THE DISCOVERY OF THE MASCARENE ISLANDS. .'U i 



islands) afresh. In fact, they were again met witli by otlier 

 navigators, amongst others by the pilot, Jean de Lisboa, and by 

 the brother of the pilot, as several maps will show. — J. Codine. 



Addendum to Appendix A. 



' M. DE FLACOURT'S PILLAR.^ 



M. Codine notices that, when Flacourt wrote the passage quoted 

 by Du Quesne and Leguat, he is on the eve of undertaking his 

 return to France, and is at Fort Dauphin : — 



'' Before leaving, I caused to be set up in my garden a lai'go pillar 

 of white marble, -which I had brought from the islet of the Portu- 

 guese, upon which \yere cut the arms of Portugal, and on. the other 

 side I had engraved the arms of his most Christian i\Iajesty, and 

 on the base these words, which are in this figure. ..." (Here 

 follows the inscription given in the illustration.) 



In order that the explanation of Du Quesne, of Leguat, and of 

 those who have copied them may be plausible, it is necessary that 

 the islet of the Portuguese should be the island of Mascarenhas, 

 which these authors have supposed, having given only a very 

 superficial attention to Flacourt's work. 



Yet the islet of the Portuguese is not, in this historian, a vague 

 denomination which can be applied to any locality, and above all, 

 to an island at a long distance from Madagascar, it is a place well 

 identified, situated at a few hours' march only from Fort Dauphin, 

 and of which Flacourt speaks repeatedly, notably in the chapter 

 xxxiv of his narrative, and in the chapter xii of his descrip- 

 tion of Madagascar. This old governor of the French establish- 

 ments in that island has given the j^lan of it, which he has in- 

 serted in his work. In fact, the islet of the Portuguese is shown 

 as well in his general map of Madagascar.' The fate of the 

 Portuguese who selected that spot as a settlement in 1545, and 

 who inhabited it a little time, is recorded in detail ; and it might 



1 Vide ante, p. -41, and map of Isle Bourbon, PI. i\. Vet X 



