Mauritius

“ How pleasant, on some resplendent summer evening, in such a delicious clime as that of the Mauritius, the sun slowly sinking amid a gorgeous blaze of light, and gilding in green and gold the spreading summits of the towering palms,—the murmuring sea sending its refreshing vesper-breathings through all the "pillared shades" which stretch along that glittering shore,—how pleasant, we say, for wearied man to sit in leafy umbrage, and sup on Dodos and their kindred! ”

“ Mauritius is a garden and a park combined. It affects one’s emotions as parks and gardens affect them. The surfaces of one’s spiritual deeps are pleasantly played upon, the deeps themselves are not reached, not stirred. Spaciousness, remote altitudes, the sense of mystery which haunts apparently inaccessible mountain domes and summits reposing in the sky—these are the things which exalt the spirit and move it to see visions and dream dreams.
The Sandwich Islands remain my ideal of the perfect thing in the matter of tropical islands. ”

“ What weigh upon me most sadly in the Mauritius are the solitude and the intense loneliness of the little island. We are very gay and pleasant among ourselves, but I often feel as if I were in a dream as far as the rest of the world is concerned, or as if we were all living [Pg 504] in another planet. Only once in a month does the least whisper reach us from the great outer world beyond our girdling reef of breaking foam: only once in four long weeks can any tidings come to us from those we love and are parted from—any news of the progress of events, any thrilling incidents of daily history ”

“ With regard to the cultivation of the soil, if the government of Mauritius was to introduce one thousand coolies from India direct, and give some encouragement to the inhabitants of Mauritius to emigrate there, by granting lands on favourable terms, capital would soon be found, from the Mauritius, for the development of these islands, which, already possessing a harbour of refuge suitable for their position, nearly in the middle of the Indian Ocean, would soon rival Mauritius in their productions and commercial and political importance. ”

“ Mauritius is the hub of their universe and the supply ship, also named Mauritius, is the connecting link. “Have you ever visited Mauritius?” Barbara asked one of the teachers in the Port Mathurin school.
“Oh, yes!” she answered eagerly. “We go on board every time it comes!”
There are no newspapers on Rodrigues, no telephones, no radio stations, no banks, no movies; there is no airport or commercial shipping, no harbor, no railway, no buses, and no taxis. ”

“ The tiny island at once impresses me with a respectful admiration. What nonsense is this the geography-books state, and I have repeated, about Mauritius being the same size as the Isle of Wight? Absurd! Here is a bold range of volcanic-looking mountains rising up grand and clear against the beautiful background of a summer sky, on whose slopes and in whose valleys, green down to the water's edge, lie fertile stretches of cultivation. We are not near enough to see whether the pale shimmer of the young vegetation is due to grass or waving cane-tops. ”

“ I do not know a more delicious island than this self-same Mauritius. To a visitor it is full of charms, of which—happier than the resident, who is generally a victim to ennui—he has not time to become weary. ”

“ The wealth of the island may in some degree be measured by its public revenue, which amounts to no less than 700,000l. a year.
Mauritius produces scarcely anything required for its own consumption. It imports rice from India, grain from Australia, oxen from Madagascar, and sheep from the Cape.
Our last morning at Port Louis was devoted to the defences and the docks. Progress is being made with the improvement of existing defences and the construction of new forts. The works are well advanced, and the guns are promised shortly from home. Mauritius possesses three graving-docks. ”

“ There are only two practicable ways to reach it: you can go on the supply boat from Mauritius, which makes the trip three or four times a year and stays about three days, or you may visit the island on a private yacht.
Although the island is only 42 square miles in area, it is densely populated. Most of the 16,000 people are of African or Malagasy racial stock, many are descended from slaves brought in from Mauritius by the French, while others trace their ancestral lines back to Breton or Scottish families. ”

