VISIT TO PAMPLEMOUSSES. 35 



leave the Isle of France without performing- a 

 pilgTimag'e to Pamplemousses^ a pretty village 

 seven miles distant^ near which are the (so called) 

 tomhs of Paul and Virg-inia, and the Botanic Gar- 

 dens. For this purpose^ — as we sail the day after 

 to-morrow^ I started at daylight. The road^ even 

 at this early hour^ was crowded with people — 

 Coolies^ Chinamen^ NegToes^ and others, bring-ing* in 

 their produce to market^ Avhile every now and then 

 a carriage passed by filled with well-dressed Creoles 

 enjoying* the coolness of the morning- air^ or bent 

 upon making- a holiday of it^ for the day was 

 Sunday, I breakfasted in one of the numerous 

 cabarets by the roadside^ dignified with the name of 

 ^^ Hotel de — ^ &c." Numerous small streams crossed 

 the road^ and the country^ so far as seen^ exhibited 

 a refreshing- greenness and richness of vegetation. 



^' Les Tombeaux ^' are situated in a garden 

 surrounded by trees^ and a gTove of coffee plants^ 

 behind the residence of a gentleman who must 

 be heartily sick of being so constantly disturbed by 

 strangers. They exhibit nothing- more remarkable 

 than two dilapidated monumental urns on opposite 

 sides of the garden^ shaded by a clump of bamboos 

 and casuarinas^ the latter usually mistaken for 

 cypresses. In the coffee plantation close by^ I was 

 delio'hted to find great numbers of a large and 

 handsome land shelly A cluitina pant Iter ma— it bur- 

 rows in the earth during dry weather^ but some rain 



D 2 



