JEALOUSY OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH. 327 



the pair. Consequently, all our boys who possessed 

 numbers of these articles were well supplied with the 

 rhino. The reason these articles are so eagerly 

 sought for in this port, is that no whalers are fitted 

 out or belong here ; neither is there any market for 

 the sale of whale oil — the inhabitants universally 

 burning the oil expressed from the cocoa-nut ; and as 

 the cocoa tree is indigenous to the island, and grows 

 in great profusion, it is readily obtainable at a low 

 rate. The captain of the Nauticon, who lost his 

 ship among the Seychelle Islands, is here, and has 

 been importuned over and over again by the mer- 

 chants of the port, to return to the United States, 

 build and lit a vessel with all necessary accoutemieuts, 

 and bring her here to sail as a colonial whaler 

 belonging to Port Louis. The future must decide as 

 to whether he coincides with them so far as to act 

 out their wishes ; but it is easily seen that such a 

 proceeding must necessarily be remunerative, as no 

 sooner has a whaler left the port than she is on the 

 very best sperm whaling-ground in the Indian Ocean, 

 and the prevalence of the trade-winds and general 

 good weather for nine months of the year, render it 

 an eligible cruising ground. 



There is an excessive jealousy existing between 

 the French and English residents — the French con- 

 sidering themselves as the rightful owners of the 

 soil, lords to the manor born ; whilst the English 

 plume themselves upon the conquest of the island, 

 and consider possession nine points of the law. 

 Little intercourse, apart from their business relations, 

 exists between the two nations, and the same feeling 

 prevails, not only among the residents, but among 



