THE MARQUIS DU QUESNE. [1689, 



Marquis du Qucsnc^ was by the good Pleasure, and under the 

 Protection of my Lords the States General, and Messieurs tlie 

 Directors of the East India Company, making Preparations 

 for a Settlement in the Island of Mascaregne. To this Pur- 

 pose two great Ships were equipp'd at Amsterdam, ahoard 

 which all the French Protestants, who were willing to be of 

 this Colony, were receiv'd gratis. The Description of this 

 Island," which was made publick at that time, and the name 



Berlin several industries were first established by the Protestant fugi- 

 tives. More than twelve thousand soldiers and six hundred officers 

 carried to foreign flags an implacable resentment and sentiments of 

 vengeance against their mother-country. 



1 " Henry and Abraham, the two sons of the great Duquesne, both 

 Protestants like their father, the most remarkable of naval commanders 

 in France during the seventeenth century ; and, having already dis- 

 tinguished themselves under his command, they were, like him, excepted 

 from the rigours of the law pronounced against their co-religionists at 

 the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. On the death of 

 their father, in 1688, being given to understand that they would be 

 subjected to persecution, they quitted France. Anticipating the 

 persecutions to which the Calvinists would be subjected, and uneasy as 

 regards the future of his children, he resolved to prepare a safe refuge 

 for them by purchasing the property of Aubonne, near Berne, of which 

 municipality the burgesses granted him the freedom. On hearing of 

 this, Louis XIV asked him his reason for so doing. " Sire," said he, 

 " I have been desirous of securing a property of which I cannot be 

 deprived by the will of a master." It was to this estate of Aubonne 

 that his sons retired ; but, previous to his death, he made them swear 

 that, whatever happened, they should never take up arms against 

 France : an oath which they scrupulously kept. Henri Duquesne, the 

 elder of the two brothers, promoter of the expedition which Leguat 

 here mentions, and which was rendered abortive, nes^er more went to sea, 

 but gave himself up entirely to theological studies, and, in 1718, he 

 published a volume, entitled Reflexions snr VEucharistie. The nephew 

 Duquesne Guiton, with a Dutch squadron, made an expedition to the East 

 Indies, of which the journal was published in 1721." (^Eugene Midler.') 



2 Recueil de Quelques Memoires servans (F Instruction pour lEtahJisse- 

 ment de flsle d''Eden. A Amsterdam, m.dc.lxxxix. {See Introduction, 

 and Appendix at end of volume.) M. Mulier believed all trace of 

 this rare document had been lost ; he has since found a copy in the 

 Library of the Arsenal, and another copy has lately been reprinted by 

 M. Sauzier. 



