Philippe Avril
Philippe Avril (1654 – 1698 (presumed)) was a
Jesuit explorer of the
Far East. He was born at
Angoulême,
France on 16 September 1654.
Avril was a professor of philosophy and mathematics at
Paris when he was dispatched to the Jesuit missions of
China. Following the instructions of
Ferdinand Verbiest, another Jesuit, then at
Peking, he attempted an overland journey, and traveled for six years through
Kurdistan,
Armenia,
Astrakhan,
Persia, and other countries of eastern Asia.
Arriving at
Moscow, Avril was refused permission to pass through
Tatary, and was sent by the Government to
Poland, whence he made his way to
Istanbul and from there went back to France. Though exhausted by
disease, he set out again on a vessel, which was lost at sea. Avril presumably died in a 1698
shipwreck.
Avril's journal and writings provide a significant amount of useful material for modern historians and demographers.
Provided by Wikipedia