liv 



INTRODUCTION. 



guez, to be sold (at what price, we may ask ?) to the 

 very patient and helpless islanders. " For this act of 

 grace," naively adds the magistrate, " the Governor 

 cannot be too much thanked." This adventure of 

 an open boat proceeding 300 miles across the Indian 

 Ocean, in the track of Francois Leguat's desperate 

 voyage two hundred years before, led in fact to the 

 present republication of his Relation, which may well 

 be read again w^th profit by those who care for 

 true tales of days gone by. 



We can hardly conclude better than by quoting 

 the testimony of a learned man of science who has 

 carefully investigated Leguat's narrative, and com- 

 pared his written description with the materials 

 available after the lapse of two centuries. 



" From Leguat's work we find," writes Professor Schlegel, 

 " that he was a man of true refinement and much reading, 

 that he possessed to a high degree the earnestness and piety 

 which characterised the fervent Protestants of the time, and 

 that, by his scientific disposition and imperturbable faith, as 

 well as by his oppression and persecution of several kinds, 

 together with liis ripe age, he had obtained that unchange- 

 able calmness of mind with which he felt so happy at 

 Ptodriguez that, had he not been compelled, he would have 

 never left that resting-place." 



" As to his love of truth, we find the contents of his work 

 corroborated by what he says in his preface : ' La simple 

 Verite toute nue et la Singularite de nos Avantures sont le 

 corps et I'ame de ma Eelation.' " 



The simple and pure faith in the Bible inculcated 

 by the Huguenot religion is conspicuous in Leguat's 

 pathetic story. We find the word ''Providence' on 



