354 Account of Jofeph de "Beauchamp. 



overtaken by a calm at fea, .and, being fliort of water, hi 

 was expofed to the fcorching heat of the tropical fun for forty- 

 eight hours without a drop of water to cool his mouth ; in 

 confcqueuce of which he was. fcized with a violent fit of ill- 

 nefs on his return to Baflbra. 



In 1787 I induced him to undertake a journey to the Caf- 

 pian fea, to fettle the queftion in regard to its fituation, and 

 to determine the longitudes in that part of Perfia, in re- 

 gard to which there were from five to fix degrees of un- 

 certainty. The refult of his obfervations I publiHied in the 

 Memoirs of the Academy for 1787. During this journey he 

 was maltreated and plundered, and he was thrown into a 

 fever which lafted eighteen months. He however con ftruL^ed 

 a chart of his route, which Baron von Zach has publiflied. 

 He obfervcd an eclipfe of the moon at Cafbine on the 30th: 

 of June 1787: it was one of the mo-ft important ever ob- 

 ferved. He returned fi-om his Perfian vo\'age to Bagdad on 

 the 14th of January 1787 *. 



Obfervations of Mercury, which are fo rare in France, 

 were among thofe things which I had particularlv recom- 

 mended to him ; and he did more in this refpetrl than all thtf 

 European aftronomers together, and than was ever doiiefince 

 the origin of aftronomy: he faw Mercury nearer the fun than 

 was ever before obferved. I publi(hcd feveral of his ob- 

 fervatiolis in the Memoirs of the Academy; and to him I 

 was indebted for the principal affiftance I received in con- 

 {iru(^l;ing the tables which I publiflied of that planet. He 

 obfervcd alio fome ftars which could not be feen at Paris; 

 and his manufcripts which he left to me will furnifli a fup- 

 plcment to the immcnfe colleclion of ftars I have publiflied 

 in the Hi/hire Celejle, 



Baron von Zach, in his excellent journal, has made fre- 

 quent ufe of Bcauchamp's obfervations ; and he caufed to be 

 engraved for it his map of Perfia. Beauchamp had under- 

 taken a general review of the heavens to reftify the pofitions 

 of the ftars, and he had afcertained that of feveral thoufands', 

 when he learned that the department of the marine had with- 

 drawn the annual gratification of aooo livres which he en- 

 joyed, and without which he could not fubfift at Bagdad. 

 He therefore left Bagdad on the ift of December 1789, and 

 arrived at Paris on the 3d of September 1790, 



In 1791, *nd the following years, I did not ceafe to folicit 

 the niinilleu of the National A fTembly that he might be fent 



* An accouix of this journev to Perfia may be fovind in the "Journal cles 

 S fjam for Jaiiiiry 1790, p. 726. For his notes oh the Babyionian ami- 

 H';ii!es lee the Journal for 1790, p. 7y6. 



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