XXVI INTRODUCTION. 



Leguat ; and, indeed, President Bouhier (as 

 evidenced by a note in his handwriting in his own 

 copy of Leguat's book) was of opinion that Leguat 

 owed to Gabillon les fails alteres and the digres- 

 sions on the advantages and disadvantages of 

 marriage, which are so prominent in our author's 

 work. Baron Haller, who, as ah^eady mentioned, 

 knew him personally, always declared that Leguat 

 was a frank and sincere man ; nevertheless, M. 

 Bruzen de la Martiniere, also a contemporary, in 

 his Geographical Dictionary, does not scruple to 

 class Leguat's Voyage among "the fabulous travels 

 which have no more reality than the dreams of a 

 fevered brain". Ever since, this very inaccurate judg- 

 ment has not seldom been held by many. On the 

 other hand, the observations of Leguat have been 

 amply confirmed by the evidence of his contemporaries 

 and of voyagers who followed in his footsteps ; while 

 recent investigation has proved the general correct- 

 ness of his observations in a remarkable degree. 



M. Jacques Bernard (the successor of Pierre Bayle), 

 in his continuation of Bayle's Nouvelles cle la Repuh- 

 lique des Lettres, for December 1707, noticed Leguat's 

 volume when first published, and made the following 

 critical remarks on its authorshijD : 



" The Preface of this Book is not by the Author of the 

 Work. He who has composed it maligns various persons 

 of merit, some of whom will perhaps scorn to notice his 

 insulting expressions, and others will not fail to retaliate on 

 the first opportunity. I (M. Jacques Bernard) have already 

 leceived from two separate sources a Memoir and a Letter 



