It is a curious coincidence, that as the
bird of Nazareth has been found in books only, so the island of
Nazareth has been found only on paper. At first, it appeared quite a
respectable island; as maritime discovery progressed, it degenerated
to a reef, and from that to a shoal; till at last, expunged from the
more correct charts of modern hydrographers, it no longer can boast of
a local habitation or a name.
About the same time that Cauche was at the Mauritius, the citizens of
London were gratified by the sight of a living dodo. Of this very
interesting event, there is only one solitary record at present known,
but it is an authentic one. In a manuscript commentary on Sir Thomas
Browne's _Vulgar Errors_--preserved in the British Museum--written by
Sir Hamon L'Estrange, father of the more celebrated Sir Roger, there
occurs the following passage:--
'About 1638, as I walked London streets, I [3] the picture of a
strange fowle hung out upon a cloth [3]vas, and myselfe, with one or
two more then in company, went in to see it. It was kept in a chamber,
and was somewhat bigger than the largest turkey-cock, and so legged
and footed, but stouter and thicker, and of a more erect shape,
coloured before like the breast of a young cock-fesan, and on the back
of a dunne or deare colour. The keeper called it a dodo; and in the
end of a chymney in the chamber there lay a heap of large
pebble-stones, whereof hee gave it many in our sight, some as big as
nutmegs; and the keeper told us shee eats them (conducing to
digestion); and though I remember not how farr the keeper was
questioned therein, yet I am confident that afterwards she cast them
all againe.
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