But though
there can be little doubt, that one or more living dodos were
subsequently brought to Europe, it is certain that such an event did
not take place till after L'Ecluse wrote, in 1605. About the same time
that De Bry published this _fourth_ part of _Indiae Orientalis_, the
Dutch work appeared containing the account of the voyages of the whole
eight ships; and then De Bry, in his _fifth_ part, which came out
later in the same year, was enabled to give a correct representation
of the dodo, and a complete account of the voyages of the whole
squadron. We have been more precise on this part of our subject than
might seem necessary; but by being so, we have smoothed over an
inequality that has been a stumbling-block to almost all previous
writers on the dodo.
L'Ecluse, professor of botany at Leyden, one of the greatest
naturalists of his age, published his _Exoticorum_ in 1605. In it he
gives an engraved likeness and description of the dodo, which he
obtained from persons who had sailed in De Warwijk's fleet, stating
that he had himself seen only the leg of the bird--a sure proof that
no live specimen had, at that time, been brought to Holland.
Passing over the visits to the isles of four old Dutch navigators, who
all describe the dodo under different names, we come to the quaint old
traveller, Sir Thomas Herbert, who touched at the Mauritius in 1627.
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