22 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
of the net, took half a ton weight of fish. A thornback was taken of such a size 
as to furnish a ship’s company with two meals.—The turtles were of such large di¬ 
mensions that one of their shells was sufficiently capacious to admit of six men to 
take their seats in it. 
Turtle-doves were in great abundance, and the sailors sometimes caught an hun¬ 
dred and fifty of them in an afternoon. The herons were wild, and when they were 
pursued, first perched on the trees, and then entirely disappeared. They saw very 
few geese; but the grey paroquets were innumerable. There was a very extraordi¬ 
nary bird of about the size of a swan, whose head was remarkably large, with a skin 
hanging from it in the form of a capuchin : three or four black feathers served it for 
wings; and about the same number, of a greyish colour, and which curled at their 
termination, composed its tail. Except* the breast, every part was so tough, that the 
Dutch gave it the name of Walg-vogels, or disgusting fowl. Besides, the abun¬ 
dance of turtles made them less anxious about other food. 
The Dutch commander ordered a board to be fastened to a tree, on which were 
sculptured the arms of Holland, Zealand, and Amsterdam, with this inscription in 
the Portuguese language : Cbristianos reformandos. A piece of ground was also 
inclosed with stakes of about four hundred fathom in circumference, which was 
planted and sown with vegetables and seeds, to make an experiment of the soil. 
Some hens, &c. were also left there, that vessels which should hereafter stop at this 
island might find other provisions than the natural produce of it. 
At this period the Dutch must be considered as masters of the island of Mauritius; 
but it does not appear that they ever occupied the island Mascaregnas, because it 
did not afford them a secure harbour. They had not even in the year 1601, formed 
any settlement in the former of them, from the following circumstance, which is the 
most remote of any we have been able to collect concerning this island, since it>s 
discovery by the Portuguese. 
On the 12th of August, 1601, Hermansen determined to put into the island of 
Mauritius to get water and provisions, which began to fail. He had accordingly 
dispatched a yacht, called the Young Pigeon, to make discoveries for that purpose. 
It was, however, a month before this vessel returned, when it had a Frenchman 
on board, whom it brought from this island, and who gave the following account 
of himself. 
He had embarked in England some years before, on board a vessel which set 
