1689.] THE ISLE OF EDEN. 3 



of EcU'n} that was given it on account of its Excellency, made 

 me conceive so good an Opinion of it tliat I was tempted to 

 give it a Visit, resolving to end my Days there in Peace, and 

 out of the Care and Confusion of the World, if I found 'twas 

 but in some measure so Pleasant and Commodious as 'twas 

 describ'd to be. 



'Twas so easie for a Man to enter himself in this Colony ; 

 and the Idea I had of the Quiet and Pleasure I hop'd to 

 enjoy in this lovely Island was such, that I got over all the 

 Obstacles which lay in my way. I offer'd myself to the 

 Gentlemen who were concerned in the Enterprize. They 

 receiv'd me very favourably, and honour'd me with the Post, 



1 The island in the Indian Ocean, now known as Reunion, the largest 

 of the Mascarene Islands, was first named St. Appollonia as early as 

 1527. It was subsequently called EiicjlancVs Forest by the British, 

 and Mascaregne by the French in 1613. In 1630 we find it written of 

 as lie de la Perle. M. de Flacourt gave it the name of Bourhon in 1649, 

 since which date various names have at different times been applied to 

 it, such as Eden, as in the narrative of ISI. du Quesne ; lie BoncqMrte, 

 under the first Republic and Empire ; and finally the present name, 

 Reunion. 



On the return of M. de la Haye, the viceroy of the Indies, to 

 France, in 1674-75, he advised the French king to send out an ex 

 pedition with proper ofiicials to take possession of the Island of 

 Bourbon, as it was then called. Accordingly, Ivl. de Vauboulon was 

 despatched there by the Government with a suitable escort, and 

 appointed Governor for the King and the Company (French East Indian 

 Company), and Chief Justice of the Island of Bourbon. 



]M. de Vauboulon took with him a certain Capuchin monk of Quimper, 

 as chaplain, and appointed him Cure of St. Paul. Whether Governor 

 de Vauboulon abused the powers confided in him or not does not clearly 

 appear from the records, but, judging from the conduct of the Dutch 

 Governor of the neighbouring island, the probabilities are that he did ; 

 for, anyhow, a revolution took place on the 20th December 1690, when 

 the rebels, headed by Pere Hyacinthe, the Capuchin, deposed M. de 

 Vauboulon, and kept him in prison until he died in confinement at 

 St. Denis, in August 1692, the Sieur Firelin being installed as Com- 

 missioner for the Company by the Cure, who, having accomplished his 

 coup d'etat, retired to his parish at St. Paul. 



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