372 Some Particulars of the Life of 
“before he embarked for America he put to press the second part 
of his integral Calculus, having requested Bezout to read the 
proof sheets in his absence. 
Immediately ou his arrival in America he marched at the head 
of a detachment amidst ice and snow, and through almost im- 
penetrai le forests, to the extremity of Lake Sacrament, where he 
burnt an English flotilla under the guns of the fort which pro- 
tected it. 
In 1758 a detachment of 5000 French troops was ‘pursued se- 
veral d:ys by an army of 24,000 English. Bougainville inspired 
his feilow soldiers with resolution to wait for the enemy: they 
hastily fortified their position in less than 24 hours, and com- 
pelled the English to fall back with a loss of 6000 men. Bou- 
gainville was wounded on this occasion in the head by a musket 
ball. The French governor despaired, however, of saving the 
colony, if he did not receive reimforcements from home. Bou> 
gainville was sent to France to solicit them, and he returned with 
the rank of colonel and the cross of St, Louis, granted before the 
usual time in consequence of his brilliant services. Montcalm 
placed him at the head of the grenadiers and volunteers, to cover 
the retreat of the army which was forced to fall back on Que- 
bec. He performed this important service with his usual intre- 
pidity and skill. The death of the general hastened the loss of 
the colony ; and Bougainville returned to France. He then fol- 
lowed M. Choiseul de Stainville into Germany, where he again 
signalized himself, and his bravery was rewarded with the gift of 
two pieces of brass cannon. The peace deprived him of further 
opportunities of distinguishing himself as a soldier, but it did not 
lessen his activity. We have seen him as a geometrician, a war- 
rior, and a negotiator. We shall now view him as the founder 
of a colony. 
His various visits to America had made him acquainted with 
the merchants and shipowners of St. Maloes. A vessel which - 
left that port at the commencement of last century had anchored 
on the south-east shores of a group of islands visited by the En- 
glish, who had called them at first Virginia and Hawkins’s Islands, 
but now the Falkland Islands. The favourable situation of these 
islands gave rise to the idea of forming an establishment there. 
The French court took up the idea in 1763, and Bougainville 
offered to commence it at,his own expense. In concert with 
two of his relatives he fitted out two ships at St. Maloes, and 
embarked some families, with whom he reached the islands called 
the Malouines on the 3d of April 1764. They were inhabited ; but 
no violence and no injustice attended his occupation of them. 
An abundant fishery, birds which at first permitted themselves 
to he taken with the hand, secured the means of subsistence ; 
but 
