LEDRU, Hector Priam, West Indian sculptor, born in Les Saintes in 1726; died there in 1775. He was a mulatto, and, as he early exhibited strong tendency for sculpture, the Marquis Pinel Dumanoir de la Palan, whose slave he was, sent him to study in Paris. There he interested Diderot, D'Alembert, Holbach, Rousseau, and the philosophers of the "Encyclopedia," to which he contributed several articles and sketches on the colonies and Central American characters. In 1761 he exhibited, in the salon of the Louvre, a bust of Columbus, which was highly praised. Among his other works are "Captive Indians" (1756); "Buccaneers at Rest" (1759); "Slave Unjustly Chastised" (1763); and "America the Treasure of Europe" (1767). Returning to his native country in 1763, he executed ornaments and statues for churches of Les Salutes, Guadeloupe, and Martinique, and became wealthy. He published "Histoire de l'art en Amerique" (2 vols., Paris, 1769) and "L'art chez les Aztiques et les Incas" (4 vols., 1771).