CANTAB.
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REPLIES.
THE DODO.
Mr. Strickland has justly observed that this subject "belongs rather
to human history than to pure zoology." Though I have not seen Mr.
Strickland's book, I venture to offer him a few suggestions, not as
_answers_ to his questions, but as slight aids towards the resolution
of some of them.
Qu. 1. There can be no doubt about the discovery of Mauritius
and Bourbon by the Portuguese; and if not by a Mascarhenas, that
the islands were first so named in honour of some member of that
illustrious family, many of whom make a conspicuous figure in the
Decads of the Portuguese Livy. I expected to have found some notice
of the discovery in the very curious little volume of Antonio
Galvao, printed in 1563, under the following title:--_Tratado dos
Descobrimentos Antigos, e Modernos feitos ate a Era de 1550_; but I
merely find a vague notice of several nameless islands--"alguma Ilheta
sem gente: onde diz que tomarao agoa e lenha"--and that, in 1517,
Jorge Mascarenhas was despatched by sea to the coast of China.
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