Biographical Notice ofM. Liskt-Geoffroy. 75 



nicated by M. Arago* " I was born in the Isle of Bourbon 

 23d August 1775. My mother was a negress of Guinea, named 

 Niama. She was the daughter of Touca Niamba, King of 

 Galam, who was made prisoner in a war, and massacred, along 

 with all the males of his family, according to a practice suffi- 

 ciently common in these countries. 



" My mother, then about nine years of age, was made a 

 slave, and sold to the agents of the company, who sent her to 

 the Isle of France about the year 1730. M. Geoffroy obtained 

 her from M. David, governor of this colony, in order to restore 

 her to liberty. She followed him to Bourbon, where she solaced 

 him with every attention in old age. 



" M. Geoffrey took charge of me in my infancy, and educated 

 me himself; he taught me the first principles of drawing and 

 mathematics ; and wished likewise to teach me Latin, but in 

 this study I made little progress. As I had no fortune, he 

 made me enter the service at my fifteenth year, and shortly after 

 I went to the Isle of France, where M. le Chevalier de Trome- 

 lin, conceiving that he observed in me an inclination for the sea 

 service, employed me at the works of a new bridge which he was 

 building. Having thus his instruments and books at my dis- 

 posal, I applied myself to the study of mathematics and astro- 

 nomy. Not being able to procure instructors, M. de Trome- 

 lin was very ready to assist me with his advice, and to encou- 

 rage me. It is to this generous patron that I owe the little 

 knowledge I have acquired, and my advancement in the ser- 

 vice. From gratitude, and still more from attachment, I em- 

 barked with him at the commencement of the war of 1778 in 

 the capacity of assistant pilot. 



" I obtained in 1780 the occupation of draughtsman to the mili- 

 tary engineers of the Isle of France. 



" On 23d August 1786 I was elected correspondent of the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris. I have sent to this learn- 

 ed society a series of twelve years' meteorological observations, 

 and a number of experiments on the strength and weight of 

 the woods found in this colony, made by M. Malavois, and 

 which I was engaged to continue after his departure. 



These details are furnished by a letter of If. Lislet-GeoffToy's, written 

 to M. le Baron de Zach, and communicated by M. Wartmann of Geneva. 



