EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



In the following story of the remarkable adventures 

 and sufferings endured by Francois Leguat, events 

 are narrated which belong to a period considerably 

 later than that of any other travels or voyages 

 treated of in former publications undertaken by the 

 Hakluyt Society ; nevertheless, the date of the per- 

 sonal record follows somewhat closely upon the time 

 of the latter portion of William Hedges' diary ,^ to 

 which, indeed, it forms a not altogether unfitting 

 sequel, by affording information regarding the system 

 of Dutch administration and colonisation in the East 

 Indies, and at the Cape, towards the end of the 

 seventeenth century, and by giving a graphic 

 sketch of the circumstances of French Huguenot 

 emigration from Europe to South Africa at that 

 epoch. The chief modern scientific interest, how- 

 ever, in Leguat's description undoubtedly hinges 

 upon the circumstantial delineation which he gives 

 of the curious bird-fauna then extant in the Mas- 

 carene Islands, the subsequent destruction of which 

 has rendered the personal observations of the philo- 

 sophic Huguenot invaluable to naturalists, marked 

 as they are by such evident simplicity and veracity. 



^ The last entry in Wm. Hedges' diary is dated 1688, and 

 Leguat's narrative commences in 1689. 



