374 APPENDIX. 



however, we are not rich in cattle, we possess a great abundance 

 of fowl as well as both land and sea-turtle, which are not only a 

 great resource for the supply of oar ordinary wants, but serve to 

 barter with the crews of the ships who put in here for refresh- 

 ment in their voyage to India." But they appear to have been 

 much more scattered in the larger islands of Mauritius and 

 lleunion, than in the smaller island of Rodriguez, for in 1761 

 Admiral Kempenfeldt writes: — "The best production of the 

 island is the land turtle, which is in great abundance. Small 

 vessels are continually employed in transporting them by 

 thousands to the Isle of Mauritius, for the service of the hospital."^ 



Their number, Dr. Glinther goes on to tell us, "rapidly dimi- 

 nished owing to their consumption, as above evidenced, as well 

 as by the wide-spi'ead and frequent conflagrations of the 

 woods, by which the island has been well-nigh disforested, 

 so that early in the present century the work of extermina- 

 tion was accomplished, and, so far as is known, there is not 

 a single livhig example left alive at the present day. In the 

 small island of Aldabra alone there still linger, in a wild state, a 

 few representatives of this ancient Chelonian race, the contem- 

 poraries of the Dodo, the Geant, and the Solitaire. Even here 

 the animals are constantly destroyed by the whalers, and the 

 young tortoises and eggs are eaten up by the pigs which have 

 been left there, and which have multiplied rapidly." 



Leguat's account of the land-tortoises at Rodriguez corresponds 

 closely with the experiences of the Dutch at Mauritius as re- 

 corded in their second voyage of 1598. Professor Newton 

 furnishes a quaint copper-plate engraving which well illustrates 

 the ponderous size of these huge chelonians, taken from de Bry's 



1 "The principal point of view (in Rodriguez) is first the French 

 Governor's house, or rather that of the Superintendent, ai:)pointed by the 

 Governor of the Isle of France to direct the cultivation of the gardens 

 there, and overlooks the park of laud turtles. Secondly, the park of 

 land-turtles, which is on the sea-shore, facing the house." (Admii-al 

 Kempenfeldt's Report, quoted by Viscount de Vaux, op. clt., p. 101.) 



