317 



vessels, perforated at the bottom with a number of small 

 holes, through which the molasses gradually drain off. 

 After remaining in these vessels until thoroughly dry, the 

 sugar is packed up in bags for the market. 



" The cultivation of the sugar-cane is very simple. 

 Cuttings of the stem are laid in the ground in parallel 

 furrows, then covered over with earth. In a short time, 

 young plants shoot up from the joints. The ground is kept 

 well weeded, and in the course of twelve months, the crop 

 is ready for cutting. On many estates, however, perhaps 

 on the greater number, instead of planting the cane in this 

 manner, they content themselves with the easier, but less 

 effective method of dressing the shoots which naturally 

 spring up from the old stumps left in the ground on cutting 

 the former crop. 



" Being limited with respect to time, we found it impos- 

 sible to prosecute our journey farther than Port-Souillac. 

 We therefore agreed to return, and left Mounerou's after 

 breakfast. On our way back to Jacote, I observed several 

 clumps of Hernandia sonora^ and Sc(BVola Koenigii skirting 

 the shore. We arrived at M. Etienne Boulger's, the Civil 

 Commissary, to dinner. It was this gentleman who was 

 carried off by the boats of the Nereid. He was afterwards 

 exchanged for twelve or fifteen seamen, and speaks in the 

 highest terms of the handsome treatment he experienced 

 during his detention. M. Boulger is one of the richest 

 planters in the island, his establishment of slaves amounting 

 to upwards of six hundred. His house is built on a high 

 platform which slopes rapidly towards the shore on one 

 side, and on the other to a small river which runs through 

 the plantation, and discharges itself into the Bay of Jacote, 

 at the distance of a few hundred yards from the house. 

 The stunning noise of the surge rolling over the reef is 

 softened by a thick grove of native wood, which at the 

 same time conceals from view the agitation of the ocean. 

 Another object, still more offensive, is concealed from the 

 eyes of the stranger by the removal of the slave cantonment 

 to the centre of the plantation. This judicious arrangement, 



