LA CONDAMINE, CHARLES-MARIE DE

born Jan. 28, 1701, Paris, France died Feb. 4, 1774, Paris French naturalist and mathematician who accomplished the first scientific exploration of the Amazon River. In 1735 La Condamine joined an expedition sent to Peru to determine the length near the Equator of a degree of the meridian. In 1743 he left the party, traveled from Quito (now in Ecuador), and began a four-month raft journey down to the mouth of the Amazon. During the trip he made ethnographic observations of the regions through which he passed. In addition to a scientific account of his journey, he published Journal du voyage fait par ordre du roi a l'quateur (1751; Journal of a Voyage to the Equator Made by Order of the King).