TALON, Edouard (tah-long), Flemish administrator, born in Ghent in 1759; died in Bruges in 1819 He early entered the Portuguese service and held for twenty years important offices under the government of Brazil. In 1810 he was secretary of the commission to mark the boundary between the Portuguese and Spanish possessions in South America, and from 1812 till 1815 he was chief of the local administration of French Guiana, which had been surrendered to the Portuguese. He returned to Europe in 1817, and died suddenly at Bruges during a journey. His works include "Memorial sobre a administracao das provincias de Minas-Geraes e Rio Grande do Sul" (Lisbon, 1804) ; " Estatistica politica e commercial do Brazil" (2 vols., 1805); "Historia de Gomez Freire de Andrada eda guerra das sete Missoes" (2 vols., 1808); "Expose de l'etat present de la Guiane" (1817); and "Memoire sur l'administration du capitaine general Victor Hugues" (1817).