Members of the Expedition
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Charles-Marie de La Condamine
Louis Godin
Pierre Bouguer
Assistants
Couplet |
General assistant |
Jean Godin |
Signal carrier |
Hugo |
Instrument maker |
Joseph de Jussieu |
Botanist and physician |
Morainville |
Engineer |
Jean Senièrgues |
Physician |
Jean Verguin |
Engineer and draftsman |
Isabel Gramesón’s Family
María Josefa Pardo de Figueroa |
Isabel’s mother |
Isabel’s father |
|
Juan Gramesón |
Isabel’s older brother, an Augustinian priest |
Antonio Gramesón |
Isabel’s younger brother |
Josefa Gramesón |
Isabel’s younger sister |
Carmen del Pilar Godin |
Isabel’s daughter |
Martín Gramesón |
Isabel’s nephew, son to Antonio |
Juan Antonio Gramesón |
Isabel’s nephew, son to Antonio |
Joaquín Gramesón |
Family slave |
Pedro Pardo de Figueroa |
Isabel’s uncle |
José Augustín Pardo de Figueroa |
Isabel’s uncle |
Antonio Zabala |
Isabel’s brother-in-law, married to Josefa |
Other Members of Isabel’s Traveling Party
Jean Rocha |
Frenchman, who claimed to be a doctor |
Phelipe Bogé |
Rocha’s traveling companion |
Antonio |
Rocha’s slave |
Tomasa |
Isabel’s servant |
Juanita |
Isabel’s servant |
Others
ALSEDO Y HERRERA, DIONESIO DE. President of the Quito Audiencia in 1736 when the French expedition arrived
ARAUJO Y RÍO, JOSEPH DE. Replaced Alsedo y Herrera as president of the Quito Audiencia on December 28, 1736
ARMENDÁRIZ, JOSÉ DE (MARQUÉS DE CASTELFUERTE) Viceroy of Peru, 1724–1736
BERNOULLI, JOHANN. Belgian mathematician who devised mathematical equations supporting the idea that Cartesian vortices would cause the earth to be elongated at the poles
BUFFON, GEORGES LOUIS LECLERC DE. Naturalist and keeper of the Jardin du Roi in Paris; member of the French Academy of Sciences
CASSINI, JACQUES. Son of Jean Cassini; director of the Paris Observatory of the French Academy of Sciences from 1700 to 1740; directed the measurement of a meridian in France that supported the conclusion that the earth was elongated at the poles
CASSINI, JEAN-DOMINIQUE (BORN GIAN DOMENICO CASSINI). Astronomer who directed the Paris Observatory from 1669 until 1700, when his son Jacques took over this position
CHOISEUL, ÉTIENNE-FRANÇOIS (DUC DE CHOISEUL). French minister of foreign affairs, 1758–1761 and 1766–1770; French minister of the marine, 1761–1766
CHOISEUL-PRASLIN, CÉSAR-GABRIEL (DUC DE CHOISEUL-PRASLIN) French minister of foreign affairs, 1761–1766; French minister of the marine, 1766-1770. Jean Godin wrote a letter to him in 1770 in which he described Isabel’s ordeal in the Bobonaza wilderness.
CLAIRAUT, ALEXIS-CLAUDE. Mathematician in the French Academy of Sciences who was a Newtonian; member of expedition to Lapland
DESCARTES, RENÉ. Seventeenth-century French philosopher and mathematician. In Principles of Philosophy (1644), he set forth a theory that planets were held in their orbits by a swirling vortex of particles, a cosmology that came to be known as Cartesian physics.
D’HEROUVILLE. A friend of the Duc de Choiseul to whom Jean wrote for help in 1764 and who helped bring a Portuguese galliot to Cayenne
DIGUJA, JOSEPH. President of the Audiencia of Quito, 1767–1778; directed an investigation into Isabel Godin’s voyage
D’OREASAVAL, TRISTAN. Jean’s friend who went in his stead with the Portuguese galliot to pick up Isabel
D’ORVILLIERS, GILBERT GUILLOUET. Governor of French Guiana in 1750, when Jean Godin arrived in the colony
FIEDMONT, GOVERNOR. Replaced d’Orvilliers as governor of French Guiana and was in that position during Jean Godin’s last decade in the colony
LOUIS XIV. King of France, 1643–1715. The French Academy of Sciences was established during his reign.
LOUIS XV. King of France, 1715–1774
MALDONADO, PEDRO. Native of Riobamba and governor of the Esmeraldas province when the La Condamine expedition arrived in 1736; traveled down the Amazon with La Condamine in 1743
MAUPERTUIS, PIERRE-LOUIS MOREAU DE. Mathematician who led the revolt by the Newtonians against the Cartesians in the French Academy of Sciences; led the expedition to Lapland
MAUREPAS, JEAN-FRÉDÉRIC PHÉLYPEAUX DE. French minister of the marine, 1723–1749, who oversaw the La Condamine expedition for Louis XV
MENDOZA, JOSÉ DE (MARQUÉS DE VILLAGARCÍA). Viceroy of Peru, 1736–1745
NEWTON, SIR ISAAC. English mathematician who published a theory of gravity in 1682 that contradicted Cartesian physics. According to his theory, the earth would be flattened at the poles, rather than elongated, as the Cartesians believed it was.
PHILIP V. King of Spain, 1700–1746
PICARD, JEAN. French astronomer who measured a degree of arc in France in the late 1660s
REBELLO, CAPTAIN. Captain of the Portuguese galliot sent by the Portuguese king to French Guiana in 1765 with orders to help Jean Godin bring his wife from Riobamba
RICHER, JEAN. French astronomer who discovered in 1672 that a pendulum clock beat more slowly in French Guiana than in Paris, which suggested that gravitational forces were not the same at all points on the globe
ROMERO, NICOLÁS. Superior of the Maynas district who tended to Isabel in Lagunas
ROUILLÉ, ANTOINE-LOUIS (COMTE DE JOUY). France’s minister of the marine in 1750, when Jean arrived in French Guiana; minister of foreign affairs, 1754–1757
SUASTI, JUAN. Priest in Andoas
VOLTAIRE, FRANÇOIS-MARIE AROUET DE. French philosopher and writer who was ardent champion of Newtonian physics
VRILLIÈRE, LOUIS PHÉLYPEAUX (DUC DE VRILLIÈRE). French minister who in 1773 approved a pension for Jean Godin