1 693-] OPPOSITION. 119 



other Breaches, if they cou'd not follow exactly the way 

 mark'd them out l)y the Buoys.^ 



I was, as well as they, a little weary of Confinement, and 

 cou'd not with Pleasure think of living all the rest of uiy 

 Days in one of the Islands of the Anti^iodcs ; but I did not 

 imagine such a sorry Gondola^ as our Boat, was capable of 

 carrying us such a vast way, especially having no necessaries 

 for the Voyage : Wherefore I oppos'd the execution of the 

 first Design with all my ]\Iight. As Eesolute as they seem'd 

 to be, to be gone, I beg'd them in the most perswasive Terms 

 I cou'd use, to refiect a little more upon what they were going 

 about; and not to shock them too much at first, I highly 

 commended their Courage, and gave way to their most 

 plausible Ptcasons. But I conjur'd them also to consider, that 

 this was an Affair of the last Importance, both for the Body 

 and the Soul ; that without a second Miracle, we must be a 

 second time Ship-wreck'd, and that then they wou'd never 

 be able to avoid Eeproaches very like Despair, for having 

 tempted God. I added. Experience ought to make us wiser 

 than we were before ; that it had already cost us one of our 

 Companions Lives, and we shou'd look upon that sad Acci- 

 dent as the ^Yarning of Providence, and the Manifestation 

 of God's Will, of whom we had demanded with Fasting and 

 Eesignation, that he wou'd be pleased to inspire us what we 

 shou'd do. I told them farther, that since those that were 



1 The channel buoyed by Leguat's companions was probably the 

 western point into Mathurin Bay, the sole practicable harbour at 

 Kodriguez. "The most convenient anchorage in Mathurin Bay is in 

 10 fathoms, bottom of sand and mud, off a small buoy marking the 

 entrance to the creek. The creek is narrow but deep, running into the 

 coral reef towards the settlement, and makes a good berth for the small 

 schooners (chasse-mare'es, in Creole) which carry on the trade of the 

 island. These place their anchors on the coral at the end of the creek 

 about a quarter of a mile from the small town or village, mooring head 

 and stern.'' (Findlay, op. cit., p. 516.^ 



2 Another of Missou's Italian references ('?). See his Voyage to iLuhj, 

 letter xvii. 



