CHAP. IV. EXCURSION TO MISSIONARY STATIONS. 107 



industrious and pious man was soon afterwards appointed by 

 M. Le Brun and his people at Port Louis, and he has since 

 laboured with encouraging success in this humble but inte- 

 resting sphere of usefulness. 



Nearer to Port Louis, though in the same direction, viz., at 

 Roche Bois, there is another small but very interesting sta- 

 tion also connected with M. Le Brun's church in Port Louis, 

 where the people, generally Creole labourers and small pro- 

 prietors, were building themselves a neat stone chapel. 

 Amongst this little community also the school and the preach- 

 ing of JNI. Le Brun and his son appeared to be attended 

 with beneficial results. 



I also visited another out-station, Nouvelle Decouverte, 

 and was much pleased with the character and devotedness of 

 the teacher. I only regretted that there were so few inha- 

 bitants to profit by his exertions. 



On my way back from Nouvelle Decouverte, we visited 

 one of the most perfect miniature cascades I have met with. 

 The stream, three or four feet wide, shoots over a projecting 

 ledge of rock, and falls, in one sheet, from a height of about 

 forty feet, into a deep clear basin, twenty or thirty feet across. 

 I descended to the edge of the basin, where I found some 

 beautiful ferns, and was surprised to see a number of large 

 gold fish swimming in the water. I asked an intelligent 

 resident in the village who was with us, if they had been 

 purposely put there, but he said, " No, they have come down 

 with the stream." In an English domain, such a spot would 

 have been almost invaluable. 



But the most attractive natural objects I met with during 

 this excursion, were the number of large and exceedingly 

 fine grown tree-ferns, standing sometimes singly, but more 

 frequently in clusters of eight or ten, and growing to the 

 height of from seven to twenty feet. Nothing could surpass 

 the gracefid beauty of the large, feathery, and bright green 



