of the Mascarene Islands. 161 



It remains for us to inquire whether the Geant of Leguat 

 was also -found in the neighbouring island of Bourbon or else- 

 where. The only writer who makes mention of a gigantic 

 marsh-bird in Bourbon, and this under the selfsame name of 

 Geant, is the Marquis du Quesne. His work, which neither 

 Strickland nor I have been able to consult, is only known to us 

 by a quotation in Leguat. Strickland* says of this little work, 

 that it is " drawn apparently as an emigrant-trap,^' and there- 

 fore seems to attach but little value to it, or to doubt the trust- 

 worthiness of the author. From this possible suspicion we 

 must try to exonerate a man like Du Quesne, who, as his whole 

 life shows, stood socially and morally too high to indulge in 

 such boastings. The Marquis du Quesne who, as a French 

 protestant after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had esta- 

 blished himself in Holland, with many others of his coreligionists, 

 whose descendants are still living among us, and of whom his 

 Romanist cotemporaries could say, " le grand et fameux Mon- 

 sieur du Quesne, Lieutenant-General, qui a mieux aime re- 

 noncer an service et aux honneurs du Baton de Marechal de 

 France, que d'abjurer les erreurs de Calvin"t — this Marquis du 

 Quesne had, as we have above mentioned, formed a plan of 

 himself establishing a colony of French emigrants in Bourbon, 

 and on this occasion collected in writing all that was known 

 about the island. Of this little work Leguat says |, "II est 

 vrai, que cette Relation pourroit etre suspecte a ceux, qui pen- 

 sent qu^il etoit de son interet de preoccuper les esprits d'une 

 raaniere qui fut avantageuse a ce nouveau monde, qu'il avoit 

 dessein d'aller habiter. Mais j'ai premierement a dire sur cela, 

 que M. du Quesne ne voulut point qu'on inserat dans ce petit 

 Livre qu'il fit publier, aucune de ces sortes de choses, qui auroient 

 le moindre air d'exaggeration, encore qu'elles passent pour 

 vraies. Et j'ajouterai au second lieu, qu' a Maurice, a Batavia, 

 & au Cap, je suis temoin que tout le monde convient qu'il n'y 

 a rien dans cette Relation qui ne soit tres-conforme a la Verite." 



* The Dodo, &c., p. 60, 



t See the ahove-mentioued ' Journal d'i;n Voyage,' &c., by an unknown 

 writer. Rouen, 1721, 12nio, torn. i. p. 3. 



X Op. cit. i. p. 50. 

 N. S. — VOL. II. M 



