W2 HAZARDOUS RESOLUTION. [1694. 



would undertake to dispatch me in form/ Nature began to 

 fortifie her self a little, and I quickly recover'd as it were by 

 a Miracle. If the good Eeader is touch'd to see me in so sad 

 a Place, and so sad a Condition, he will no doubt be glad to 

 hear how in the Moments wdiich I thought the last of my 

 Life,^ I directed divers pious Exhortations to my Companions, 

 which I trust have not been unprofitable to them.^ Young 

 people may think and talk what they please, but after all 

 they must die ; and Happy, thrice Happy* are they who are 

 truly prepar'd for their last Hour. The Sieurs La Case and 

 Testard, the two Persons Accus'd, were likewise attack'd 

 with the same Malady some time after ; but as they were 

 young, and of a stronger Constitution than I, they resisted 

 the Distemper better. We had continu'cl in this miserable 

 Condition near four months, when on the 15th of March 

 1694 w^e saw a Dutch Vessel call'd the Perseverance come into 

 the Harbour of the Island^; which according to the Law of 



1 In orig. : " mais comrae il n'y avoit personne sur ee Rocher qui 

 entreprit de me faire mourir dans les formes^ la Nature se fortifia peu-a- 

 peu d'elle-meme ; & en de meiUeures formes, je me trouvai bien-t6t en 

 quelque fapon retabli." Again another sly cut at the professional 

 doctors — a reminiscence, as MuUer points out, from Molifere's Amour 

 medecin (Act ii, 50). 



2 " & la fin de toutes mes miseres, Dieu me fit la grace de me donner 

 assez de presence d'esprit pour adresser a mes Compagnons," omitted 

 by translator. 



^ " & pour leur donner aussi des marques qui les edifierent, de ma 

 resignation, & de mon Esperance," omitted by translator. 



* In orig. : " Et heureux ! veritablement & uniquement heureux, 

 quiconque n'oubliant jamais I'inevitable necessite de ce dernier depart, 

 se tient toujours pret a le faire.'' 



^ There are three entrances to the Zuyd Ooster Haven of Mauritius, 

 the principal port of the island, or Grand Port of the French. 'I'he 

 southern entrance is the least intricate, and this is the one depicted by 

 Valentyn in his folio. It can be easily made out now by the lighthouse, 

 but in olden days the Drte Gebroeders, as the islets were then named, 

 formed the northern arm of the passage. The remarkable bluif moun- 

 tain, 1,583 ft. high, named the Lion's Head, but called de Zaal Berg by 

 the Dutch, must be kept on a N.E. by N. ^ N. bearing in making 



