JjSTKODUCTIOX, XXXIX 



In 1725, says M. cVAvezac, the Government of 

 Bourbon, under tlie President of Council, M. Des- 

 forges Boucher, decided to take possession of 

 Ilodriguez in the name of Louis XV, and a vessel 

 was despatched thither, whose officers made a 

 geodetic survey of the island, the original map of 

 which is said still to exist in manuscript at tlie 

 Depot of Charts, in the Marnie Office at Paris.^ 

 The curious Relation de rile jRodn'gue,'^ found by M. 

 Kouillard among the archives of the He de France 

 at the Marine Office in Paris, dates from this jDeriod, 

 as it follows the Proceedings of the Council, which 

 ordained the project of settling the island of Diego 

 Rmjs, as Rodriguez was then named ; although, on 

 this occasion, M. Th. Sauzier states that the name 

 of He Marianne was given by the French visitors 

 to the island.' A superintendent and guard were 

 established on the island from this date, as it is 

 mentioned that the guard-house of the French 

 superintendent in the bay of the Ouen Valley w^as 

 entrusted in the year 1 740 to a negro family. 



Thirteen years afterwards (1748), Admiral 

 Boscawen, who so boldly led his squadron across 

 the locality, supposed to be occupied by the reefs 

 of Cargados Carayos (see Chart, p. 308), examined 

 the capacity of the roadstead at Ilodriguez for the 



1 Vide " Note sur I'lle Rodrigue apres le depart de Legiiat," par 

 Eugene Mailer. 



- Vide Appendix B. 



^ M. Sauzier adds : " Coincidence bizarre, this name of the Mari- 

 anne is still applied to the rock on which Leguat was imprisuued 

 after escaping from Kodriguez." 



