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Biographical Notice of the Mulatto M. Lislet-Geqffroy, Corre- 

 spondent of the Academy of Sciences for the Section of Geo- 

 graphy and Navigation. 



JEAN BAPTISTE LISLET-GEOFFROY, a mulatto of the first 

 degree, was born in the Isle of France, on the 23d August 1755. 

 By means of his amiable disposition, great perseverance, and ex- 

 cellent character, he succeeded in overcoming the obstacles which 

 the cupidity and prejudices of the colonists, as well as the influ- 

 ence of custom, had so long unceasingly opposed to the moral 

 and intellectual improvement of men of colour. Lislet-Geoffroy 

 never left the African Archipelago, in which he was born. The 

 just reputation which he had obtained by the age of thirty, ex- 

 tended across the seas, and procured for him, in 1786, the ho- 

 nourable title of Correspondent of the Old Academy of Sciences ; 

 an honour which he acquired by means of the almost insignifi- 

 cant resources which the Isle of France could offer to men of 

 study before the revolution of 1789. I believe that M. Lislet 

 is the first of his race on whom Europe has conferred academi- 

 cal honours. This circumstance, however, is not the only one 

 deserving of attention in this case. I observe that at the same 

 meeting of 23d August 1786, when this learned mulatto was 

 nominated, that the Academy likewise enriched its lists of cele- 

 brated names with those of Dubuat and Spallanzani, and that it 

 appointed the venerable Duke de la Rochefoucauld to be the 

 immediate correspondent of M. Lislet. In this association of 

 names there would have been enough to overturn completely 

 the notions of the planters, had not the well-known gentleness, 

 virtues, and general knowledge of M. Lislet-Geoffroy long since 

 placed him in a privileged position, before which the most deep 

 rooted prejudices disappeared. 



When the academies were abolished in 1793, M. Lislet-Geoff- 

 roy, like all the other associates, lost the title of which he was so 

 justly proud. Its renewal, as correspondent of our present sec- 

 tion of Geography and Navigation, is dated so late as 7th May 

 1821 ; but before this can be imputed as a neglect, it must be 

 added, that the Academy, in spite of the rigorous nature of its 

 rules, did not wait for a vacancy in order to replace him. I will 



