XXXVIU INTRODUCTIOX. 



at the Mascauene Islands. It may be mentioned 

 here, however, that on the 25th of June 1638, 

 the St. Alexis of Dieppe, commanded by Captain 

 Alonso Goubert of Dieppe, came up with the island 

 of Diego Euiz, " lying in twenty degrees of south 

 latitude, about forty leagues from Madagascar," as 

 this was the first French ship that ever visited the 

 Mascarene islands. " We landed," writes Francois 

 Gauche of Houen,^ "and set u]j the arms of France 

 on the trunk of a tree, our ship keeping out at sea, 

 not being able to anchor by reason of the depth ; 

 so that as soon as the King's Arms Avere fix'd, those 

 who had done it, returned aboard in the boat, as 

 they went." 



After the departure of Leguat and his comrades 

 in 1G93, some English officers appeared to have 

 stayed for a while and surveyed Port Mathurin in 

 1706 or 1707 ; as is stated in a report made by M. 

 de Parat, Governor of He Bourbon in 1712 to the 

 Minister of Marine in France, in answer to a request 

 for information as to the capabilities of Rodriguez, 

 Port Mathurin (now designated by this denomina- 

 tion for the first time) was described as being difficult 

 to enter, but available for the anchorage of vessels 

 of thirty guns ; and it was further stated that, apart 

 from the quantity of tortoises found there, the island 

 was of no use to the French East India Company. 



1 A VoijcKje to Madagascar and the adjacent Islands and Coast of 

 Africk, by Francis Cauche. English translation of 1710, p. 4, by 

 Capt. Stevens, after the Relations veritahles et curieuses de Visle de 

 Madagascar, etc., par Le Sieur Morisot. (Paris, 1657,) 



