l695-] A FRIGHTFUL SEA-SEEPENT. 173 



them. The Inhabitants of the Island also were so well 

 pleas'd with our Work that they sent us fresh Provisions, 

 unknown to Diodati, in exchange for some of it. These 

 Refreshments were a great Comfort to us, and we got some 

 sometimes from those that brought us our Salt-Edibles. As 

 we had always been very desirous to take some Fish to 

 relieve our Necessities, and were frequently refus'd even the 

 very pieces of our Netts to fish with, we thought of an Inven- 

 tion to serve us instead of them. The Hurricane having 

 left some ruins of our Hut, we took a long Pole and having 

 found a large Nail among the Boards,^ we fixed it with the 

 point outwards, at tlie end of the Pole, and with that instru- 

 ment darted the Fish where-ever we could see them. Now 

 between the Eock and the Eoad where the Vessels ride, there 

 is a large space which remains dry when the Sea is gone out, 

 as it always does at the full and new Moon. There, at 

 certain distances, you find Pitts of three or four Foot deep, 

 where the Sea ever leaves some Fish when it retires. It 

 was in these Pitts or Pools that we darted the Fish we speak 

 of.2 



After we had once hit upon this Invention, we made so 

 good use of it, that we never wanted Fish. We made Provi- 

 sion of them for eight or ten days, and had a way to keep 

 them Sweet. We one day darted one, or rather knock'd 

 him o' th' Head, that was like to have cost us our Lives. It 

 was a frightful Sea-Serpent, which weigh'd about 60 Pound, 

 and which we in our great Simplicity, took for a large 

 Lamprey or Ed? This Animal seem'd to us very extraordin- 



* In orig. : "que nous trouvames parmi des morceaux de vieillcs 

 planches qu'on nous avoit apportees pour faire du feu." 



2 In orig.: "avec notre baton ferre," omitted by translator. 



3 Col. Pike, American Consul at Mauritius in 1887, relates, in his 

 Subtropical Rambles, how he caught a monster cave eel on the reef in 

 Mapou Bay, some twenty miles from where Leguat had been imprisoned : 

 " This monster eel measured twelve feet three inches in length, and 

 round the largest part of the head fourteen and a half inches. The 



