IXTRODLTCTTON, XIX 



commander was directed to reconnoitre tlie islands 

 of the group, and to take possession of whatever 

 island was found unoccupied and suitable for 

 colonisation. This change of plan does not seem to 

 have been communicated to the small band of 

 adventurers who embarked as emigrants under the 

 idea that they were to be landed on the Isle of 

 Eden, the terrestrial paradise of their anticipations, 

 and the small expedition finally left Texel on the 

 10th July 1691. 



The commander of the Ilirondelle, M. Valleau, 

 whom Leguat charges with the basest treachery, 

 having professedly discovered at the Cape that 

 Mascaregne had been formally annexed by the 

 French Compagnie des Indes Orientales (who had 

 placed M. Yaubolon there as governor), passed by 

 this delightful island, which, in truth, fully justified 

 the praises and descriptions of the Marquis, tanta- 

 lising the scurvy-stricken colonists by the enchanting 

 prospect it exhibited to their eyes, and continuing 

 his voyage to the eastward, anchored off the smaller 

 island of R-odriguez^ ; and here, on the 1st May 

 1691, Leguat landed with eight of his fellow- 

 adventurers, somewhat disappointed with the un- 

 expected change in their programme, but sufficiently 

 pleased with the place to decide that they would 

 remain for two years and see how fortune might 



1 In the oflficial colonial reports this island is now always styled 

 Rodrigues, but in the Admiralty charts and sailing directions it 

 preserves the name Rodriguez, and this latter nomenclature is 

 adopted in the present work. 



b2 



