Charles Marie de La Condamine

“ The largest rivers did not stop their journey by day or night, for they always crossed them without any dread. Sometimes they entered for the sake of drinking, which they performed by dipping in their chin up to the mouth, and sucking the water like horses. But they most frequently entered the rivers to catch the fish they saw at the bottom, which they brought on shore, to open, skin, and eat them. ”

“ That the people live in little huts above the water, like beavers, and subsist chiefly by fishing. She herself was so much used to water, that when she came to France she could not live without it, and was in use to plunge into it over head and ears, and to continue in it, swimming about and diving like an otter, or any other amphibious animal. ”

“ From this we may judge of the strength of those thumbs of hers, which were able in this manner to sustain the whole weight of her body in springing. She was committed to the care of the shepherd, who dwelt near the castle; and recommended by M. d'Eginoy to his utmost care, who promised to reward him handsomely for his pains. We may well conceive, that it would require a considerable deal of time, and some hard usage to wean her from her former habits, and to temper her fierce and savage disposition ”

“ She has been supposed to be of the Esquimaux nation; but there is a sufficient proof to refuse this notion, for she is of a fair complexion, a smooth skin, and features as soft as those of an European: Whereas the people of the Esquimaux nations, are by the accounts of all travellers, the ugliest men, of the harshest and most disagreable feature, and all covered with hair. She is certainly not mistaken in the situation of the country which she gives, for it is doubtless a very cold country ”

“ When any company visited M.d.Epignoy at Songi. he used to send for the girl, who was become more tame, and began to discover much good humour, and a softness and humanity of disposition, which the savage life she had been obliged to follow for self-preservation, had not been able to efface. ”

“ The trees were likewise, their beds or rather their cradles for they slept soundly in them, either sittin or riding in some branch, suffering themselves to be rocked by the winds, and exposed to the inclemency of the weather, without any other precaution; than securing themselves with one hand and using the other by way of pillow. ”

“ They subsisted upon the roots which she dug out of the ground with her fingers, and particularly her thumb, which by that, and by the use she made of it in climbing, and leaping from one tree to another, is much larger than the thumbs of other people. ”

“ It was with great trouble that she began to recover, and accustom herself to cooked victuals. She was then placed in a convent, at Chalons, where she began to improve, and be pretty expert in several female works, and her education. She had lived some years in that convent, and had applied for permission to assume the veil; but conceiving a disgust at the house, and being ashamed to live with people who had seen her in her wild estate immediately after she was caught, and when uncivilized, she obtained leave to remove to a convent at St. ”