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.
See The Life, Public Services, Addresses and Letters of Elias Boudinot, edited by J. J. Boudinot (Boston and New York, 1896).
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, Duc de, 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.
See F. . . ., Vie du Mal. de Boufflers (Lille, 1852), and Père Delarue’s and Père Poisson’s Oraisons funèbres du Mal. B. (1712).
BOUFFLERS, STANISLAS JEAN, Chevalier de (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.
His Œuvres complètes were published under his own supervision in 1803. A selection of his stories in prose and verse was edited by Eugène Asse in 1878; his Poésies by O. Uzanne in 1886; and the Correspondance inédite de la comtesse de Sabran et du chevalier de Boufflers (1778–1788), by E. de Magnieu and Henri Prat in 1875.
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
