14G BLACK EIVER. [1693- 



and Landed at a Place agreeable enough, at the Foot of a 

 .small Mountain all cover'd with Trees.^ We had been so 

 tumbled in our poor Weather-beaten Bark, that we stagger'd 

 about like so many Drunken Men, and were hardly able to 

 keep our Legs, nor resist this kind of Vertigo ; but a good 

 Sleep, with some Eefreshments that Hunting furnish'd us 

 with, soon brought us to our selves again. Thus we 

 escap'd the Desarts of Eodrigo, and the great Hazards of a 

 terrible Storm. Bat Alas ! Our new Island was no Port of 

 Safety to us, for we got free of these Dangers, only to fall 

 into greater, as we shall shew by wliat follows. 



Being thus a little come to our selves, we re-enter'd our 

 Vessel, and coasted along the Island in search of some 

 Inhabited Place. After five or six Touchings^ on the coast, 

 where we always lay a Night or two, we came at length to the 

 Black-Eivcr^ where we found three or four Huts inhaliited 



^ In orig. : " de grands arbres." 



2 In orig. : " stations." The six river entrances on the south coast 

 where the adventurers would have probably entered in their little cock- 

 boat are marked on the Kaart van het Eyland Mauritius, by J. van 

 Braam, ander de Linden, in 1729, as follows : — 



de Jagers Spruyt, now Riviere du Poste. M- 

 Gansen Spruyt, „ R. des Anguilles.i 

 Lamotius Rivier, „ Savanna R. '^ 



de Paling Rivier, „ Jacotet R. ■>- 

 de Diepe Rivier, „ Baie du Cap. t - 

 de Ananasse Rivier, „ Baie de Tile Furneaux. 1 

 de Swarte Rivier, „ Black River. 



But the Swarte, or Black river, is put close to the North-west Port, 



whereas it is really twenty miles to the south of it. 



3 Black River is a rapid torrent, whose principal source is near Grand 

 Bassin, a crater lake, on the high land, north of IMt. Savanne, whose 

 waters are probably connected with the stream. The river takes its 

 intricate course between the Taniarin and Savanne mountains, and 

 draining the eastern slopes of the Piton de la Riviere Noire, the highest 

 mountain in the island (2,711 feet elevation), flows westward through a 

 precipitous wooded gorge and a fertile valley into a commodious bay 

 where there is an anchorage, sheltered by coral reefs and defended by 



