XXVII. The Hiftory of Mauritius, or the Ifle of France, and the neighbouring Iflands; from their first Discovery to the prefent Time: compofed principally from the - Papers and Memoirs of Baron Grant, who refided twenty Years in the Ifland. By his Son, CHARLES GRANT, VISCOUNT DE VAUX. Illuftrated with Maps from the beft Authorities. 4to. 1. 16s. Nicol.

LIST OF MAPS.

THE Ifle of France, or Mauritius.
Plan of Port Louis.
Chart of the great Ethiopian Archi-
pelago.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. I. Obfervations on the Harbours of the Inland--Climate GeographyThe firft Settlements by the Portuguefe--Lift of the Governors. II. Natural Productions Agriculture-Marine Prroductions. -III. Manners of the InhabitantsAccount of the Blacks-CavernsM. le Gentil's Obfervations-Luminous Globes--Iron Mines.--IV. Inland of Rodriguez-Extract from the Voyage of Le Guat and his Com panions, relative to this Ifland-The Bird called Dodo or Dronte.--V. Hiftorical Defcription of the Ifle of Bourbon-Extracts from the Voyages

of Rennefort and De la Have-Accounts by Raynal, St. Pierre, Rochon, Poivre, Admiral Kempenfelt, and De la Caille-Hurricanes-Volcanos Agriculture.-VI. Letters of Baron Grant refpecting the Ifle of France-Life of Bourdonnais the Governor. VII. The Interior of the Ifland-Narrative of the Shipwreck of the St. Geran and of Virginia, according to St. Pierre-Interefting Circumftances relative to Colonel Grenville.--VIII. Letters of Baron Grant, &c.-Operations of Bourdonnais, &c.--IX. Continuation-Siege of Madras.-X. Operations of Bourdonnais to his Death.XI. Animals in the Isle of FranceMaroon Negroes, Slaves, &c.-The

Ifland threatened by Admiral Bofcawen.-XII. Madagafcar-Curious Hiftory of a Princefs of Ruffia.XIII. Inftructions for failing to India by the Ifles of France and Bourbon.

XIV. Surveys on the Coaft of Madagafcar.-XV. Courfe to India during the Monfoons.---XVI. Extracts from the Regifters of the Royal Academy of Marine.-VII. Extract of the Life of M. d'Afirès de Mannevillette. XVIII. Details on the Ile of France by De la Caille, &c.→→ XIX. Aftronomical Observations by De la Caille, &c.-XX. Extract of the Life of M. l'Abbé de la Caille.

XXI. Obfervations of M. Gentil refpecting the Southern Hemisphere, &c.-XXII. Observations on India, Pondicherry, &c.--XXIII. Extract of the Life of Hyder Aly Khan, &c.

XXIV. Correfpondence of Baron Grant, from 1755 to 1759-GeneralLally's Inftructions-India during the Seven Years War.-XXV. Summary of the Life of Count LallyExpeditions in India under his Comand-Siege and Conqueft of Pondicherry in 1760-Execution of Count Lally, XXVI. Admiral Kempenfelt's Obfervations on the Ife of France.-XXVII. Iles and Sand-banks between the Maldive Iflands and the Ifles of France and Bourbon-Defcription of the Comora Ifles.-XXVIII. Excursion of M. de

St. Pierre in the Ile of France-Ac counts by the Abbé Raynal and Captain Munro.--XXIX. Obfervations on the Isle of France by M. de Coffigny.-XXX. Conclufion- Alt at of Events to 180c-Proceedings of Tippoo Sultaun's Ambaffadors in their Voyage to Mauritius-Letters from Bonaparte at Cairo to Tippoo -Capture of Seringapatam-Death of Tippoo-Population and military Force of the ifles of France and Bourbon in 1799-State of Agricul ture, colonial Commodities, &c.

"It begins by inftructing the voy ager in the mode of approaching the harbours of the Isle of France, which is accompanied with a general defcription of the place, the nature of the air, water, and foil, and the geographical pofitions. But before I enter upon a detail of these circumftances, and the Branches of natural history which arife out of thein, I give a fuccinct and chronological account of thofe perfons who have been appointed to the government and fuperintendence of the inland, from its first colonial establishment to the prefent moment. I then proceed to give a particular hiftory of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms: fome account of the inhabitants, both white and black, fucceeds, with their manners and cuftoms; and is followed by a defcription of the beautiful scenery with which the inland is adorned.

