Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/134

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NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. AUG. 10, war.

was elected. I shall be obliged by any particulars as to the parentage and family of Richard Harman. W. D. PINK.

DEVIL'S ISLAND. Is there only one island so called ? If more, how many ? How far are they from the mainland and from each other ? Are the islands distinguished by separate names ? Is there a penal settlement on the mainland as well as on the island ? How far along the coast does French territory extend ? Does the French " march " with Dutch, and Dutch with British ? Are the w T hole coast and the river infested with sharks ? And is the climate about the worst in the world ?

Any other information will be gratefully received. S. H. S.

[Devil's Island is one of three forniing the lies du Saint, off the coast of French Guiana, the others being St. Joseph and He Royale. The 'Nouvean Dictionnaire de Geographic universelle,' by M. V. de Saint-Martin et L. Rousselet, 1892, says, s.v. Salut (lies du) : " On aperQoit et on recommit de loin les lies, parce qu'elles sont elevees : les deux surtout du cote du continent sont en forme de pain

de sucre irregulier Les condamnes qui arrivent

de France sont internes a Saint- Joseph, oil sont

places aussi les impotents et les ali&ies La diffi-

cult^ des evasions et la possibilite du maintien d'une discipline plus severe font de Pile Royale le peni-

tencier de repression pour les incorrigibles Quant

a l'ile du Diable, elle est seulement occupee par quelques transportes lepreux, uniquement em- ployes & la recolte des cocos." Capt. Dreyfus was, however, confined on Devil's Island from 1894 to 1899. Or the climate it is said : "Par suite de leur excellent mouillage et de la salubrit^ de leur climat, dont la temperature est rafraichie par les brises de mer, les iles du Salut rendent de grands services a la Guyane." The origin of the present name is thus described : " L'utilisation des lies du Salut et 1'origine du iiom de ce petit archipel remontent au lamentable episode qui, dans 1'histoire guyanaise, est appe!6 1'expedition du Kourou. La fregate la Ferme amenait (1764) a la Guyane 413 colons des- tin4s au camp de Kourou, alors en formation. ' L'intendant courut au camp : 1'examen le con- vainquit de Pimpossibilite de faire place au surcroit

de population qu'on lui annoneait C'est alors

qu'il songea a tirer parti d'un groupe d'ilets situ^s en face de I'embouchure du Kourou. M. de Chan- valon les consideYa comme le moyen de salut de la nouvelle colonie, et le nom d'ilets du Salut rem- placa leur nom d'ilets du Diable' ('Precis his- torique de PExpeclition du Kourou, 1763 - 1765,' Paris, 1842, in-8o)."J

REV. R. GKANT. (See 10 S. vii. 88.) A painting of the Rev. Richard Grant (d. 1826) sometime a master at Westminster School, and afterwards Vicar of Stanstead, Essex and family was bequeathed by his daughter Mrs. Dixon, of Bridge Avenue, Hammersmith, to the National Portrait Gallery in 1872. The picture was not ac-

cepted. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' inform me of the present whereabouts of this picture, and who was the painter ?

L. E. T. 2, Little Dean's Yard, Westminster.

" HABEBDATZ." On p. 159 of the ' Worter- buch der luxemburgischen Mundart,' pub- lished at Luxemburg in 1906, one finds- " Haberdatz, m., Rauschchen," that is to say " tipsiness." Will PBOF. SKEAT be so good as to say whether, and how, this term may be connected with haderdasher, as to which he published a valuable letter in The Academy for 25 May ?

Some interesting notes on the Luxem- burg language, which resembles Anglo- Saxon, are to be seen in a little work by A. Mayer, entitled ' A Step on the Luxem- burg Parnassus,' published at Luxemburg in 1829. E. S. DODGSON.

FRENCH TESTAMENT, 1551. I possess a small 8vo edition of the New Testament in French, the title-page of which runs as follows :

"Le Novveav Testament, c'est a dire, La Novvelle Alliance de nostre Seigneur & seul Sauueur Jesvs Christ. Translate & reueu de Grec en Fracois [here it seems from the appearance of the paper that a line (or two) of type has been com- pletely erased], Matt. 11. Venez a moy vous tous- qui trauaillez & estes chargez, & je vous soulagerey. 1551."

The printer's mark is a child grasping the long curving leaf of a tree or shrub, with the- motto " Pressa valentior." On the back of the title-page is a table, ' L'ordre des Livres du Nouveau Testament.' Then come eleven leaves of an " Epistre Monstrant comment Christ est la fin de la Loy. Composee par M. Jean Caluin," and a short table of errata. These are followed by the 720 pages of text,, of which pp. 705-20 consist of ' Receuil D'ancuns motz difficiles ' ; and finally ' La Table du Nouveau Testament,' occupy- ing 24 leaves. The height of the volume is 5 inches, and except for the erasure on the title-page it is perfect and clean. The bind- ing is modern.

I should be very grateful for any par- ticulars as to the printer and place of pub- lication, or for any other information about the volume. Is it considered a scarce edition ?'

W. M. S.

C. C. PIEBQTJIN. I shall be obliged if any of your contributors abroad will give the date of the death of Charles Claude Pierquin de Gembloux. He was a doctor of medicine and a literary man, born in Belgium in 1798. RALPH THOMAS.