Louis Feuillée Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Louis Éconches Feuillée
Feuillée, pointing at a map of Martinique.
Born	1660 Mane, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
Died	18 April 1732 Marseilles
Nationality	French
Scientific career
Fields	Botany, astronomy, geography
Author abbrev. (botany)	Feuillée

Louis Éconches Feuillée (pronounced Fuh-YAY) was a French explorer, scientist, and priest. He was born in 1660 in a town called Mane, in France. He became a member of a religious group called the Minims.

Feuillée was very good at studying plants, stars, and maps. He traveled to many distant lands to learn more about the world.

Life and Early Travels
- Exploring the Caribbean and South America
Voyage to South America
Discoveries in South America
Other Journeys
Feuillée's Monster
Things Named After Feuillée
Books by Feuillée
Gallery
See also

Life and Early Travels

Louis Feuillée grew up in Mane, France. He learned about astronomy (the study of stars) and cartography (map-making) from a teacher named Jean Mathieu de Chazelles. Another teacher, Charles Plumier, taught him about botany (the study of plants). Plumier had already found thousands of new plants in the Caribbean.

Important scientists in France noticed Feuillée's skills. In 1699, the king sent him on a trip to the Levant (countries in the eastern Mediterranean). He worked with another scientist, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, to map cities and seaports.

Because this trip was successful, he went on another journey in 1703. This time, he sailed to the Antilles, a group of islands in the Caribbean. He left France in February 1703 and arrived in Martinique in April.

Exploring the Caribbean and South America

In the Caribbean, Feuillée collected many new types of plants. He also drew a detailed map of Martinique. He explored the coast of Venezuela in South America.

He returned to France in June 1706. The French government was very impressed with his work. They gave him the special title of "Royal Mathematician." This meant he was a scientist who worked for the king, Louis XIV of France.

Voyage to South America

Louis XIV then asked Feuillée to prepare for an even longer trip. This journey would take him along the western coast of South America. He left France in December 1707.

He sailed around Cape Horn, a very stormy tip of South America, in late 1708. He arrived in Concepción, Chile in January 1708. He stayed there for a month, studying stars, plants, and animals.

After that, he traveled to Valparaíso and then to Peru. He returned to France in August 1711. He then published all his amazing discoveries in several books. King Louis XIV gave him a special payment and built an observatory for him. An observatory is a place with telescopes for studying the stars.

Discoveries in South America

During his big trip to South America, Feuillée described and mapped many places. These included the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, the Río de la Plata river, and the Falkland Islands. He also mapped bays and towns like Concepción, Coquimbo, Arica, Lima, and Pisco. He drew pictures of the beautiful views in many South American places.

The Giant Strawberry

Feuillée also wrote about a special kind of strawberry he found in Concepción. He said these strawberries were "of a marvellous taste" and as big as "our largest nuts." They were pale white. He noted they tasted different from European strawberries but were still excellent.

However, Feuillée did not bring a sample of this strawberry back to France. A few months later, another French explorer named Amédée-François Frézier brought the first samples of this "New World" strawberry to Europe. Frézier also had different measurements for the South American coast than Feuillée. This led to some disagreements between the two explorers.

Ocean and Sky Discoveries

Feuillée invented a tool called a hydrometer to measure how salty water is. He used it to show that the Mediterranean Sea was saltier than the Atlantic Ocean. He realized that the fresh water from big rivers like the Amazon River flowed far into the Atlantic.

He also drew a new map of South America. His work helped people understand the exact positions of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the continent.

In the southern sky, he discovered three dark areas in the Milky Way galaxy. These areas are called nebulas and are made of dust that blocks starlight.

Plants and Ocean Currents

Feuillée studied many interesting plants. These included the fuchsia, nasturtium, oxalis, alstromeria, papaya, cherimoya, and solanum.

He also discovered a large circular ocean current along the coasts of Chile and Peru. This current is now called the Humboldt Current. He found this current about 100 years before another famous scientist, Alexander von Humboldt, studied it.

Feuillée also noticed that the seasons south of the Equator were opposite to those in the Northern Hemisphere. For example, when it was summer in France, it was winter in parts of South America.

Other Journeys

In 1724, Feuillée went on his fourth and final voyage. He traveled to the Canary Islands. There, he helped figure out the exact position of the meridian at an island called Hierro. A meridian is an imaginary line on Earth that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole.

Feuillée's Monster

Feuillée's monster

Besides describing plants, Feuillée also wrote about a strange creature he saw in Buenos Aires. It was a baby born from a ewe that looked like a mix of a child, a horse, and a calf.

He wrote:

The monster which is shown in the figure appeared in Buenos Aires on 26 August. The contrast of three resemblances which it had, that of a child, a horse, and a calf, surprised all who saw it. I asked the person who showed it to me if I could examine it in order to describe it faithfully, but he never allowed me to do this. I examined it from quite close and drew its principal traits without his noticing. As soon as I returned to my room, having all the information about the monster vividly in my memory, it furnished what was missing from the drawing. I completed it and represented it in its natural color.