"I naturally introduce the reader, in the first place, to the Ille of France, which is the appropriate object of my Hiftory; but I fufpend its hiftorical narrative, in order to defcribe the archipelago, with its various illands, that furrounds it: fuch as thofe of Bourbon, Rodriguez, &c. all of which is fo neceffary to be known, to facili tate the navigation of thofe feas. I then return to the Ifle of France, to defcribe its agricultural, maritime, and civil establishments, as formed by M. de la Bourdonnais. I difplay all the va rious operations of that diftinguifhed character, and his fucceffors; with the aftronomical, geographical, and maris time obfervations of the learned pro feffors and eminent navigators, whom my father fucceffively knew during their official vifits to the island. Ithen proceed to ftate and explain the con nexion of India with the Ille of France, in all its different epochas; which conducts me through a long fucceffion of eurious and interefting events, to the death of Tippoo Saib, which rendered Engla d the miftrefs of Indoftan,

"Such is the nature of my work: nor fhall I endeavour tó deprecate criticifm, by ftating the difficulties with which I have ftruggled, in bringing this volume into the form which it now bears. It would indeed have been lefs liable to the cenfure of the critic, if I had written under more aufpicious circumftances; and it would have been more deferving the attention of the po VOL. V. No. XLV.

litician and the philofopher, if I could have had recourfe to the books and authentic papers, which are to be found in the libraries and public offices of Paris; but still, I am rather fanguine in the hope of its being generally acknowledged, that I have enlarged the acquaintance of Great Britain, and of the public in general, with a very important part of the eastern world." P. xviii.

EXTRACTS:

MANNERS OF THE INHABITANTS.

"THE Isle of France was an abfo lute défert when Mafcaregnas difcovered it. The French who first eftablifhed themfelves there, were certain planters from the Isle of Bourbon, who brought with them fimplicity of man ners, good faith, an hofpitable difpofition, and an indifference for riches. M. de la Bourdonnais, who may, in fome degree, be confidered as the founder of this colony, brought fome workmen along with him. When, however, he had rendered this island interefting by his labours, and it was thought convenient as a staple for their commerce of the Indies, perfons of all conditions fettled in it.

"The agents of the Company, who poffeffed all the principal employments in the ifland, exercifed too much of that financial difpofition, which is dif couraging to those who are employed in cultivating the earth. The whole of the public establishment was at their difpofal; they, at the fame time, con trolled the police, the civil administra tion, and magazines of the ifland; fome of them cleared the land and built houfes, all of which they difpofed of, at a very high price, to those who had ventured hither, in hope of advancing their fortune. There was confequently a great outcry againft them; but the power was in their hands, and com plaint was of no avail.

"Several perfons in the marine fer vice of the Company fettled here. They had long complained, that while they encountered dangers and fuffered fatigues in fupport of the Eaft Indian commerce, others acquired the honours and emoluments of it. As this fettles ment was fo near to India, a fanguine hope of advantage from fixing in it animated their mind, and they became . its inhabitants..

"Several

"Several military officers of the Company arrived here; they were very refpectable perfons, and fome of them diftinguished for their birth. They could not imagine that an officer would debase himself so far as to receive orders from a man who had formerly been a clerk in an accompting-houfe, though he might condefcend to receive their pay. Nor did they like the failors, who are rather too peremptory in their manners. On becoming inhabitants, they retained their original difpofition, and confequently did not advance their fortunes.

"Some of the king's regiments put in here and made fome ftay; while feveral of the officers, allured by the beauty of the climate and the love of repofe, were induced to establish them felves in the island: but every thing was at the disposition, and submitted to the power of the Company.

"The inhabitants were alfo increased by the arrival of fome miffionaries of the order of St. Lazarus.

"To complete the fettlement of this ifland, fome merchants with small capitals arrived, and found it without commerce. These people augmented the abuses of money-jobbing, which they found already established, and employed themselves in forming petty monopolies: they foon became obnoxious, and acquired the name of Banians, or Jesus. On the other hand, they affected to defpife any particular diftinctions of the inhabitants, and were fond of propagating the opinion, that, after having pafled the line, a general equality prevailed.

"Such was the fituation of this colony when it was ceded to the king in the year 1765.

"One part of the inhabitants, who were attached to the Company from gratitude, beheld, with pain, a royal adminiftration; while the other part, who had fo long looked for favour. from a new government, feeing it principally occupied in plans of economy, were proportionably chagrined and difappointed.

