Barrier Reef). Turning northwards he sailed, by the Louisiade Archipelago and New Guinea, to the Moluccas, returning to France in 1769 viâ Batavia and Mauritius.
Bougainville was accompanied on this voyage by a naturalist, Philibert Commerson, whose servant, Jean Bary, passed for a man until her sex was recognised by the Tahitians. Otourrou, a Tahitian whom Bougainville took with him to France, died of small-pox at Madagascar while being conveyed back to his native country. The genus Bougainvillea was so named by Commerson in honour of the navigator, who was the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe. Bougainville afterwards commanded various vessels in the American War.
Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1723-1806), French naturalist and physicist, author of "Le regne animal" (1756), and "Ornithologie" (1760), and various works on physics.
Brosse or Brosses, Charles de (1709-77), first President of the Parliament of Burgundy, author of "Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes"(1756).
Browne, Patrick (1720?-1790), a physician who studied natural history, more particularly botany, and after a voyage to the West Indies published the "Civil and Natural History of Jamaica" (1756). He also compiled more or less local catalogues of birds, fishes, and plants.
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de (1707-88), French naturalist and writer. Upon being appointed Director of the King's Garden at Paris, in 1739, he conceived the idea of compiling a natural history of creation, and devoted the following fifty years of his life to carrying out this project, with the help of other naturalists. His "Histoire naturelle" (published at various periods from 1749 to 1788) treats of the theory of the earth, nature of animals, man, viviparous quadrupeds, birds, and minerals. The task was continued after his death by Lacépède.
Byron, Vice-Admiral John (1723-86), was the second son of the fourth Lord Byron, and grandfather of the poet. He accompanied Anson on his voyage to the Pacific as a midshipman on board the Wager, which was wrecked on the coast of Chile in 1741: some years later he published the details of his adventures (1768). In 1764 he was appointed to the Dolphin, with orders to explore the South Seas. He left England in company with the Tamar, and, passing through the Straits of Magellan, stood across the Pacific, but following a course already known, made no discoveries of any importance. With a great deal of scurvy on board he reached the Ladrones, and returned home in 1766. [Otahite was rediscovered on the Dolphin's second
