1696.] ISLE MAURICE. 195 



Before we leave Isle Maurice, I will relate to you some 

 things that I have observ'd there, and what 1 have heard 

 concerninfi it. 'Tis well known that this Island^ is situated 

 in the 12th Degree of Southern Latitude-: It is almost round, 

 and its Circumference is about fifty Leagues. I have read 

 some where, that it was the Portuguses that discover'd it : 

 They call'd it Cerne^ ; but when the Hollanders made them- 

 selves masters of it in the 20th of Scj)tcmbcr 1598, they gave 

 it the name of Prince Maurice of Nasscm, then Governor of 

 the United Provinces. 



You may Anchor in three principal Places ; at the Fort, 

 the Black Eiver, and the North-West Haven. 



The Company maintains at the Fort, a Garrison of about 

 fifty Men ; and there are thirty or forty Dutch Families dis- 

 pers'd throughout the Island. 



After the fire had destroy'd great part of the Fort, as we 

 have already acquainted you it did, it was rebuilt with Stone.^ 



1 The well-known island of Mauritius is situated in lat. S. 20° 8', 

 long. E. 57° 29'. It is about thirty-nine miles long by thirty-five miles 

 wide, and over one hundred miles in circumference, whilst its area 

 measures about seven hundred square miles, being a little smaller than 

 the county of Surrey. It is at a distance of nearly five hundred miles 

 from the east coast of Madagascar, and ninety-five miles from the 

 lofty island of Reunion. {Vide supra, -p. 156.) The northern part of 

 the island is a low plain, covered with sugar plantations. In the centre 

 is an elevated plateau rising to some 1,500 ft., the rocks being almost 

 entirely volcanic. Around this plateau rise the principal mountain 

 ranges, the remains of denuded crater-cliffs and cirques of an extinct 

 volcano. Their peaks and sunnnits attain heights varying from 

 1,900 ft. to 2,700 ft. 



- In orig. : "sous le 21nie degre.'' These continual mistakes show 

 great carelessness on the part of the translator, aa regards figures. 



3 Vide ante, p. 157, and Appendix. 



* M. I'Abbe de la Caille, who surveyed the island in 1753, writes : 

 " This island has two very fine harbours. The least of them, which is 

 called Port Louis, is situate towards the middle of the western coast, 

 and there is the principal establishment of the East India Company. 

 Ships must be towed into it, but they may sail out of it with the wind 

 right aft. The other harbour, which is called Grand Port, or Port Bour- 



2 



