84 POET LOUIS. 



A^ liicli has now scarcely water enoug'li for a larg-e 

 corvette. The reefs about the entrance are nearly 

 dry at low water^ at which thne one may wade to 

 then^ outer margin^ as is daily practised by hundreds 

 of fishermen. 



Passing' throug-h the closely packed lines of ship- 

 ping*^ and landing- as a strang-er at Port Louis^ 

 perhaps the first thing to engag-e attention is the 

 strang-e mixture of nations^ — representatives^ he 

 might at first be inclined to imagine^ of half the 

 countries of the earth. He stares at a Coolie from 

 Madras with a breach cloth and soldier's jacket^ or 

 a stately^ bearded Moor^ striking' a bargain with a 

 Parsee merchant 3 a Chinaman^ with two bundles 

 slung on a bamboo^ hurries past^ jostling a gToup of 

 young' Creole exquisites smoking' their cheroots at a 

 corner^ and talking of last night's Norma^ or the 

 programme of the evening's performance at the 

 Hippodrome in the Champ de Mars 5 his eye next 

 catches a couple of sailors reeling' out of a grog- 

 shop^ to the amusement of a group of laughing 

 neo'resses in v/hite muslin dresses of the latest 

 Parisian fashion^ contrasting strongly with a mo- 

 destly attired Cingalese woman^ and an Indian 

 ayah with her young charge. Amidst all this the 

 French language prevails ; everything more or less 

 pertains of the French character^ and an English- 

 man can scarcely believe that he is in one of the 

 colonies of his own countr}^ 



May IG^/^— Few passing visitors^ like ourselves^ 



