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See also: born at Hambye, in the department of See also: Manche
.
Having at an early age inherited a See also: fortune, he decided to gratify his taste for See also: foreign travel
.
According to his own profession he visited See also: India, See also: Kashmir, Khorasan, See also: Persia, See also: Asia Minor and many parts of See also: Europe
.
In 1826 he went to See also: South See also: America, and in 1827 See also: left See also: Brazil for the Portuguese possessions on the west See also: coast of See also: Africa, where his presence in See also: March 1828 is proved by the mention made of him in letters of
See also: Castillo See also: Branco; the governor-general of See also: Loanda
.
In May 1831 he reappeared in See also: France, claiming to have pushed his explorations into the very See also: heart of central Africa
.
His See also: story was readily accepted by the Societe de Geographie of See also: Paris, which hastened. to recognize his services by assigning him the See also: great gold medal, and appointing him their secretary for the See also: year 1832
.
On the publication of his narrative, Voyage au See also: Congo et dans l'interieur de l'Afrique equinoxiale, which occupied three volumes and was accompanied by an elaborate See also: atlas, public See also: enthusiasm ran high
.
Before the year 1832 was out, however, it was established that See also: Douville's Voyage was See also: romance and not verity
.
He had probably been inspired by the appearance of Rene Caillie's account of his journey to Timbuktu, and wished to obtain a share of the fame attaching to See also: African explorers
.
Douville tried vainly to establish the truth of his story in Ma Defense (1832), and Trente mois de ma See also: vie, ou quinze mois avant et quinze mois arres mon voyage au Congo (1833)
.
Mlle Audrun, a lady to whom he was about to be married, committed suicide from grief at the disgrace; and the adventurer withdrew in 1833 to Brazil, and proceeded to make explorations in the valley of the See also: Amazon
.
According to Dr G
.
See also: Gardner, in his Travels in the Interior of Brazil (1846), he was murdered in 1837 on the See also: banks of the Sao Francisco for charging too high for his medical assistance
.
Douville may well have explored See also: part of the province of See also: Angola, and See also: Sir See also: Richard See also: Burton maintained that the Frenchman's descriptions of the country of the Congo were See also: life-like; that his observations on the anthropology, ceremonies, customs and maladies of the See also: people were remarkably accurate; and that even the native words used in his narrative were " for the most part given with unusual correctness." It has been shown, however, that the chief source of Douville's inspiration was a number of unpublished Portuguese See also: manuscripts to which he had See also: access
.
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[back] JANUS [Jan van der Does] DOUSA |
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