xliv INTRODUCTION. 



been baptised. There was neither church nor chapel, and 

 there had never been anything of that kind there. Francois 

 Leguat and his companions served God, in their manner, with 

 greater exactitude than has been observed by tlie Catholics 

 ever since they have been established in this island. There is, 

 nevertheless, at Iiodriguez a cemetery, consecrated by some 

 chaplain of a ship, who has wished to leave this monument of 

 the visit of a minister of the true Church to tliis neglected 

 island. At the same time, I am assured that this neglect 

 ought not to be imputed to the zealous missionaries, who till 

 the ground, otherwise almost uncultivated, of Bourbon, and 

 of the Isle of France " 



To commemorate the observations of the Transit 

 of Venus expedition under Pingre, Le Monnier pro- 

 posed placing the Solitaire among the southern 

 constellation,^ " but, being a better astronomer than 

 ornithologist, he, inadvertently," says Dr. Hamel.^ 



1 This constellation, says Mr. Kuobel, is a small one cribbed 

 from Libra and Virgo. The boundaries of it for the present epo^h 

 lie between Eight ascension 14 hours and 14 honrs 40 minutes, 

 and within the parallels of 15° and 25° of South declination. 

 Devoid of bright stars. 



" J'ai observe la plus grande partie de ces Etoiles a mes deux 

 quarts-de-cercles muraux, & la figure de la constellation du Solitaire 

 (oiseau des Indes & des Philippines) a ete preserve en memoire 

 du voyage en I'ile Rodrigue, m'ayant ete fournu par Mrs. Pingre 

 et Brisson ; voyezle tome ii de TOruithologie ; cette constellation 

 sera voisine du Corbeau & de I'Hydre sur nos planispheres & 

 globes celestes." {Memoire stir une Nouvelle Constellation, par M. le 

 Monnier, lu. 21 Aoiit 1776; Mem.de rAcademie Royale, 1776, 

 p. 562, pi. xvii.) 



2 See Pamphlet by Dr. Hamel, entitled " Der Dodo, die Einsiedler 

 und der erdichtete Nazarvogel", Bidletin Phys -math. -Acad., St. 

 Petersburg, vol. viii, Nos. 5, 6, 1846. Quoted by Strickland 

 and Melville in their postscript to their monograph on the Dodo, 

 p. 64. 



