196 THE ROAD FOR SHIPPING. [l6g6. 



They then mounted tliere, if I well remember, twenty good 

 pieces of cast Canon. 



The Soil of this Island^ is almost every where reddish, 

 and generally good, but about the Fort it is worth little or 

 nothing. 



The Eoad for Shipping, over against it, is dangerous and 

 difficult to get out of, altho' there are two Outlets, because 

 they necessarily require a certain Land-Wind, which comes 

 but seldom, and profound Calms are frequent in these parts. 

 The two other Eoads are good enough. 



There are in this Island great numbers of Ebony-Trees,- 



bon, is situate towards the middle of the eastern coast of the island, and 

 is very capacious and secure. Ships may enter it with a leading wind ; 

 bat the departure from it is difficult, on account of the prevalence 

 of the south-easterly winds, which blow directly into the principal of 

 the two channels which form its openings. Here it was that the 

 Dutch established their settlement, and built a fort, which they named 

 Frederick Henry. Its foundations and a part of the walls remained 

 in 1753, but they have since been entirely removed in order to erect a 

 very handsome building for the reception of the commandant of the 

 port and the garrison, as well as to contain the necessary magazines. 

 (Grant, I. c, p. 377. Cf. St. Pierre, p. 54.) 



1 Bernardin de St. Pierre remarks : " Everything here (in the ile de 

 France*) differs from what is seen in Europe, even the herbage of the 

 country. To begin with the soil : it is almost everywhere of a reddish 

 colour, and mixed with veins of iron, which are frequently found near 

 the surface, in the form of grains, the size of a pea." [l. c., p. 57.) 



2 "The Ehony-icood; its leaves are large, the lower side white, the 

 upper of a dingy green. The centre only of this tree is black, the sap 

 and the bark being white. In a trunk from which may be cut a log 

 six inches square there is frequently no more of real black ebony than 

 two inches square. This Avood, if worked while green, smells like 

 human excrement, and its flowers like the July-flower ; the very 

 reverse of the cinnamon, whose flowers are stinking, and the wood and 



* Leguat does not seem to have recognised the volcanic character of 

 the rocks at Mauritius. On the road to Flacq, Leguat and his com- 

 rades would have passed from North-West Port by Terre Rouqe river 

 under Montague Longue ; and the red dust on the track to Pample- 

 mousses doubtless attracted their attention. 



