Cu. 1.] OF THE DODO. 15 
would scarcely make them tender, but they remained tough and hard, with the exception of the breast 
and belly, which were very good; and also, because, from the abundance of Turtle-doves which the 
men procured, they became disgusted with the Dodos. The figure of these birds is given in the 
accompanying plate ; they have great heads, with hoods thereon; they are without wings or tail, and 
have only httle winglets on their sides, and four or five feathers behind, more elevated than the rest. 
They have beaks and feet, and commonly in the stomach a stone the size of a fist.) . 2... 
“The Dodos, with their round sterns, (for they were well fattened,) were also obliged to turn tail; 
everything that could move was in a bustle; the fish, which had lived in peace for many a year, were 
pursued into the deepest water-pools. .... . 
“On the 25th July, Willem and his sailors brought some Dodos which were very fat; the whole 
crew made an ample meal from three or four of them, and a portion remained over... ... . They 
sent on board smoked fish, salted Dodos, Land-tortoises, and other game, which supply was very 
acceptable. They were busy for some days bringing provisions to the ship. On the 4th of August 
Willem’s men brought 50 large birds on board the Bruyn-Vis ; among them were 24 or 25 Dodos, so 
large and heavy, that they could not eat any two of them for dinner, and all that remained over was 
salted. 
“ Another day, Hogeveen (Willem’s supercargo) set out from the tent with four seamen, provided 
with sticks, nets, muskets, and other necessaries for hunting. They climbed up mountain and hill, 
roamed through forest and valley, and during the three days that they were out they captured another 
half hundred of birds, including a matter of 20 Dodos, all which they brought on board and salted. 
Thus were they, and the other crews in the fleet, occupied in fowling and fishing.” 
This account is accompanied by a very rude plate, intended to represent the “ Scheep- 
lieden”’ killing Dodos; but as the artist has evidently taken Penguins as his models, I do not 
repeat this engraving. At the foot of the plate are these lines :— 
“ Victali soektmen hier en vlees van’t pluim gediert, 
Der pallembomen sap, de dronten rond van stuiten, < 
*t Wylmen de papegai hout dat hij piept en tiert, 
En doet dat and’re meer ook raaken inder miuten.” 
Which may be thus Englished :— 
“‘ For food the seamen hunt the flesh of feathered fowl, 
They tap the Palms, the round-sterned Dodos they destroy, 
The Parrot’s life they spare that he may scream and howl, 
And thus his fellows to imprisonment decoy.” 
It is not easy to determine the date when the synonymous words Dodars, from which 
our name Dodo is derived, and Dronte were first introduced. The earliest apparent authority 
for their use is this voyage of Willem van West-Zanen, but his Journal, though written in 
1603, seems to have been unpublished till 1648, and these names may therefore have been 
interpolated among the other alterations made in Willem’s text by his editor Soeteboom. 
Matelief’s Journal, again, which speaks of Dodaersen, otherwise Dronten, was written in 1606, 
and Van der Hagen’s in 1607, but I have’ seen no edition of either work earlier than 
! This description is evidently extracted from Matelief’s Voyage-—Vide infra, p. 17. 
FE 
