BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG, CHARLES-ETIENNE. - Missionary, historian, and ethnographer, b. in BOURBOURG on 8 Sept. 1814, d. at Nice on 1 Jan. 1874. He studied theology in Ghent and Rome, where he was ordained priest in 1845. The S. Congregation de Propaganda Fide sent him to Canada, where for some months he taught ecclesiastical history. He subsequently became vicar general of Boston. His passion for historical research on Latin America led him to accept, in 1850, the post of chaplain to the French legation in Mexico, and he added the study of Mexican languages to that of history.
From 1851 to 1854 he remained in France and published the Histoire du Canada, de son Eglise et de ses missions, Paris, 1852. He then undertook an exploratory journey through North America, Nicaragua, Salvador, and Guatemala, and served as parish priest to the indigenous people at Rabinal, also devoting himself to the study of the Quechva and Mamé languages. Between 1859 and 1860 he visited Tehuantepec and Chiapas, and in 1862 the ruins of Copan. In 1864 he accompanied a scientific expedition to Mexico and extended his research to Honduras and Yucatan. Political events compelled him to return to Guatemala, which he left definitively in 1865. B. published a great number of historical, archaeological, linguistic, and ethnographic works and pamphlets of unequal scientific value, since at times enthusiasm, imagination, and preconceived ideas prevailed over critical judgment.