of the Mascarene Islands. 
161 
It remains for us to inquire whether the Geant of Leguat 
was also found in the neighbouring island of Bourbon or else¬ 
where. The only writer who makes mention of a gigantic 
marsh-bird in Bourbon, and this under the selfsame name of 
Geant, is the Marquis du Quesne. His work, which neither 
Strickland nor I have been able to consult, is only known to us 
by a quotation in Leguat. Strickland* says of this little work, 
that it is “ drawn apparently as an emigrant-trap,” and there¬ 
fore seems to attach but little value to it, or to doubt the trust¬ 
worthiness of the author. From this possible suspicion we 
must try to exonerate a man like Du Quesne, who, as his whole 
life shows, stood socially and morally too high to indulge in 
such boastings. The Marquis du Quesne who, as a French 
protestant after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had esta¬ 
blished himself in Holland, with many others of his coreligionists, 
whose descendants are still living among us, and of whom his 
Romanist cotemporaries could say, “ le grand et fameux Mon¬ 
sieur du Quesne, Lieutenant-General, qui a mieux aime re- 
noncer au service et aux honneurs du Baton de Marechal de 
France, que d’abjurer les erreurs de Calvin”f—this Marquis du 
Quesne had, as we have above mentioned, formed a plan of 
himself establishing a colony of French emigrants in Bourbon, 
and on this occasion collected in writing all that was known 
about the island. Of this little work Leguat says J, “ II est 
vrai, que cette Relation pourroit etre suspecte a ceux, qui pen- 
sent quhl etoit de son interet de preoccuper les esprits d^une 
maniere qui fut avantageuse a ce nouveau monde, quhl avoit 
dessein d’aller habiter. Mais j'ai premierement a dire sur cela, 
que M. du Quesne ne voulut point qu’on inserat dans ce petit 
Livre quhl fit publier, aucune de ces sortes de choses, qui auroient 
le moindre air d*exaggeration, encore qu’elles passent pour 
vraies. Et j’ajouterai au second lieu, qu* a Maurice, a Batavia, 
& au Cap, je suis temoin que tout le monde convient quhl n 5 y 
a rien dans cette Relation qui ne soit tres-conforme a la Verite.” 
* The Dodo, &c., p. 60. 
t See the above-mentioned 1 Journal d'un Voyage,’ &c., by an unknown 
writer. Rouen, 1721, 12mo, tom. i. p. 3. 
X Op. cit. i. p. 50. 
N. S.—VOL. II. 
M 