"The foldiers furnish a confiderable number of workmen, as the moderate beat permits the white people to work in the open air; though they have not been rendered fo beneficial to the colony as they might have been, in a more enlarged difpofition of their capacities.

"Though the feafaring people are always going and coming, they have, nevertheless, a confiderable influence on the manners of the colony. Their policy is to complain alike of the places which they left, and of those at which they arrive: they have always bought too dear and fold too cheap, and think they are ruined if they do not gain an hundred and fifty per cent.

"An hogfhead of claret cofts five hundred livres, and every thing else in proportion. It is fcarce credible, that the merchandife of Europe is dearer here than in India; and that Indian commodities fetch a higher price here than in Europe. The maritime people are fo neceffary to the inhabitants, that they are held in great confideration.

"The greater part of the married people live on their plantations; and the women feldom vifit the town but when they are tempted by a ball, cr are called to perform fome effential duties of their religion. They are pasfionately fond of dancing; and no fooner is a ball announced, than they come in their palanquins from every quarter, as the roads will not admit of wheel carriages.

"The women have but little colour, but they are well made, and, in general, handfome. Nature has given them a confiderable portion of wit and vivacity; and if their education were act neglected, their fociety would be very agreeable: they are very fond mothers; and if they ever fail in fidelity to the marriage vow, it is too often owing to the indifference of their hufbands, or to the Parifian manners which have been introduced among them. Their ordinary drefs is fine muflin, lined with rofe-coloured taffetas.

"They poffefs, in a great degree, the more eftimable domeftic qualities; they feldom or never drink any thing but water, and their cleanlinefs is extreme. Their children are never confined in fwaddling-clothes, but run about almoft as foon as they are born; they are often bathed, and allowed to eat fruit at their own difcretion. As they are left entirely to themfelves, and are uncontrolled by the fuperin tendence of education, they foon be come strong and robuft, and their tem perament advances in proportion. The

females

females are fometimes married at eleven years of age.

"There are about four hundred planters in this island, and about an hundred women of superior rank, not more than ten of whom live in the town. On firing the evening gun at eight o'clock, every one retires to his own habitation." P. 72.

ACCOUNT OF THE BLACKS.

"OF the population of this island, we muft confider the Indians and Negroes as forming a confiderable proportion.

"The first are from the coaft of Malabar, and are a very mild and gentle people: they come from Pondicherry, and let themselves out for a certain number of years. They are almoft all of them workmen, and occupy a fuburb which is called the Black Camp; they are of a deeper colour than the islanders of Madagascar, who are real Negroes, have the features of Europeans, and their hair is not woolly: they are fober and economical. Their head is dreffed with a turban, and they wear long dresses of muslin, with large gold ear-rings, and filver bracelets at the wrifts. There are some who enter into the service of the rich and titled inhabitants, as pions; a kind of domeftic, which anfwers to the character of an European running footman: his peculiar diftinction is a cane in his hand, and a dagger at his girdle. It were to be wifhed that there were a greater number of the inhabitants of Malabar established in this island, particularly of the caft of husbandmen..

"At prefent, Madagascar furnishes the Negroes which are destined to cultivate the land in the Isle of Bourbon. The common price of one of them is a barrel of gunpowder, a few mufkets, fome pieces of cloth, and, above all, a certain proportion of piaftres. The deareft of them cofts about fifty crowns of France (in 1768).

"Thefe people have neither fo flat a nofe, or fo dark a complexion, as thofe of Guinea; fome of them are only brown; while others, as the Balambous, have long hair: nay, others of them have fair, and even red hair. They are dexterous, intelligent, and have a fenfe of honour and gratitude. The greatest infult which can be offered to one of these people, is to speak dif

refpectfully of his family; they are far lefs fenfible to perfonal injuries. In their own country they work up various articles, with equal ingenuity and induftry. Their zagay, or halfpike, is very well forged, though a couple of stones form their hammer and their anvil. The linens which their women weave are very fine and well dyed; these they caft around them in a graceful form, and the manner in which they arrange their hair produces a pleafing head-drefs; it confifts of curls and treffes very tastefully blended with each other, and is the work of the women. They are paf fionately fond of dancing and mulic; their inftrument is the tantam, which is a bow fixed to a gourd, from whence they draw a foft harmonious found, with which they accompany the airs that they compofe. Love is the general fubject of them, and the girls dance to the fongs of their lovers: the specta tors beat time and applaud.

