110 WE LEAVE A RECOED. [1693. 



Island is encoinpast at an unequal Distance ; except in two 

 Places, where there's a Breach about 10 or 12 Foot broad, 

 that gives access to the Isle. This is not to be seen in the 

 Map.i 



When we arriv'd on the Island, we perceiv'd the Names 

 of some Dutchmen, who had Landed there before, Written on 

 the Bark of some Trees,^ with the date of the Time ; and this 

 put us in mind of doing the same when we left it. We there- 

 fore wrote an Abridgment of our History in French and 

 Didch^ with the date of our Arrival, the time of our Abode, 

 and our Departure. We put it into a Viol, with a Note to 

 Passengers to look into. We plac'd it in a sort of a Niche 

 Dug in the Trunk of the great Tree,^ under which we us'd 



pose coral reefs (or, as Dioscorides designates them, a forest of stony- 

 trees, lithoilendra) surrounding the island of Rodriguez, have been built 

 up in thick, wall-like masses, are closely related to those of Mauritius, 

 Madagascar, and the Seychelles. Dr. Briiggemann has examined and 

 identified 102 specimens collected at Rodriguez by MM. Slater and 

 Gulliver, which belong to 49 species : including Alcyoniidse, Mille- 

 poridse, Astrseidae, Actiniid?e, Madraporidae, Fungidse, etc. (See Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, op. cit., p. 569.) 



1 In orig. : " on peut voir cela dans la carte." The two entrances 

 are shown on the map. That to the north opposite the settlements is 

 the most convenient for landing, while that on the south side is so wind- 

 ing that it requires considerable practice to navigate it with safety. 

 (Grant, oj). et loc. cit.) 



^ Adanson found trunks of the Baobab on the Magdaleua Is. in 

 1748, with a diameter of five and six feet, all bearing the names of 

 Europeans deeply carved on their bark. One inscription was of the 

 15th, another of the 16th century, and the characters were about six 

 inches long. {Voyage au Senegal, p. 66.) 



" Le vingt cinquiesme Juin (1638) nous abordasmes I'isle de Diego 

 Rois, . . . Nous y descendismes, et y arborames les armes de France 

 contre un tronc d'arbre par les mains de Salomon Gobert. Nostre 

 navire fut tousiours en mer, n'ayant pn anchre, le fond estant trop 

 bas; aussi-tost que les armes du Roy y furent posees, ceux qui auoient 

 eu charge de ce faire, retournerent a nous dans la chaloupe qui les y 

 auoit portez." {Relation du Voyage de Frangois Cauche, 1651, p. 7.) 



3 In orig. : " Flamand." 



* Probably a hois d^olive. Vide ante, p. 52. 



