176 FEERETS OR QUERETS. [1695. 



among us which sometimes diverted us. The Cake we made 

 was divided into four Parts, and we were to throw a Die which 

 should have each Part, so that one must be excluded^ ; and 

 who no doubt was not a little mortify'd to see the others eat, 

 whilst he must fast. 



In the Galleys, Dungeons, and such-like-miserable Places 

 that are like to stick by a Man,^ it is a common thing to re- 

 concile one's self, in some Measure, to one's Misery, and 

 amuse one's self one way or other. I have already told you, 

 our Eock lay between two small Islands, which at low Water 

 one might go to, but not without Difficulty. In one of these 

 Islands, among other Trees, there were some Plantane- Trees, 

 but the other was wholly unprovided of any. The Wood- 

 Island was every Night the general Rendezvous of a great 

 number of certain Sea-Birds,^ which are about the bigness of 

 a Pigeon, and not much unlike one. They lay their Eggs 

 upon tlie Sand very near one another, and do not lay above 

 one at a time ; If you take away one, they match him with 

 a new one, and so will do three times together. These Birds, 

 which we call'd Ferrets because we fancy'd we heard them 

 sound that word, have this in particular, that if you take 

 away any of their young, the Cocks and Hens of the others 



1 In orig.: " en sorte que I'un des cinq fiit exclus, & eut recours a 

 quelque petite espece de Fhilosophie d'Aprenti-Moine, pour voir manger 

 les autres, sans en faire paroitre du chagrin." Apprenti-Moine, a con- 

 temptuous term for a postulant, or novice, in a convent. 



2 In orig.: "dans lescachots memes, & dans les etats les plus fjicheux 

 de la vie qui tirent en longueur, on se fait une certaine habitude de sa 

 misere." 



3 " Certain Sea-Birds." Sir Edward Newton thinks that these are 

 probably some species of tern, perhaps Sterna cnifefitheta, which birds 

 a few years ago bred on some of the small islets off the windward shore 

 of Mauritius. {Vide supra, p. 81.) M. de la Caille speaks of a number 

 of birds which flew round his ship, which he calls Goilettes. In a note 

 appended to this remark, Baron Grant suggests, or " Queretn (Gulls) 

 Lams, Brisson.'^ (Grant, /. c, p. 371.) In the anonymous Relation de 

 V'de liodrigue, certain Equerets are mentioned. ( Vide Appendix B.) 



