6 Biographical Memoir of' Baron de Beauvois. 



Fkmtarum,' and M. de Lamarck, in his Dictiminaire de Bota- 

 nique de V Encyclopedie^ article Champignon^ some time after 

 published extracts of it, it did not at the time produce a great 

 sensation among botanists. 



It is true that the author had left France, and that ideas 

 which are not presented and defended by him who has conceived 

 them, are more liable than others to fall into oblivion. Truth 

 itself requires patrons to be introduced with success to the world, 

 however evident it may be ; and still more are they necessary for 

 views, the proofs of which are as yet incomplete. 



M. de Beauvois was not aware of his being exposed to this 

 risk when he determined to travel ; but his passion for acquiring 

 knowledge was greater than his passion for fame. The interest 

 of his systems, the well founded hope of soon entering the Aca- 

 demy, seemed nothing to him compared with the honour of en- 

 tering it with more splendid and more numerous titles. 



He even left his estates and his family. His accounts were 

 not settled, nor his debts cleared. He confided these matters, 

 together with the management of his other affairs, to a young 

 wife, whom he left in France, and whose inexperience did great 

 injury to his fortune. 



It was the reading of travels that had inspired him with this 

 sudden passion. The account of Arabia by Niebuhr, and the 

 touching recital which he gave of ForskaFs death, transported 

 him to such a degree, that he resolved to finish what the Danish 

 naturalist had only commenced. He even intended, after ar- 

 riving at the Red Sea, to traverse Africa, and return by Senegal 

 or Guinea. And it is probable he would have engaged in this 

 rash enterprise, had he been in the smallest degree encouraged 

 by the government. But the Comptroller-General, M. de Ca- 

 lonne, after giving him a favourable reception at first, received 

 him so coldly the second time, that he determined to ask no 

 one's assistance again, and to undertake only what he could ac- 

 complish by his own resources. 



An opportunity such as he desired soon presented itself. 



There is at the bottom of the Gulf of Guinea, to the south of 

 the river Formosa, of which a branch also l)ears the name of the 

 river of Benin, a small king-dom allied or tributary to the king- 

 dom of Benin, the inhabitants of whicli name themseiws Jacke- 



