soldier and explorer who took part in the first thorough European exploration of Madagascar and led expeditions into previously unexplored regions of Central Africa, thereby extending French influence there.

After serving as second in command of a French mission that traversed the whole of Madagascar in 1889–90, Maistre was put in charge of an expedition (1891) to investigate the navigability of the rivers in the Congo River basin. The mission was extremely successful, for he was able to travel up the Congo and Ubangi rivers into what is now the Central African Republic, then north into present-day Chad along the Chari River from near the Sudan in the east and to Lake Chad in the west. Maistre then crossed southwest into Nigeria and followed the Benue River to the Niger, arriving on the west coast of Africa in 1893.