Chap. I. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 47 



have been found in different parts of Europe, and particularly two 

 that, in 171 9, were found in thefe fame Pyrencan mountains, as I 

 have related in the Origin and Progrefs of Language *. M. Le Roy 

 concludes his accompt of him, by faying, what I am perfuat^ed is 

 the truth, that he had been left on thofe mountains in his infancy, 

 and had fubfifted on herbs f. 



I have likewife been informed of a dumb favage, that was found 

 about four or five years ago, in a fmall ifland in the Eaftern Ocean, 

 called Diego Garcia. He, too, was very unwilling to be taken, and 

 was catched with fome difficulty. It appeared from feveral circum- 

 ftances, particularly from the ufe he had of Fire, and his way of 

 making it by the frid:ion of pieces of wood upon one another, that 

 he had come from a country of arts and civility, and, it is likely, had 

 once learned to fpeak. But, when he was taken, and brought to 

 the ifland of Bourbon in a French vefTel, he had entirely loft the 

 ufe of fpeech. This information I had from a French gentleman, 

 who, two or three years ago, was taken prifoner aboard a French 

 (hip and brought to Scotland, where I faw him and converfed with 

 him. He faid that, when he left the Ifland of Bourbon, the man 

 had not then learned to fpeak, though he had been four months 

 there J, 



There 



• Volume Firft, Second Edition, page 186. 



t The account of this wild Man was firft publifhed at Paris by M. le Roy, under 

 the title of ' Memoire fur les Travaux, &c. dans le Pyrenees,' and was tranflated 

 and publifhed in England, in the Annual Regiller, for the year 1778. 



X I will here give the ftory at length, as I fct it down after converfing with the 

 French gentleman. 



There is a French gentleman, at prefent a prifoner in Scotland, who was taken by 

 a Glafgow privateer, on board a French (hip homeward bound from the Eaft Indies. 

 He relates that, in the yeai 1778, he faw in the Iflund of Bourbon a human crea- 

 ture 



