INTKODUeTION. Hu 



affairs began to assume a very alarming aspect 

 towards the month of August, when it became 

 evident that the crops would fail. Nor was it a 

 vain surmise. The beans harvest was not one-third 

 of what it had been on previous years ; whilst, as 

 regards the sweet potatoes, manioc, and maize, which, 

 with rice, form the staple food of the Creoles and 

 Indians, hardly any could be raised. The stock of im- 

 ported rice in the island being nearly exhausted at the 

 beginning of September, and the ship expected with 

 supplies being late, a meeting of the principal inha- 

 bitants was called together at the Town Hall, at 

 which it was resolved that a boat should be sent to 

 Mauritius, distant 330 miles, to ask for immediate 

 relief The Government pinnace Victoria, being 

 then unfit for sea, another private boat, belonging 

 to the Civil Commissioner, was fitted up. The 

 Government pilot, Mr. Vandorous, consented to take 

 charge of the expedition, assisted by Sergeant 

 Aston, and two Creoles, Geneve and Prudence, all 

 volunteers. The boat left on the 11th of Septem- 

 ber, and reached Mauritius after a three days' 

 passage, during which they experienced some heavy 

 seas and weather, which made the journey one of 

 some little danger for an open boat. The Govern- 

 ment of Mauritius, which was, surely, remiss in not 

 having foreseen and anticipated the scarcity, de- 

 spatched a tug with 350 bags of rice only for a 

 population of 1,700 souls. This supply w^as soon 

 exhausted, and it was not until the 21st December 

 that a cargo of 1 ,C00 bags of rice reached poor Piodri- 



