LABAT, JEAN-BAPTISTE. Missionary, writer, and Dominican traveler, b. in Paris in 1663 (or 1664), d. there on 6 Jan. 1738. He professed in the Parisian convent of the Annunciation (rue St. Honoré) on 11 Apr. 1685. After several years of teaching in Nancy, he sailed for the Antilles (1693). Having spent two years as parish priest in Martinique, he moved to Guadeloupe, and from there back to Martinique.
During the eleven and a half years he spent in the Antilles, he was able to employ his versatile intellect in the most varied fields; he was a mechanic and chief engineer, agronomist, geographer, astronomer, etc., leaving among those peoples a memory still alive and handed down from generation to generation. Returning to Europe (1705), he remained there until his death, first almost exclusively in Italy, then, from 1716, in the convent of the Annunciation in Paris.
Labat left various writings on travels, his own and others', in which he reveals himself not only as a keen and sagacious observer but also as a polished writer, though somewhat too indulgent toward witticisms and jests. Worth noting are: *Nouveau voyage aux Isles de l'Amérique...* (6 vols., Paris 1722; various editions and translations); *Voyage du p. L. en Espagne et en Italie...* (8 vols., Paris 1730). He also wrote on West Africa, Guinea, and West Ethiopia.
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