42 AUSTRALASIA. 



Inhabitants, 



Like the Seychelles and neighbouring insular groups, the Mascarennas were 

 completely uninhabited till the year 1616, when Pronis, governor of Fort Dauphin 

 in Madagascar, transported twelve mutineers to Réunion. But these, as well as 

 a few French and Malagasy who established themselves at St. Paul in 1655, soon 

 disappeared ; and the first permanent settlement, consisting of two Frenchmen and a 

 few Negro slaves, was delayed to the year 1663. Living a free life in the midst of 

 abundance, with no enemies to fight or governors to oppress them, the little settle- 

 ment prospered, villages were founded in the midst of plantations, and trade was 

 opened with the mother country. Then came the French East India Company, 

 which monopolised the commerce of Bourbon (Réunion), while Cerné was seized 

 by the Dutch and by them renamed Mauritius in 1598. But the Dutch settlement 

 having been abandoned, Mauritius w^as occupied by the French of Bourbon in 1715. 

 These early settlers, mostly from Xormandy, Brittany, and Santonge, were the 

 ancestors of most of the white populations which now inhabit the Mascarenhas and 

 Seychelles to the number of about eighty thousand. 



These islands of the Indian Ocean offer a remarkable instance of tropical lands 

 where the European race has succeeded in establishing itself, although later 

 intermixture makes it impossible now to determine the real proportion of w^hites 

 amongst the present miscellaneous elements. But the French Creole families are 

 known to be very fruitful, averaging about two hundred and fif t}^ children to one 

 thousand married women, or one-third more than in France. 



But the Europeans, including some English since the occupation of Mauritius, 

 Rodrigues, and the Seychelles by Great Britain, constitute only a minority of the 

 present population, which comprises the descendants of Malagasy, Kafir, and other 

 African slaves emancipated by the French Republic. This measure, however, was 

 successfully resisted by the planters, and the blacks did not acquire their indepen- 

 dence till about the middle of the present century. Although they are greatly 

 inferior in number to the rest of the inhabitants, their French Creole jargon has 

 become the common medium of intercourse for all — French, English, Chinese, 

 Arabs, Malays, and Hindus. 



The abolition of slavery obliged the planters to introduce coolies from China, 

 Malaysia, India, and especially Malabar, the term " Malabar " being now commonly 

 applied to all the Hindus of whatever origin. Every precaution was taken to 

 protect the freedom of these coolies, but on most of the plantations the old treat- 

 ment of the Negro slaves continued to be applied to the hirelings. The immigra- 

 tion of the Indians, now more numerous in Mauritius than all the other elements 

 combined, has also been carried out in violation of the natural laws. Owing to 

 the scarcity of women but few families could be established, and polyandria became 

 the rule on the plantations. The few children of these households were greath^ 

 neglected, and the excessive infant mortality had to be compensated by continuous 

 fresh importations from China and India. To the Chinese was due the introduc- 

 tion of leprosy, to the Hindus the so-called "Bombay fever," which in 1866-8 