“ The story of a bright and educated traveler is always a capital one, and Mr. Pike has done wonders for Mauritius, which would seem in itself to be one of the most deplorably dull and fatiguing prominences on the face of the sea. An enthusiastic botanist and naturalist, as well as an interested ethnologist, this lively observer relieves the monotony of a seemingly easy consulate and repulsive population by watching all the secrets of animated nature around him. It is a very bloodthirsty island that his fates have guided him to: everything bites or stings or poisons. ”

“ Considerable jealousies exist between the English and French residents in Mauritius. They have been unfortunately aroused to an unprecedented degree of violence by the proceedings of Sir John Pope Hennessy. The mass of the population of Mauritius are of mixed race, descendants of the coolies employed on the plantations. French—or rather patois—speaking Creoles come next in point of numbers. The Chinese are the universal shopkeepers. ”

“ The average birth-rate in the Indian community is 37 per 1000; in the non-Indian community 34 per 1000. Many Mauritian Creoles have emigrated to South Africa. The great increase in the population since 1851 has made Mauritius one of the most densely peopled regions of the world, having over 520 persons per square mile.
Chief Towns.—The capital and seat of government, the city of Port Louis, is on the north-western side of the island, in 20° 10′ S., 57° 30′ E. at the head of an excellent harbour, a deep inlet about a mile long, available for ships of the deepest draught. ”

“ Mauritius is not laid out like the counties in England and other parts of Europe, with a city or market town at every ten or twenty miles; nor yet like the neighbouring isle Bourbon, where there are two or three towns and some villages; it has but one town, which is the seat of government and commerce for both islands. In other parts the plantations are scattered irregularly; and although half a dozen houses may sometimes be found near together, families within a mile of each other are considered as next door neighbours. ”

“ The Isle of France, otherwise called the Mauritius, which is still British territory, was gallantly taken at the end of November, 1810, by Commodore Rowley and Major-General Abercrombie. Full details of the Java and Mauritius expeditions are given in Thornton's twenty- second chapter. The brilliant operations in both localities deserve more attention than they usually receive from students of Indian history. ”

“ The colored classes of Mauritius, comprising a population of about 70,000, and including at least one third of the island's wealth and intelligence, although not deprived of any political right by the fundamental laws of the British realm, or by any act of Your Majesty's Parliament, actually enjoy but few privileges of British subjects ”

“ Inhabitants.—Like Mauritius, Réunion and Rodriguez the Seychelles were uninhabited when first visited by Europeans; though fragments of ruins found on Praslin and Frigate islands may indicate the presence of man in earlier centuries. The islands were colonized by Mauritian and Bourbon creoles; the white element, still prevailingly French, has been strengthened by the settlement of several British families. The first planters introduced slaves from Mauritius, and the negro element has been increased by the introduction of freed slaves from East Africa. ”

“ Round about Mauritius there are several islands, viz., Flat Island, where a quarantine station is, Round Island, where a light-house stands 365 feet above the level of the sea, behind these Sugar Loaf Island, which rises with precipitous cliffs, and is merely a bare rock, also the Islôt Gabriel. In sailing without steam, vessels come to Port Louis at the windward side (east) of the island, and sail in a kind of channel between these islands and the mainland, as I will call it. ”

“ Defence.—Mauritius occupies an important strategic position on the route between South Africa and India and in relation to Madagascar and East Africa, while in Port Louis it possesses one of the finest harbours in the Indian Ocean. A permanent garrison of some 3000 men is maintained in the island at a cost of about £180,000 per annum. ”

“ The inconveniencies arising from the want of a port at Bourbon, induced the French to take possession of Mauritius. This island extends about 45 miles in length from north to south, and about 30 from west to east. In the north-eastern quarter is a plain extending about ten miles from east to west, and in some places five miles in-land from the northern coast. All the rest of the island is full of high and steep mountains, laying so near to one another that the intervals between them, instead of vallies, form only beds of torrents ”

