INTRODUCTION. XXXVll 



guez which are contained therein. Before touching 

 on this portion of the work, therefore, a few words 

 on the island of Rodriguez may well find a place. 



The small island of Rodriguez, although but a 

 poor dependency of the colony of Mauritius, has 

 considerable interest, both for naturalists and geo- 

 graphers, yet it seldom receives much attention 

 either at home or abroad, and it is only occasionally 

 that the general public hears of its existence. Years 

 ago, however, when the road round the Cape to 

 the East Indies v/as first opened to navigators, this 

 island was regarded as one of the ports of call, until 

 the colonisation of Mauritius rendered the more 

 important island a safer harbour of refuge, and a 

 better haven for refit and refreshment. 



Rodriguez, or Diego Rais, lies about 330 miles to 

 the eastward of ]\lauritius, of which island it is a 

 dependency, and is the third island of importance 

 in the Mascarene archipelago. It is ten miles long, 

 in an east-north-east and west- south-west direction, 

 and four miles broad, with an area of about forty- 

 three square miles. 



An extensive coral reef encircles the island, vary- 

 ing much as to its distance from the shore. At the 

 south-eastern point of the island it is only twenty 

 yards from the shore ; from the western end it ex- 

 tends four-and-a-half miles in a southerly, tvvo-and- 

 a-quarter miles in a westerly, and four miles in a 

 northerly direction. The history of the discovery 

 of this island will be found in the Appendix (p. 308), 

 which deals with tlie earliest voyagers who touched 



