Witty, charming, and fiercely intelligent, Louis-Antoine Comte de Bougainville managed, in the course of a long life, to play a part in nearly every facet of 18th-century life and culture. Dunmore follows Bougainville from the French and Indian War, during which he commanded a unit in the defense of Quebec City, to his circumnavigation of the globe in 1766. During that trip, he became one of the first Westerners to visit Tahiti; on his return, he published a book about the island that contributed greatly to Tahiti's lasting reputation as a paradise of noble savages. Bougainville served in the senate under Napoleon and was made a member of the Legion of Honor.  (PAC212, $24.95)