“ The island of the Mauritius had become a French depot for frigates and privateers, which swept the seas from Madagascar to Java, until the East India Company reckoned its losses by millions, and private traders were brought to the brink of ruin. Lord Minto sent one expedition [1810] , which wrested the Mauritius from the French; and he conducted another expedition in person, which wrested the island of Java from the Dutch, who at that time were the allies of France. The Mauritius has remained a British possession until this day, but Java was restored to Holland at the conclusion of the war. ”

“ Mauritius, located at the southwestern entrance of the Indian Ocean about equally distant from Aden, Ceylon, Bombay, Singapore and West Australia, and possessing the best harbor within many hundred miles, has been held successively by Dutch, French and English, and to-day has a dense population of French, English and Hindus.867 A situation at the northeast entrance to the Caribbean Sea, keystone of the vast arch formed by the Greater and Lesser Antilles, made the island of St. Thomas a natural distributing point for this whole basin. ”

“ But although Mauritius is a British colony, it was originally settled by the French, and its present French population co-operated even with armed volunteers in the expeditions which have secured the preponderance of France in Madagascar. Sooner or later the political centre of gravity must inevitably be shifted from the small geo- graphical group of the Mascarenhas to the almost continental island, abounding as it does in still undeveloped treasures of all sorts. ”

“ During my stay at Port Louis I received much hospitality, particularly from the family of Colonel Staveley, Commander of the Forces, which I take this opportunity of acknowledging.
We sailed from the Mauritius on the 10th of June, and on the following day passed about 20 miles south-east of the Island of Bourbon. It resembles a large cone emerging from the water; and its features are strikingly different from those of the Mauritius; the outline is not softened by luxuriant vegetation, but is sudden and steep and massive. ”

“ While in the Mauritius he pursued his first published investigations on physical problems, the results being communicated to the Royal Society in 1864 and 1865 in two papers on 'Drops' and one on 'Bubbles.' At the same time he published a paper on the 'Iodide of Iodammonium,' and a pamphlet on 'The Sugar-Cane and Cane-Sugar,' and made complete analyses of the waters of the chief rivers of the island. ”

“ Off Mauritius we were chased more than once by a sloop of war, and it would have gone hard with us if we had been captured. The French there have got a devil of a governor, La Bourdonnais, and he has vessels perpetually prowling up and down in those seas, and as far as Pondicherry and Chandernagore. But what do you say, cousin? Are you man enough to join us? ”

“ Mauritius must be weak in time of war, because it is so entirely an artificial colony. A mere dot on the map, only some thirty miles in diameter, it has a population of over three hundred thousand, wholly devoted to the cultivation of sugar. This product has been the source of immense wealth to the island, but it has necessitated the abandonment of every other branch of agriculture. These three hundred thousand inhabitants are literally dependent for their daily food on the kindness of the elements in time of peace, and on the naval supremacy of England in time of war. ”

“ Taking Mauritius with its large French population, the Cape with its conflicting elements, and Hongkong, Singapore, and Penang with their vast Chinese populations, who may be with or against us, but who are at any time a nuisance, I would select such places where no temptation would induce colonists to come, and I would use them as maritime fortresses. ”

“ To the north-east of Mauritius are a series of extensive shoals forming four large banks less than 100 fathoms below the surface, while the 1,000-fathom line includes them all, with an area about half that of Madagascar itself. A little further north is the Seychelles group, also standing on an extensive 1,000-fathom bank, while all round the sea is more than 2,000 fathoms deep. ”

“ The four sound ships very soon sailed out of sight of their comrades: and Mr. De la Bourdonnais, finding that the shattered condition of the other three rendered them incapable of gaining their destined port against a violent and contrary wind, made sail for the island of Mauritius, where they arrived in the beginning of December without any accident. He soon after left Mauritius, which, from a forest, he had rendered a flourishing colony, and the arsenal of all the French military expeditions in India. Every body knows the treatment he received on his arrival in France. ”