Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/155

 BOUFLERS BOUGHTON 149 BOUFLERS, Stanislas, marquis de, first known as the abbe, then as the chevalier de Bouflers, born at Lun6ville in 1737, died in Paris, Jan. 18, 1815. His mother, who died in 1787, was one of the celebrities of the court of Stanislas Leszczynski, at Luneville. His wit and elegant manners and his poetical talents rendered him a favorite at the court of Louis XV. He was a member of the constituent assembly (1789), and afterward went to Berlin, where he re- ceived from the king n grant of lands in Prus- sian Poland, to establish a French colony ; but the plan failed. He married Mine, de Sabran and returned to France in 1800, and in 1804 was admitted to the French academy. He was a fervent eulogist of Napoleon, and was ridi- culed for his extravagant praise of Jerome Bonaparte. The best collection of his works is that of 1828, in 2 vols., including his excellent " Letters from Switzerland." BOCFLERS-ROUVREL, Marie Charlotte Hippolyte, countess de, born in Paris in 1724, died about 1800. She was a daughter of the count de Oam- per-Saugeon, and married the count de Bou- flers-Rouvrel,who died in 1764 ; after which she led a gay life at the court of the duchess of Orleans, and was the reputed mistress of the prince de Oonti, over whose receptions she pre- sided. After the prince's death she retired to Auteuil with her-daughter-in-law the countess Amelie de Bouners, afterward the duchess de Lauzun, who was guillotined June 27, 1794, and she herself was imprisoned until after the fall of Eobespierre. She was intimate with Rousseau, and in correspondence with him 16 years, and was the friend of Hume, Grimm, and other ce- lebrities. Walpole, in his partiality for Mme. du Deffand, decried Mme. de Bouflers, though the latter was regarded as one of the most in- telligent women of her day. BOUGAINVILLE, l.ouis Antolne de, a French sol- dier and navigator, born Nov. 11, 1729, died Aug. 31, 1811. He entered the military service as aide-de-camp to Che vert, and at the ago of 25 published a treatise on the integral calculus. In 1754 he went to London as secretary of the French embassy ; in 1756 he served in Canada as aide-de-camp to Montcalm, after whose death he returned to France. In 1761 he displayed such courage in the campaign on the Rhine, that he received from the king two guns which he had taken from the enemy. Peace being concluded, he entered the navy, and undertook to establish a French colony in one of the Falk- land islands. Compelled to relinquish this set- tlement on account of the objections of Spain, he sailed southward, passed through the straits of Magellan, and entered the South sea, which was still for the most part unexplored. He looked in vain for Davis's land, then steered through the Paumotu archipelago, where he discovered several yet unknown islands, ar- rived at Tahiti, April 6, 1768, gave the name of Navigators' islands to the Samoan archipelago, and touched the part of the cluster which re- ceived a few years later from Capt. Cook the appellation of New Hebrides. He then recon- noitred the E. coast of Australia, doubled the Louisiade islands, passed the large Solomon's archipelago, which had not been visited since its discovery by Mendana, and put in at Port Praslin, New Ireland, where he repaired his ships. He then took his course westward, dis- covering on his passage some small islands, and passing the N. shore of New Guinea. Finally he reached Booro, one of the Moluccas, where he procured a fresh supply of provisions, and in March, 1769, reached St. Malo, after a cruise of over two years. In 1771-'2 he pub- lished his Voyage autour du monde (2 vols., Paris), a very interesting account of his adven- tures, with a graphic description of the coun- tries he had visited ; it was immediately trans- lated into English, and in 1783 into German. Bougainville had scarcely completed this work when he planned a voyage to the north pole ; he wrote a memoir on the subject, proposing two distinct routes, and submitted it to the royal society of London, of which he had been ad- mitted a member. In 1778, when the French took part in the American war of indepen- dence, Bougainville was appointed to the com- mand of a ship of the line, and distinguished him- self in all the engagements between the fleets of France and England. In the conflict in which De Grasse was defeated by Admiral Rod- ney, April 12, 1782, the Auguste, the ship com- manded by Bougainville, suffered most severe- ly, but maintained its station in the line to the last extremity; when no hope of retrieving the fortune of the day was left, by a judicious and decisive movement he succeeded in rescu- ing eight sail of his own immediate division, which he conducted safely to St. Eustace. Re- turning to France, he resumed his project of a voyage in the arctic seas, but received no en- couragement, and finally left the naval service in 1790. In 1795 he was elected to the French institute, and subsequently became a member of the board of longitudes. On the organiza- tion of the senate, he was made a member of that body by Napoleon, who also ennobled him. BOUGHTON, George II., an American painter, born in Norfolk, England, in 1836. His family removed to the United States about 1839, and he passed his youth at Albany, N. Y. ' He early developed a taste for drawing both figures and landscapes, and in 1853, having painted a few pieces which found a ready sale, he went to London and passed several months in the study of his art. Upon re- turning to America he settled in New York, and soon became known as a clever and rising landscape painter. Two of his works pro- duced at this time, " Winter Twilight " and the " Lake of the Dismal Swamp," are notice- able for neatness of execution combined with no little poetic sentiment. They indicated a transition period from landscape to genre painting ; and to fit himself for the latter he visited Paris in 1859 and devoted two years to study. In 1861 he opened a studio in London,