Étienne de Flacourt

Étienne de Flacourt (1607–1660) was a French governor of Madagascar, born at Orléans in 1607. He was named governor of Madagascar by the French East India Company in 1648.[1]

l'Histoire de la Grande Isle Madagascar
Étienne de Flacourt

Flacourt restored order among the French soldiers, who had mutinied. In his dealings with the Malagasy, he was less successful; he was continually harassed by their intrigues and attacks during his entire term of office.[1]

In 1655 he returned to France and, not long after, he was appointed director general of the company; after again returning to Madagascar, he drowned on his voyage home on the 10th of June 1660. He is the author of a Histoire de la grande isle de Madagascar (1st edition 1658, 2nd edition 1661).[1]

Flacourt was one of the few, if not the only, Westerners to have recorded knowledge of the elephant birds of Madagascar when they were possibly still extant.

Flacourtia, a genus of flowering plants in the willow family, Salicaceae, was named in his honor .[2]

Notes
  1. Chisholm 1911.
  2. Everett, Thomas H. (1981). The New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture. Vol. 4. Courier Corporation. p. 2376. ISBN 978-0-8240-7234-6.

References
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Flacourt, Étienne de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 454. This cites:
    • Arthur Malotet, Ét. de Flacourt, ou les origines de la colonisation française à Madagascar (1648–1661), (Paris, 1898).
  • Kay, J. (2004). "Étienne de Flacourt, L'Histoire de le Grand Île de Madagascar (1658)". Curtis's Botanical Magazine. 21 (4): 251–257. doi:10.1111/j.1355-4905.2004.00448.x.
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