150 Prof. Schlegel on some Extinct Gigantic Birds 



could, at low water, during full and new moon, go to two neighbour- 

 ing islets, one of which was overgrown with trees*. This banish- 

 ment lasted more than three years, and Leguat alone was allowed, 

 for the recovery of his health, to stay sonie time on Mauritiusf- 

 Subsequently, on the 6th September, 1696, they were forwarded, 

 but still as prisoners I, to Batavia, and then finally, but only a 

 year later, released. Hence Leguat shipped, with his remaining 

 companions, on the 28th November, 1697, for Europe §, and 

 arrived in safety at Flushing on the 24th June, 1698 1|. Leguat 

 afterwards established himself in Great Britain •[[; and in con- 

 sequence of the approval which his journal of the voyage found 

 among his friends, he worked it up into a complete narrative, 

 which in this new form made the round of his acquaintances, 

 and was subsequently, in 1708, printed and published at their 

 request**. It is dedicated to the celebrated statesman the Earl 

 Gray ft, and the preface is dated London, 1st October, 1707. 



From Leguat^s work we find that he was a man of true re- 

 finement and much reading, that he possessed to a high degree 

 the earnestness and piety which characterized the fervent pro- 

 testants of the time, and that, by his scientific disposition and 

 imperturbable faith, as well as by his oppression and persecution 

 of several kinds, together with his ripe age, he had obtained that 

 unchangeable calmness of mind from which he felt so happy at 

 Rodriguez that, had he not been compelled, he would have never 

 left that resting-place J J. 



As to his love of truth, we find the contents of his work 

 corroborated by what he says in his preface — "la simple Verite 

 toute nue et la Singularite de nos Avantures sont le corps et 

 I'ame de ma Relation ^'§§. Among naturalists he has hitherto 

 been known only by his account of the Solitaire of Rodriguez ; 

 but every one has accepted it without hesitation, and the re- 



* Op. dt. ii. p. 38. t Ihid. ii. p. .34. % Ibid ii. p. 62. 



§ Ibid. ii. p. 137. |1 Ibid. ii. p. 174. 1] Ibid. Pr6f. p. xxx. 



** Ibid. Pref. p. iii-v. 



ft [This is a slight and pardonable mistake of the author. The person 

 to whom the volume is dedicated was Henry De Grey, Marquess of Kent, 

 &c. — Tbansl.] 



\\ Op. cit. Pr^f. p. xxx. §§ Ibid. Pref. p. x. 



