M. Jules Codine, of the Société de Géographie at Paris, has succeeded in partially unravelling the interesting problem as to the actual date of the discovery of the several islands which compose the Mascarene archipelago. Absolute certainty as to this date must remain in obscurity until the Portuguese archives have been more thoroughly investigated.

Tradition assigns the first discovery of these islands to Mascarenhas, but M. Codine remarks that there were several voyagers and notable persons of that name who served in the Indies during the sixteenth century.

Don Joan Mascarenhas was governor of Diu in 1545, and M. Codine points out that as Don Joan Mascarenhas was at Diu throughout the year 1545, it could not have been that administrator who discovered the islands under the tropic of Capricorn in that year. The error of giving this date, 1545, as that of the first discovery of Réunion has arisen from a wrong interpretation given to certain inscriptions on a stone pillar, which M. de Flacourt speaks of and figures in his History of Madagascar.

The error of the date 1545 is proved by the appearance of the names of the three islands, Apolonia, Mascarenas, and Domigo Friz, on the chart of the famous pilot, Diego Ribero, in the Atlas of Santarem, under date of 1529.