WATTEAU, Boudoin Louis (vat-to), French explorer, born in Douai in 1570; died in Paris in 1627. He traded with the West Indies and South America, visited also Brazil, and, lured by accounts of riches in the fabulous Eldorado, induced merchants of Douai and Dunkirk to arm an expedition to explore Guiana. The scheme failed, as the company of the twelve lords refused permission to enter the country, and Watteau sailed for the Indies, where he took a cargo for the western coast of Peru, returning by way of the Strait of Magellan in 1624-'6. He went afterward to Paris to solicit permission to establish a colony in Patagonia, but he died without obtaining the grant. He wrote "Voyage des Francais aux Indes Orientales, Peru, detroit de Magellan, Patagonie et au Bresil, fait pendant les amides 1624-'6" (2 vols., Paris, 1627). This is a curious work, which contains interesting details on the manner of trading in India and Peru at the beginning of the 17th century. It was never reprinted, and only a few copies are known to exist. One of them was sold in 1829 for 8280.