BOUGAINVILLE, LOUIS ANTOINE DE French navigator, was born in Paris on Nov. II, 1729. He was the son of a notary, and in early life studied law, but soon aban doned the profession, and in 1753 entered the army in the corps of musketeers. At the age of 25 he published a treatise on the integral calculus. 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. He afterwards served in the Seven Years' War from 1761 to 1763. Af ter the peace, Bougainville undertook the colonization of the Falkland islands at his own expense. The French Government gave the colony to the Spaniards on condition of their indemnifying Bougainville. In Dec. 1766 he officially sailed on a voyage round the world. Passing through the Straits of Magellan, he visited Tuamotu; Tahiti, where the English navigator Wallis had touched eight months before ; the Samoan group, which he named the Naviga tors islands; the new Hebrides and the Solomon islands. In March 1769 his vessels arrived at St. Malo. Bougainville's Voy age autour du monde (1771, modern ed. 1889) is written with simplicity and humour. He later projected a voyage of discovery to the north pole, but did not obtain the necessary support from the French Government. In his old age Napoleon I. made him a senator, count of the empire, and member of the Legion of Honour. He died in Paris on Aug. 31, 181I.
Bougainville's name is given to the largest member of the Solomon islands, and to the strait which divides it from the island of Choiseul. It is also applied to the strait between Malli collo and Espiritu Santo islands of the New Hebrides group, and the climbing plant Bougainvillea is named of ter him.