374 



BOURBON. 



Bourbon. w as bought up by the French East India Company, 

 ~~>r~ - 1 at about 3d. per pound. But this abundance is ow- 

 ing more to the fertility of the soil, than the industry 

 of the colonist. Their system of agriculture, though 

 superior to that of the Mauritius, and the neigh- 

 bouring islands, would still admit of great improve- 

 ments. The plantations of cotton of a superior qua- 

 lity may be greatly extended; and, indeed, the quan- 

 tity of produce of every description might be consi- 



Ccftec. derably increased. The coffee plant, now cultivated 

 in Bourbon, was originally brought from Yemen in 

 Arabia, in 1718. It is the principal production of 

 the island, and was formerly a great source of wealth 

 to the inhabitants, and of revenue to the government. 

 Before the French revolution, it was reckoned little 

 inferior in quality to that of Mocha ; but, since that 

 time, it has been rapidly degenerating; and from the 

 interruptions of commerce, and the difficulty and risk 

 of exportation arising from the continued warfare be- 

 tween Great Britain and the mother country, coffee 

 has almost ceased to be an object of attention. Its 

 cultivation has been much neglected, and it is now 

 inferior to the coffee of the Antilles, or even to that 

 of St Domingo, which has, in general, been held in 

 very little estimation. The clove tree was first in- 

 troduced into this island byM. Poivre in 1772; but 

 it has never been brought to equal that of the Mo- 

 luccas or Amboyna. It is, however, a considerable 

 article of commerce, and, in some years, will produce 

 150,000 Ib. weight; but, at other times, it will 

 scarcely exceed a third of that quantity. Bourbon 

 produces also white pepper, gum-benjamin, aloes, and 

 tobacco ; and the honey of St Pierre, which they 

 call mid vert, passes for the best in the world. It 

 abounds with palm and other kinds of wood, many 

 of which yield odoriferous gums and resins ; and its 

 fruits are guavas, bananas, oranges, citrons, and ta- 

 marinds. The total value of the agricultural pro- 

 duce of the island has been estimated at 1, 430,800 

 dollars. 



Animals. When this island was first discovered, it was desti- 

 tute of every species of frugiverous or ravenous qua- 

 drupeds ; but its rivei s were well stocked with fish ; 

 its coast with land and sea tortoises ; and its woods 

 with paroquets, pigeons, turtle doves, and a great 

 variety of birds beautiful to the eye, and pleasant to 

 the palate. The dronle* is represented by some tra- 

 vellers as a native of Bourbon : but this singular bird, 

 with many others described by the first navigators, 

 have now become extinct in the island, having been 

 destroyed by its early inhabitants, many of whom 

 lived entirely by fishing and the chace. Few of its 

 present animal productions are indigenous. Horses, 

 oxen, hogs, and goats were first imported by the Por- 

 tuguese, and they multiplied so rapidly, that when 

 the French visited the place about a century after- 

 wards, in 1653, they were found wandering in bands 

 through the woods. But since the island was colo- 

 nised, they have as rapidly decreased. The horses 

 have been reduced to servitude, the oxen domestica- 

 ted, the hogs destroyed, and a few goats only have 

 escaped the spear of the hunter, by retiring to the 

 most inaccessible recesses of the mountains. No ve- 



nomous creature is to be found m the island, and only Hour 

 two which are disagreeable to the sight ; these are ' " V 

 spiders of the size of a pigeon's egg, and very large 

 bats, which are not only skinned and eaten, but are 

 esteemed the greatest delicacy of the place. 



The commerce of Bourbon has of late been very Comn 

 much cramped ; for, except the petty traffic carried 

 on with the Americans, consisting chiefly in the ex- 

 change of provisions for hard-money and lumber, its 

 trade is confined to Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, 

 and the Arab settlements on the eastern coast of A- 

 frica. This trade consists in the bailer of prize 

 goods, spirits, fire-arms, and ammunition, for black 

 cattle, rice, gold dust, elephant's teeth, and slaves. 

 It may be called, however, the granary of the Mauri- 

 tius, as it supplies that island with one half of its 

 provisions ; and since it became a British colony, its 

 trade may now extend over the whole range of the 

 eastern coast of Africa, and thence along the shores of 

 Arabia, to the mouth of the Euphrates. The pub- 

 lic revenue of the island, in 1810, was estimated at 

 230,000 dollars. 



The population of this island, ever since it became 

 a French colony, has been annually increasing. In 

 1717, it was computed at 2000, of which 900 were 

 free, and 1100 slaves ; and, in 1763, it had increased 

 to 4000 whites, and 15,000 slaves. Viscount de 

 Vaux states it at 56,000, of which 8,000 an; whites 

 and mulattoes, and 18,000 slaves ; and, according to 

 the computation of an officer of the late expedition, 

 in 1810, it consists of 90,31-6, of which 16,400 arc 

 whites and Creoles, 3496 fixv blacks, and 70,4-50 

 slaves. Among this people, however, the usual dis- 

 tinction of whites and blacks entirely fails, for even 

 the free are of different colours ; and M. de la Bar- 

 binais assures us, that he saw in a church one family, 

 consisting of five generations of all complexions. 

 The eldest was a female 108 years of age, of a brown 

 black, like the Indians at Madagascar ; her daugh- 

 ter a mulatto ; her grand-daughter a mestizo ; her 

 great-grand-daughter of a dusky yellow; her daugh- 

 ter, again, of an olive ; and the daughter of this last, 

 as fair as any English girl of the same age. This 

 diversity of complexion arises from the French, who 

 had escaped from the massacre at Fort Dauphine, 

 having married their slaves ; and it is affirmed, that 

 there are only nine families in the whole island, who 

 have not been united to the African blood. 



The inhabitants of Bourbon differ considerably in 

 character and disposition from those of any other co- 

 lony. Instead of being a motley groupe of strangers 

 from every country, who come merely in search of 

 wealth, and who hasten back to the land of their in- 

 fancy, the Bourbonese are natives of the soil, and 

 inherit from father to son the patrimony of their an- 

 cestors. Hence, they have become so attached to 

 their country, that they have acquired, in a strong 

 degree, what the French call esprit de province. Pro- 

 perty is not here continually changing its masters. 

 It will remain for ages in the same family, and its 

 possessors live and die in the land of their fathers. 

 This people are, in general, of a gentle and industri- 

 ous disposition ; and are distinguished for their has- 



Chirac 

 ol the 

 " ;lbltal 



' A particular description of this curious bird will be found in the Encyclopedic Met/iodigue, article Drontt. 