"They are very hofpitable. A black who is on a journey, enters without previous ceremony, or being known to the owner, into any hut which suits his convenience; and thofe whom he finds in it moft willingly fhare their meal with him. Nor is it their custom to afk from whence he comes, or whi ther he is going.

"Such are the qualifications and manners with which they arrive at the Ile of France. They are all difembarked with no clothing of any kind, but a strip of linen round their loins. The men are placed on one fide of the beach, and the women with their children on the other. The planters then examine them, and make their purchafes accordingly. Brothers, fifters, friends, and lovers, are now feparated, and are led away to the refpective plantations to which they are destined. Sometimes, in the paroxyfms of their defpair, they imagine that the white people are preparing to eat them, that they make red wine of their blood, and gunpowder of their bones.

"Their manner of life is as follows: at daybreak, the fracking of a whip is the fignal that calls them to their work: and they then proceed to the plantation, where they labour in a ftate of almost entire nakedness, and in the heat of the fun. Their nourishment is ground maize boiled in water, or loaves of the manioc; and a small

X 2

piece

piece of cloth is their only covering. For the leaft act of negligence, they are tied hand and foot to a ladder, when the overfeer gives them a certain number of ftrokes on their back, with a long whip; and with a three-pointed collar clafped round their necks, they are brought back to their work. It is not neceffary to defcribe the feverity with which thefe punishments are fometimes inflicted. On their return to their habitations in the evening, they are compelled to pray to God for the profperity of their mafters.

"There is a fubfifting law in favour of flaves, called the Code Noir; which ordains that they shall receive no more than thirty ftrokes at each chaftifement; that they fhall not work on Sundays; that meat fhall be given them every week, and fhirts every year: but this law is not obferved.

"The Negroes are naturally of a lively difpofition, but their ftate of flavery foon renders them melancholy. Love alone seems to allay their pain: they exert themselves to the utmoft in order to obtain a wife; and, if they can choose for themselves, they always prefer those who are advanced into a itate of womanhood, who, they fay, make the best foup. They immedi ately give them all they poffefs; and if their wives live in another plantation, they will undertake the most difficult and dangerous journies to fee them. On fuch occafions they fear neither fatigue nor punishment. Parties of them fometimes meet in the middle of the night, when they dance beneath the fhelter of a rock, to the mournful found of a gourd filled with peas,

"The difcontented Negroes generally fly for refuge into the woods, where they are purfued by detach ments of foldiers: when they are taken they are punished with great feverity; and the third offence of this kind is followed by death.

"Religion is, indeed, fometimes employed to alleviate the evils of their

very able writers have differed, and with which volumes have been filled, That difcipline, and sometimes a fevere one, may be neceffary in the manage ment of plantations, cannot be denied, and that the owners fometimes exercife their power with unneceffary rigour, muft alfo be acknowledged; at the fame time it would be ridiculous tg affert that, because a white man is the mafter of a plantation, he must be cruel, and because a black man is a flave, he must be wretched." P. 74.

THE HISTORY OF A PRINCESS OF RUSSIA, AT MAURITIUS, &c.

"THE Baron Grant, in his Letters X. and XI. written in the years 1750 and 1751, describes, in a very interesting manner, the fcenes of domeftic life in that country; but we shall content ourselves with extracting one of the principal facts mentioned in the firft of thefe two letters, and in the fecret memoirs of Mr. Duclos, concerning the curious hiftory of the Princefs Wolfenbuttel, who paffed fome years at the Inles of France and Bourbon, during the refidence of Barón Grant there.

"Charlotte Chriftina Sophia de Wolfenbuttel, wife of Czarovitz Alexis, fon of Peter I. Czar of Mufcovy, and fifter of the empress of Charles VI. was born the 25th of Auguft 1694. This princess, though poffeffed of beauty, grace, and vir tue, in a very high degree, became an object of averfion to her husband, a man of a moft ferocious and favage { character. He had feveral times attempted to poison her, when the was faved by counteracting medi'cines.

"At length, he one day gave her fuch a violent kick on her belly, when the was eight months advanced in her pregnancy, that she fell fenfelefs on the floor, which was soon encrimfoned with her blood. Peter I.

nies. His fon, having every reason to believe that his unfortunate princess 'would not recover, fet off immediately for his country-house.

"It is not for us to discuss, in this place, the fubject of flavery, on which

"The Countess of Konismarck, mother of Marshal de Saxe, attended ? on the princefs when the was brought to bed of a dead child, and nurfed her with unceafing care. Being fen