206 THE company's garden. [1696. 



greatest part of the Colony inhabit. I don't know whether 

 I have already told you, that the Company has a Garden 

 here furnish'd with all oar Plants of Europe, especially such 

 as could be cultivated with Success in this foreign Climate. 

 Wheat will not thrive there, nor any other sort of Corn. 



The Vine grows well enough, and I have seen good 

 Arbours ; but the Grapes don't ripen well, which it may be, 

 may proceed partly from the Ignorance or Laziness of those 

 that cultivate tliem, or rather that do not cultivate them 

 at all. 



It is from this Garden the Company has its Potatoes, 

 Fruits, and other things with which it feeds^ its Garrison, 

 the i\%roc-Slaves, and all others that depend on it. A Boat 

 goes every Week twice or thrice to the great Eiver,^ whence 

 it brings all that has been brought thither from Flac on 

 Waggons, for the use of the Port. This is inconvenient and 

 of great expence, it being above eight Leagues thither from 

 Flac, which way is partly by Water, and partly by Land. 

 The Earth about the Fort is extreamly barren, and the Water 

 is by no means good, being impregnated with Salt-Petre. 

 There is a corner in the Island call'd the Burnt Country^ 



1 "Whatever is bought for the king, is sold to him at one-third less 

 than its real worth — the corn of the inhabitants, all buildings erected 

 for him, stores, and expeditions of every sort." {B. de St. Pierre., p. 175.) 



^ Grande Riviere Sud-Est, as distinguished from la Grande Biviere, 

 near Port Louis. At the mouth of this river is a convenient port for 

 small vessels, protected by a battery and military station, opposite the 

 northern entrance to Grand Tort (see map, supra, p. 160), and some 

 eight miles south of Flacq. This was de Groote Rivier of the Dutch, 

 represented by van Braam as joined by de Katties Rivier, and falling 

 into Both's Bay. It is one of the largest rivers in the island, rising by 

 the Piton du Milieu, and draining the northern slopes of the Bambou 

 Mountains. It is joined by the Riviere Profonde, which drains the 

 southern flanks of the Blanche Mountains, both streams traversing the 

 district called Trois Islots. Below the junction of their waters their 

 channel is obstructed by a dyke of basalt, by which a fine cascade is 

 formed. 



3 The "Burnt Country", near Grand Bassin, now called " Le Bnia 



