ANTONIO DE ULLOA.
Born 1716—Died 1795.
This great traveller, as Andiffret and Viguier observe,
was one of those men, who, in the course of
the eighteenth century, reflected the greatest honour
upon Spain. He was born at Seville on the 12th of
January, 1716. His family, already distinguished in
the navy, began to prepare him from his earliest
years for following the same career. His education
was conducted with extraordinary care. In 1733
he entered the service, and his progress very quickly
exceeded the most sanguine hopes which the first
manifestations of his character had given birth to.
The first commission with which he was intrusted
was the scientific expedition concerted between the
ministers of France and Spain, for the purpose of
measuring a degree of the meridian near the equator,
while another expedition was despatched to
measure other degrees under the polar circle, in
order to form a judgment of the different parts of
the earth's circumference, by their equality or inequality,
and from thence to determine its magnitude
and figure.
The province of Quito, in Peru, appearing to offer the most favourable equatorial position for performing this enterprise, which seemed likely to be long and laborious, the ministers of Louis XV. made application to Philip V. of Spain, for permission to send a certain number of French academicians into Peru, in order to make there the necessary observations. Philip referred the matter to the Council of the Indies, and, on their favourable report, the license
