Proceedings of the Society, tt; 



prevailing disease, and the Red Cme h s, on the contrsry, wi hi 

 a rare exceptions, escaped il, it was mtural to call the planters 

 bfcsl attention and cird lo its culture and piopagslion. On (he 

 oihec hand (he culiivatioo of ihe Red Cane hriving been in a 

 great measure abandoned for several years past u/ider the im- 

 pression, perhaps loo ligh iy icceivedjthat ihe return from il had 

 been much reduced, and the qu ility of its Sugar bul indiffer- 

 ent, it had become inteicsting to ascertain how far this im- 

 pressions were well grounded, and this is what Mr. Langlois 

 has bten able to establish negatively, and in a salisfjctory 

 manner, not only by bims If, but also by means of observa- 

 tions made by another phmier, Mr. Cleuient Langlois, at the 

 Riv ere Seche, at Flarq, 45 or 16 years ago, when the culti- 

 vation of R d Cane was abando led an i (he plant destroyeJ on 

 the Sugar Estates generHily. Mr C!6ment Langlois, the only 

 planter perhaps at that time who rultivated this variety slates 

 that these Red Canes gave him Sugar in Gn*? quality and that 

 for thres consecutive years thty fuini.^hed him on the average 

 three thous nJ pounds per acre. 



The Secretary read a letter from the Honorable (he Colonial 

 Secretary, accompanying a note from Mr. Crawlerd in answer 

 to ihe Report of the Gummiltee named a year ago to fake into 

 consideration a philological qutsiion raiteJ by Mr. Crawford 

 with regard lo the iniroduclion of the Ma'ay idiom at Mada- 

 gascar. Mr. Crawford advances thai the Committee has not 

 understood in many respects the object of Mr. Hawes' Ieiter,and 

 that his only object was simply lo ascertain wbe;her since the 

 occupation of Mauritius any authentical instance which can he 

 cited of Proas fiom Sumatra, or any olh^;r of the Malay islands 

 having been wrecked with living beings on board on the Coast 

 of Madagascar. 



Mr. Crawford maintains in the opinion that such a fact has 

 been mentioned in the flnglish Journals as having occurred 

 soooe 20 years ago, and whether a newspaper was at that time 



