INTRODUCTION. xlv 



" gave this honour not to the Didine bird of Rodri- 

 guez, but to the Solitary Thrush of the Phihppines 

 [Monticola evemita), figured by Brisson, voL ii, ph 28, 

 £ 1, instead of copying Leguat's figure as he might 

 have done." 



Kempenfelt surveyed Port Mathurin the same 

 3^ear, by order of Admiral Cornish, who was then 

 cruising about the Mascarene Islands. A landing 

 was efiiected on the island,^ but the mortality among 

 the crews of the ships was so excessive that they 

 very soon re-embarked. 



In August 1764, the administration of the Mas- 

 carene Islands passed into the hands of the King, 

 Louis XY ; and in 1768, M. Dumas, the Governor 

 of the Islands, deported M. Rivalz de Saint-Antoine, 

 a member of Council of the Isle of France to Rodri- 

 guez, for having protested against the arbitrary 

 proceedings of the military administration. How- 

 ever, the exile of M. de St. Antoine did not exceed 

 a year, after which interval he was released on the 

 recall of M. Dumas to France. For forty years now 

 the little island enjoyed peace and tranquillity ; only 



1 " Upon the whole, if we cousidei' the little trust that is 

 to be put in slaves, which forms the chief strength of the island, 

 their small force, besides the stony shoar which would render their 

 batteries scarce tenable, and, I may add, the terror of the English 

 arms, it may be presumed, that had our fleet under Admiral 

 Cornish, which cruised off Eodriguez in 1761, been ordered to 

 attack this island [Bourbon], it would have met with an easy 

 conquest, and a very important one, as it may justly be reckoned 

 a very healthy, pleasant, and profitable island." (Dalrymple's 

 Oriental Repository, loc, cit.) 



