‘Cu. [.] OF THE DODO. 13 
alebant, quorum binos hue perlatos conspiciebam apud ornatissimum virum Christianum Porretum, 
eosque diverse forme, unum plenum et orbicularem, alterum inequalem et angulosum, illum uncialis 
magnitudinis, quem juxta pedes avis exprimendum curabam, hunc majorem et graviorem, utrumque 
cineracei coloris ; eos ab ave in maris littore lectos, deinde devoratos fuisse verisimile est, non in ejus 
ventriculo natos.’—Erotica, p. 99. 
2. In 1601 two fleets of Dutch ships, one commanded by Wolphart Harmansen, or 
Harmansz, and the other by Jacob Van Heemskerk, sailed for the East Indies, but soon 
separated. Harmansen’s ships touched at Mauritius in their way, but in the published 
accounts of his voyage no mention of Dodos occurs. His companion Heemskerk, however, 
remained nearly three months in Mauritius, on his homeward voyage in 1602, and in a journal 
kept by Reyer Cornelisz, and prmted in the ‘Begin ende voortgang van de Vereenighde 
Nederlantsche Geoctroyeerde Oostindische Compagnie’ (oblong 4to, 1646, s.1.) vol. i, at 
p. 30 of Van der Hagen’s Voyage, we read of “ Wallichvogels” or Dodos, among a variety 
of other game :— 
“Op het lant onthouden haer Schiltpadden, Wa/lichvoge/s, Flamencos, Gansen, Hendt-vogels, 
Velt-hoenders, soo groot as kleyne Indiaensche Ravens, Duyven, daer onder sommighe met roo steerten, 
(van de welcke menig man sieck geweest is,) grauwe ende groene Papegayen, met lange steerten, waer 
van datter sommighe ghevangen werden.” 
3. One of the Captains who sailed in the fleet of Heemskerk and Harmansz, named Willem 
van West-Zanen, has left a journal, which apparently was not published until 1648, when it 
was edited and enlarged by H. Soeteboom.' In 1602 Willem sailed from Batavia with five 
richly laden ships, commanded by Admiral Schuurmans, and stayed a considerable time at 
Mauritius.2 He makes repeated mention of Dod-aarsen, or Dodos, and though his account seems 
to have been somewhat amplified by his editor Soeteboom, yet it contains some original and 
important particulars. The sailors appear, on this occasion, to have revelled in Dodos, without 
suffering from surfeit, ike Van Neck’s crew. If the statements are correct that three or four, 
and in one instance two, of these birds furnished an ample meal for Willem’s men, the bulk 
of the Dodo must have been prodigious, and might well have equalled fifty pounds weight, as 
asserted by Sir T. Herbert. As this tract is very rare, I will extract, in full, the passages which 
mention these birds, and annex a literal translation. 
! This tract is entitled ‘ Derde voornaemste Zee-getogt (der verbondene vrye Nederlanderen) na de Oost-Indien, 
gedaan met de Achinsche en Moluksche Vloten, onder de Ammiralen Jacob Heemskerk en Wolfert Harmansz. 
In den Jare 1601, 1602, 1603. Getrocken Uyt de naarstige aanteekeningen van Wiliem van West-Zanen, Schipper 
op de Bruin-Vis, en met eenige noodige byvoegselen vermeerdert, door H. Soete-Boom. 4to. Amsterdam, 1648. 
(Brit. Mus. 6° f. 15.) 
2 After leaving Mauritius, Schuurmans returned to Holland in company with Harmansen and Garnier, Heems- 
kerk’s Vice-Admiral, in the spring of 1603. So that Clusius is mistaken in saying (Hrotica, p.101,) that this 
expedition was commanded by Van Neck, as the latter did not return from his second voyage until some years 
afterwards. 
