was born on the 10th of January 1644. He entered the army and saw service in 1663 at the siege of Marsal, becoming in 1669 colonel of dragoons. In the conquest of Lorraine (1670) he served under Marshal de Créqui. In Holland he served under Turenne, frequently distinguishing himself by his skill and bravery; and when Turenne was killed by a cannon-shot in 1675 he commanded the rear-guard during the retreat of the French army. He was already a brigadier, and in 1677 he became maréchal de camp. He served throughout the campaigns of the time with increasing distinction, and in 1681 became lieutenant-general. He commanded the French army on the Moselle, which opened the War of the League of Augsburg with a series of victories; then he led a corps to the Sambre, and reinforced Luxemburg on the eve of the battle of Fleurus. In 1691 he acted as lieutenant-general under the king in person; and during the investment of Mons he was wounded in an attack on the town. He was present with the king at the siege of Namur in 1692, and took part in the victory of Steinkirk. For his services he was raised in 1692 to the rank of marshal of France, and in 1694 was made a duke. In 1694 he was appointed governor of French Flanders and of the town of Lille. By a skilful manœuvre he threw himself into Namur in 1695, and only surrendered to his besiegers after he had lost 8000 of his 13,000 men. In the conferences which terminated in the peace of Ryswick he had a principal share. During the following war, when Lille was threatened with a siege by Marlborough and Eugene, Boufflers was appointed to the command, and made a most gallant resistance of three months. He was rewarded and honoured by the king for his defence of Lille, as if he had been victorious. It was indeed a species of triumph; his enemy, appreciating his merits, allowed him to dictate his own terms of capitulation. In 1708 he was made a peer of France. In 1709, when the affairs of France were threatened with the most urgent danger, Boufflers offered to serve under his junior, Villars, and was with him at the battle of Malplaquet. Here he displayed the highest skill, and after Villars was wounded he conducted the retreat of the French army without losing either cannon or prisoners. He died at Fontainebleau on the 22nd of August 1711.

 BOUFFLERS, STANISLAS JEAN, (1737–1815), French statesman and man of letters, was born near Nancy on the 31st of May 1738. He was the son of Louis François, marquis de Boufflers. His mother, Marie Catherine de Beauveau Craon, was the mistress of Stanislas Leszczynski, and the boy was brought up at the court of Lunéville. He spent six months in study for the priesthood at Saint Sulpice, Paris, and during his residence there he put in circulation a story which became extremely popular, Aline, reine de Golconde. Boufflers did not, however, take the vows, as his ambitions were military. He entered the order of the Knights of Malta, so that he might be able to follow the career of arms without sacrificing the revenues of a benefice he had received in Lorraine from King Stanislas. After serving in various campaigns he reached the grade of maréchal de camp in 1784, and in the next year was sent to West Africa as governor of Senegal. He proved an excellent administrator, and did what he could to mitigate the horrors of the slave trade; and he interested himself in opening up the material resources of the colony, so that his departure in 1787 was regarded as a real calamity by both colonists and negroes. The Mémoires secrets of Bachaumont give the current opinion that Boufflers was sent to Senegal because he was in disgrace at court; but the real reason appears to have been a desire to pay his debts before his marriage with Mme de Sabran, which took place soon after his return to France. Boufflers was admitted to the Academy in 1788, and subsequently became a member of the states-general. During the Revolution he found an asylum with Prince Henry of Prussia at Rheinsberg. At the Restoration he was made joint-librarian of the Bibliothèque Mazarine. His wit and his skill in light verse had won him a great reputation, and he was one of the idols of the Parisian salons. His paradoxical character was described in an epigram attributed to Antoine de Rivarol, “abbé libertin, militaire philosophe, diplomate chansonnier, émigré patriote, républicain courtisan.” He died in Paris on the 18th of January 1815.

 BOUGAINVILLE, LOUIS ANTOINE DE (1729–1811), French navigator, was born at Paris on the 11th of November 1729. He was the son of a notary, and in early life studied law, but soon abandoned the profession, and in 1753 entered the army in the corps of musketeers. At the age of twenty-five he published a treatise on the integral calculus, as a supplement to De l’Hôpital’s treatise, Des infiniment petits. In 1755 he was sent to London as secretary to the French embassy, and was made a member of the Royal Society. In 1756 he went to Canada as captain of dragoons and aide-de-camp to the marquis de Montcalm; and having distinguished himself in the war against England, was rewarded with the rank of colonel and the cross of St Louis. He afterwards served in the Seven Years’ War from 1761 to 1763. After the peace, when the French government conceived the project of colonizing the Falkland Islands, Bougainville undertook the task at his own expense. But the settlement having excited the jealousy of the Spaniards, the French government gave it up to them, on condition of their indemnifying Bougainville. He was then appointed to the command of the frigate “La Boudeuse” and the transport “L’Etoile,” and set sail in December 1766 on a voyage of discovery round the world. Having executed his commission of delivering up the Falkland Islands to the Spanish, Bougainville proceeded on his expedition, and touched at Buenos Aires. Passing through the Straits of Magellan, he visited the Tuamotu archipelago, and Tahiti, where the English navigator Wallis had touched eight months before. He proceeded across the Pacific Ocean by way of the Samoan group, which he named the Navigators Islands, the New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands. His men now suffering from scurvy, and his vessels requiring refitting, he anchored at Buru, one of the Moluccas, where the governor of the Dutch settlement supplied his wants. It was the beginning of September, and the expedition took