50 LIFE OP PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. Ill 



the rude and simple grandeur of South Africa. Much of 

 my admiration has doubtless arisen from the novelty of 

 these tropical or semi-tropical scenes, and would be less 

 vividly revived by a second visit. I have become in a 

 manner blase with fine sights and something of a critic. 

 All this is to lead you to believe that I have really some 

 grounds for the raptures I am going into presently about 

 Mauritius. In truth it is a complete paradise, and if I 

 had nothing better to do, I should pick up some pretty 

 French Eve (and there are plenty) and turn Adam. 

 N.B. There are no serpents in the island. 



This island is, you know, the scene of St. Pierre's 

 beautiful story of Paul and Virginia, over which I suppose 

 most people have sentimentalised at one time or another 

 of their lives. Until we reached here I did not know 

 that the tale was like the lady's improver a fiction 

 founded on fact, and that Paul and Virginia were at one 

 time flesh and blood, and that their veritable dust was 

 buried at Pamplemousses in a spot considered as one of 

 the lions of the place, and visited as classic ground. 

 Now, though I never was greatly given to the tender and 

 sentimental, and have not had any tendencies that way 

 greatly increased by the elegancies and courtesies of a 



O / v O 



midshipman's berth, not to say that, as far as I recollect, 

 Mdlle. Virginia was a bit of a prude, and M. Paul a 

 pump, yet were it but for old acquaintance sake, I 

 determined on making a pilgrimage. Pamplemousses is 

 a small village about seven miles from Port Louis, and 

 the road to it is lined by rows of tamarind trees, of 

 cocoanut trees, and sugar-canes. I started early in the 

 morning in order to avoid the great heat of the middle 

 of the day, and having breakfasted at Port Louis, made 

 an early couple of hours' walk of it, meeting on my way 

 numbers of the coloured population hastening to market 

 in all the varieties of their curious Hindoo costume. 

 After some trouble I found my way to the " Tombeaux " 

 as they call them. They are situated in a garden at the 



