XVUl INTRODUCTION. 



the establishment of a colony of French Protestant 

 refugees in the island of Mascaregne, now known as 

 He cle la Reunion i The Marquis had previously pub- 

 lished^ a glowing description of this island (which 

 he proposed to name Eden), the largest of the group 

 discovered by the Portuguese in the preceding cen- 

 tury, but as yet imperfectly explored and vaguely 

 marked as Las Mascarenhas in the old maps and 

 portulans ; so that many refugees were desirous of 

 becoming colonists in the new paradise of the 

 southern hemisphere, and two ships were chartered 

 for the purpose of taking possession of this hitherto 

 supposed uninhabited island, to one of which Leguat 

 was officially appointed as major. 



On learning, however, later, that a French 

 squadron^ was under orders to sail for this island 

 (which had, indeed, been re-annexed in 1674 by 

 M. de la Haye, the French Viceroi des Indes, for 

 the French East India Company), the Marquis du 

 Quesne suspended the preparations for his abortive 

 scheme, following the precise injunctions of his 

 father, never to take up arms against the French 

 Government, and, instead, contented himself with 

 fitting out a small friga.te, La Hirondelle, whose 



1 Vide Un Projet de Rqmhlique cl Vile cV Eden {Vile Bourbon) 

 en 1689, par Le Marquis Heuri du Quesne. Roimpression d'uu 

 ouvrage disparu, par Th. Sauzier, Paris, 1887. 



2 A squadron of six ships, commanded by M, du Quesue- 

 Guiton, left I'Orient de Port Louis, on the 24th February 1690, 

 for the East Indies ; but not for Mascaregne. The Father 

 Tacliard, often quoted by Leguat, was a passenger for Siani in one 

 of the ships. 



