308 
by rendering the health of the slave an object of less 
importance in the eyes of his master. The severest part of 
their labour is transporting the produce of the soil, either 
to places of embarkation on the coast, or to Port-Louis 
direct. This produce, whether it be sugar, coffee, cloves, 
or grain, is packed up in bags weighing about one cwt. 
The usual practice is to charge the slave with one of these 
bags, which he carries on his head, going in a sort of trot, 
and resting occasionally to draw breath. On the planta- 
tions adjacent to Port-Louis, they sometimes employ for 
this purpose an unwieldy sort of cart with immense wheels, 
which is dragged into the town by a string of thirty or forty 
slaves, harnessed and yoked to it like so many draught 
cattle. It is to be hoped, however, that this painful and 
degrading branch of labour will shortly be abolished. 
Since the British obtained possession of the Island, con- 
siderable attention has been paid to the state of the roads, 
and the communication with the capital rendered less 
difficult. A traffic has been established with the Island of 
Madagascar, which gives constant employment to several 
vessels in importing cattle for the use of the troops, and for 
Such of the planters as choose to purchase them. This 
| traffic has, in less than two years’ time, reduced the market 
price of beef from 2s. 6d. to 1s. per pound. There is hardly 
= plantation on the island on which there is not a consider- 
able portion of waste land, unfit for tillage. "These are now 
converted into pastures, and herds of black cattle -— 
multiplying in évery quarter. The example of a few enter" 
prising planters, who have already begun to train these 
animals to the draught, will speedily open the eyes of m 
rest to their own interest, and induce them to transfer I 
harness from the slaves to their oxen. i 
^ As a specific against the pectoral disorders to which 
have alluded, and to which the whites fall sometime 
victims as well as the blacks, some patriotic individu 
Introduced the old empirical remedy, Snails. Here these 
animals have thriven exceedingly, and multiplied so muc 
faster than the demand for them required, that they 9* 
