CONDAMINE. 



ill 



Biitemmr. when their attention was called to a most distressing 

 """Y"*'*' event. M. Seniergues, who accompanied the expedi- 

 tion as surgeon, had a personal quarrel with the Alcade 

 of Cuenca, who had interested the Grand V r icar of Cu- 

 enca in his quarrel. At a bull-fight, in August 1 739, 

 where a number of people were collected, the Spanish 

 officers instigated the populous to the assassination of 

 Seniergues ; and, notwithstanding the great exertions 

 of Condi>.mine to bring them to justice, and the partial 

 Success which he at last obtained, the culprits conti- 

 nued to evade the sentence of the law, by means which 

 could succeed only under the most corrupt and infa- 

 mous governments. 



While M. Codin was making observations on the 

 meridian to the north, M. Bouguer repeated in the 

 south the observations which he had formerly made, 

 and detected an error, to the amount of 30", which he 

 had committed, with the cause by which it had been 

 produced. This circumstance gave rise to a differ- 

 ence between Bouguer and Condamine, the former 

 of whom maintained, that the method of detecting 

 and providing against the error of 30" belonged to 

 himself alone. Condamine maintained, that Bouguer 

 had no title to appropriate this honour to himself; and 

 therefore carefully repeated all the second observations 

 of his companion. In these labours they were enga- 

 ged till 1743. 



On the 4 th of September 1742, Condamine set out 

 from Quito. A few days before his departure, he had 

 been robbed of his papers, the result of eight years of 

 incessant labour; but though his money and jewels were 

 also carried off, he had the prudence to publish a notice, 

 declaring that he demanded only his manuscripts. This 

 notice had the desired effect. The papers were resto- 

 red, with the exception of two packets, which con- 

 tained an account of his travels to the mountains where 

 gold mines were supposed to exist. 



M. Condamine left Peru on the 1 1th of May 1743, 

 and he came to the hazardous resolution of returnino- 

 home by the river Amazons, attended by a single do° 

 mestic. After a series of dangers, for an account of 

 which we must refer to his own work, * he arrived at 

 Cayenne, and waited more than five months for a ves- 

 sel to carry him to France. This delay preyed so much 

 •upon his mind, that it began to produce a serious im- 

 pression upon his health, just when the governor of 

 Surinam announced to him an opportunity of return- 

 ing to Europe. He landed at Amsterdam, and soon 

 found himself among his friends at Paris. 



The jealousy between Bouguer and Condamine, which 

 had already shewn itself in Peru, was again roused upon 

 the arrival of the latter. The interest which he excited 

 among the gay circles of Paris by the singularity of 

 his travels, by the personal courage which had uniform- 

 ly sustained him, and by his great powers of conversa- 

 tion, made his company very generally courted, while 

 the mighty pretensions of Bouguer were in a great 

 measure overlooked. To a person acquainted with hu- 

 man character, this unequal distribution of praise would 

 have occasioned no uneasiness ; but Bouguer possessed 

 little knowledge of the world, and he ceased to sup- 

 port the dignity of his character when he repined at 

 the admiration which was lavished upon his friend. 

 Every person was capable of estimating the talents, 

 and of being instructed by the conversation of an ac- 



tive and eloquent traveller like Condamine, while it is Cosdamiiw 

 the lot of few to appreciate the immortal labours by " ■""V™"' 

 which Bouguer has enriched the sciences. The dazzling 

 recompence of specious talents and superficial acquire- 

 ments perishes with the gay crowds by whom it is con- 

 ferred ; but it is the splendid destiny of genius, that 

 its rewards and its labours are alike eternal. The one 

 is like the gaudy arch which vanishes with the shower 

 that gives it birth ; the other like the circle of the 

 galaxy which keeps its place in the firmament, and shines 

 with a sober but unextinguishable light. 



When the quarrel between the two academicians was 

 brought to a close, Condamine devoted his attention t« 

 the subject of an universal measure. He proposed to 

 employ as an unit the length of a pendulum vibrating 

 seconds under the equator, a plan which was afterwards 

 adopted at the Revolution. 



In the year 1754, Condamine became a keen sup- 

 porter of the system of inoculation for the small pox, 

 which had already been extensively practised in Eng- 

 land and Holland. He published a Memoir on the sub- 

 ject, in the Memoirs of the Academy, and also a col- 

 lection of papers upon the same subject. 



In the year 1757, he undertook a journey to Italy 

 for the benefit of his health, and upon his return t® 

 Paris he read to the Academy a paper entitled Ex/rail 

 d'un Journal cle Voyage en Ilalie, which contained 

 much curious information. Having employed him- 

 self when at Rome in fixing the dimensions of the 

 principal Roman edifices, he was then led to an exa- 

 mination of the ancient measures of length, which he 

 endeavoursd to determine on the hypothesis, that every 

 leading part of an ancient building would contain a 

 round number of the given measure. His attentioa 

 was also directed to the geognostic structure of Italy, 

 and he examined with care the remains of its extinct, 

 volcanoes, and the interesting phenomena exhibited by 

 Vesuvius. In the course of his journey he obtained a 

 dispensation to marry his own niece, a connection which 

 tended greatly to promote his future happiness. 



He was received a member of the Academy of In- 

 scriptions and Belles Lettres in 1760, and he contribu- 

 ted greatly to the last edition of the Dictionary. On 

 this occasion he published Letters on Dictionaries and 

 on Education. 



In 176'3 Condamine went to England. He-hadbeeu 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society so early as the 

 15th December 1748, and he was now admitted on the 

 Pith of May 17o'3. 



Soon after his return from England, Condamine was 

 attacked with a great insensibility in his extremities. 

 He was now unfit for any laborious occupation, and he 

 occasionally amused himself in the composition of poe- 

 try. Several of his tales in verse were published in 

 the periodical journals, and likewise a translation of 

 part of the iEneid of Virgil. In addition to the para- 

 lysis of his extremities, he was attacked with hernia, 

 and he was unfortunately prevailed upon by an empiric, 

 to attempt its cure by the application of caustics. He 

 died, however, of the effect of the operation, 45 days 

 after it was performed, on the 4th of February 1774, 

 in the 73d year of his age. 



M. Condamine was Knight of the Royal Military 

 Order of Notre Dame and Mount Carmel, and of St 

 Lazarus at Jerusalem. He was eleeted a member of 



^JSvSSu*"; 2£iE %^?L de A™££r MtridiomU ' depuU la cott de la Ma dv Sud > *■>** ** d * 



