a French clergyman, botanist, writer, explorer, ethnographer, soldier, engineer, and landowner. Labat was born and died in Paris. In 1693, determined to devote himself to foreign missionary work, he received permission from the general of his order to travel to the West Indies, then under French domination. In 1696 he travelled to Guadeloupe, and was appointed procurator-general of all the Dominican convents in the Antilles (Procureur syndic des îles d'Amérique) upon his return to Martinique. He traveled to Paris in 1716. He lived in the convent on Rue Saint-Honore until his death. During these years, Labat commenced a long contemplated history of the West Indies. The work was finally published in six volumes at Paris, in 1722, as well as several other books.
