, zm evninmt French hydrographer, was born at Lyons in 1738, of a
, zm evninmt
French hydrographer, was born at Lyons in 1738, of a
fatally distinguished in the profession of the law, but devoted his attention from his infancy to marine studies. He
arrived at the rank of a naval captain in the French service, and was employed many years before the revolution
in the office of their marine, under the title of director of
the ports and arsenals. His countrymen impute to his
labours and skill the figure which the French navy was
enabled to make in the American war. In 1790 he was
appointed minister of the marine, and filled that important
situation with great integrity; but dreading the influence
of popular opinion, he gave in his resignation in 1791,
when the mob were gaining a fatal ascendancy. He had
before requested of the king to separate the colonial department of the marine from the other, and make it a distinct office, with which his majesty did not at that time
think it necessary to comply. During his administration
he published a work to illustrate the history of navigation,
entitled “Decouvertes des Francois en 1768 et 1769, dans
le sud-est de la Nouvelle-Guine,
” Paris,