Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/852

* LA PAZ. 770 LAPIDARY WORK. of the fertile district around it and of the mine's of Triiuifo. The town has a good liurbor. and is the seat of a United States consul. Popula- tion, 7000. LAPEER, la-|)er'. A city and the county-scat of Lapeer County, Mich., 50 miles north by west of Detroit; on the Chicago and Grand Trunk and the ^Michigan Central railroads (Jlap: Michigan, K 5). It is the centre of a fertile agricultural section and an important market for farm produce and poultry: it has flouring and planing mills, foundries, stove- works, a tannery, and pickle-works. Tlie State Home for Fceble-ilindcd and Kpilei)tics is here. Settled in 1832, Lapeer was first incorporated in 1875, the charter of that year still being in o|)eration, and providing for a mayor, annually elected, and a unicameral council. The city owns and operates the water-works. Population,, in 1890, 27:3;3; in 1900, 3297. LA PELTRIE, la pel'tre', Marie M.deleine l)E, nee Chauvigxy (1003-71). A French educa- tor and religieuse, born at Alencon. Though wishing to enter a convent, she was forced by licr father to marry, but was left a childless widow at the age of twenty-two. On reading La .Jrune"s Relation (103.31, she determined to use her entire fortune in the education of Indian girls. She came to Quebec in l{i39 with three nims, and founded the Ursuline Convent there_, maintaining a school for both white and Indian girls. In 142 she joined the Montreal colony, remaining there until 1040, when she returned to Quebec. She is said to have entered as novice in this year. She died in the convent in 1671. Particular reference is made to her in Thwaites (ed.), Tlir Jesuit Ifehitioxs, vols. xi. and xvi. (Cleveland, 1890-1901). LAPEROTTSE, la'pa'rooz', Jeax-Fraxcois de Galaui'. t'ount de (1741-S8?). A French navi- gator, born near Alljia, in the Department of Tarn, He entered the navy in 1750, fought against the English in the Seven Years' War, and was made a captain in 1780. In 1782 he was sent to destroy the British forts in Hudson Bay. Three years later he was chosen to com- mand an expedition of discovery, sent out by the French Government for the purpose of com- pleting the explorations of Cook and Clarke in the Japan Seas and southeast of Australia, and, incidentally, of attempting the Xorthwest Passage. LajH'rouse sailed in August, 1785, with two frigates, the Uoussole and the Astro- lahc, taking with him specialists in botany, astronomy, geology, and geography. The expedi- tion was carefully equipped, and did good work. The ships crossed the Atlantic to Brazil, rounded Cape Horn and skirted the coast of the Americas to latitude 60° North, IMount Saint Elias being sighted. On Xovember 5, 17S6, Xecker Island, a small island some hundred leagues northwest of the Hawaiian group, was discovered. The ex- plorers sighted the ilarianne Islands, touched at the Philippines, and by ilay, 1787, would seem to have been in the neighborhood of Korea. These waters were for the Western world absolutely unknown, and Lapfrouse devoted some six or seven months to the exploration of the vicin- ity. In Ausrust he discovered the strait be- tween the islands of Saghalin and Yezo. which now bears his name. From the Bay of Avatscha in Kamtchatka, Lesseps, the interpreter of the expedition, was dispatched in September to France by the overland route across Siberia, car- rying with him the records and maps of the expedition. Then, going south, Laperouse landed on one of the Navigator Islands, where twenty- one of the ex)iedition, including the captain of the Astroldbv, were massacred by the na- tives. Laperouse touched Tasmania, and, on January 2(i, 1788, made Botany Bay. He re- mained there until I'>l)ruary 7, a'fter which there is no trace of the movements of the expedition. The French Government oll'cred a reward of 10,000 francs for information, and in 1791 sent an expedition in search of Laperouse, but without success. In 1826 an English captain, Dillon, found some remnants of the wreckage of Lape- rousc's ships in the possession of the inhal)itant* of VaniUino, one of tlie Xew Hi'brides. A French expcditicju sent out in 1828 luuU-r Duniont d'Ur- ville ascertained that both ships had been wrecked in a storm off the coast of tliis island, and that all on board had perished, and Duniont d'Urville erected a monument to the memory of LaperoiLse on the island. There are three editions of Laperouse's voyages, prc])ared from Jcjurnals sent home by him, and pviblished under the title loy/ar/c autour du monde, in 1797, 1799, and 1831, the last edited by Lesseps. In April, 1888, the Societe de Gi'ographie in Paris com- memorated the one himdrcdth anniversary of La- perouse's deatli. Consult Biillcliiis de lu 8uciete de la (li'(i<jiiijiliir (Paris, 1888). LA PEYROUSE, la pa'rooz', Philippe Picot DE (1744-1818). A French naturalist, born at Toulouse, where he was advocate-general in the Parliami'ut (1708-71). He applied himself to natural history researches, chiedy in the Pyre- nees, from 1774 to 1789, when he was recalled to the administration of his native district, be- came inspector of mines, professor of natural his- torv in the central school of Toulouse, and mayor of the city (1800). In 1811 he was made per- petual secretary of the Toulouse Academy of Sci- ences, and during the Hundred Days he was president of the electoral college of Haute-Ga- ronne, and a mendjcr of the Chamber of Deputies, but he afterwards retired into private life, and cultivated beautiful species of pines on his prop- erty. Ho published: Deseriplion de plusicurs noiirclles especes d'orthoceratitcs et d'ostracites (1781), Flore des Pyren(-es (1795, 4th ed. 1801), Monof/raphic des saxifraffes (1801), and flistoire ahregee des plantes des Pyrenees (1813-18). LAP'HAM, Increase Alij:n (1811-75). An American naturalist, born in Palmyra, N. Y. For a time be served as assistant on the survey of the Erie Canal, and as engineer in the con- struction of the Welland and Miami canals. After moving to Milwaukee, Wis., in 1836, he turned his attention to scientific study and in- vestigation, particularly in the branches of bot- any, meteorology, and geology. From 1873 to 1875 he acted as chief geologist of Wisconsin. He was a member of the Wisconsin Historical So- ciety and of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences. His best-known publications are: A Geor/rnphienl and Tnpofirnphienl Deseriplion of Wisconsin (1844): Antiquities of Wisconsin (1855); and Gcolofiieiil Miip nf Wiseonsin (1855). LAPIDAIJIIS. See Hetnlin, Johannes. LAP'IDARY WORK (Lat. lapidarius, relat- ing to a stone, from lapis, stone). The art of