14 January 1980

Dear Mr Plant,

Thank you for your letter of 25 December.

I have looked at the Hakluyt Society volume published in 1908 to which you refer in your letter but I can find no reference to blue eggs.

Roggeveen does say that very few domestic fowls were seen (p.22) but in an appendix - Carl Friederich Behrens' narrative of Roggeveen's visit - there is a reference to “500 live fowls which were like those of the Vierländen” (p.135). I assume that the Vierländen referred to is the agricultural area adjacent to the city of Hamburg. I am sorry that I cannot give you any more positive help.

Yours sincerely,

S.M. Lees
Superintendent & Reading Room