author
comte Louis-Antoine de Bougainville
1729–1811
Best known for leading the first French voyage to circumnavigate the globe, this soldier, sailor, and writer helped bring the Pacific vividly into European view. His career also stretched from Canada during the Seven Years’ War to service in the American Revolutionary era.
2 Audiobooks
Voyage autour du monde par la frégate du roi La Boudeuse et la flûte L'Étoile, en 1766, 1767, 1768 & 1769.
by comte Louis-Antoine de Bougainville
A voyage round the world : Perfomed by order of His most Christian Majesty, in the years 1766, 1767, 1768, and 1769.
by comte Louis-Antoine de Bougainville
About the author
Born in Paris in 1729, he first made a name for himself as a soldier and scholar. Reliable reference sources describe him not only as a French military officer and explorer, but also as a man with strong scientific interests, reflected in his early work in mathematics.
He served in New France during the Seven Years’ War and later became famous for the expedition he led from 1766 to 1769, the first French circumnavigation of the world. Accounts of that voyage, especially his published travel narrative, made him one of the best-known French explorers of the 18th century and helped shape European ideas about the South Pacific.
Later in life, he continued a naval career that included service during the American Revolutionary War. He died in Paris in 1811, remembered as both a navigator and a public figure whose name still survives on maps, in history books, and in the bougainvillea flower, which was named in his honor.