Dodo 



411 



Although the discoverers of the bird seem to have thought poorly of its gas- 

 tronomic qualities, the next vessel to reach this isle of plenty made sad havoc 

 with the unfortunate Dodos. This was the ship of one William van West Zannen, 

 who stopped there in 1601. He writes that " The Dodos, with their round sterns 

 (for they are well fattened), were also obliged to turn tail; everything that could 



FIG. 140. Dodo, Didus ineptus. From painting by Roelandt Savary, early half lyth century. 



move was in bustle ; the fish which had lived in peace for many a year were pur- 

 sued into the deepest pool." One day Zannen's crew took twenty-four Dodos, 

 on another twenty, "so large and heavy that they could not eat any two of them 

 for dinner." Other Dutch ships followed in Van Zannen's wake, feasting on 

 tortoise and Dodo, and, salting down a store, departed, leaving the ranks of the 

 Dodos sadly depleted. The last notice of the living Dodo occurs in "A coppey 

 of Mr. Benj. Harvy's Journal when he was chief mate of the Shippe Berkley 



