MAURITIUS, SUGAR CULTURE. 9 



Without pretending to enumerate all the different productions of Southern Africa, it may be 

 added, that, at a public meeting in Natal, it was stated by one, that, ' ' of the successful cultiva- 

 tion of cotton, he could not express a doubt ; the only thing wanting was labor." By another : 

 "I have as yet only tried a small quantity of cotton, part Sea-island and part New Orleans ; 

 but both are healthy and producing abundantly," &c. It was also stated that Natal was very 

 well adapted to the production of sugar, the probable yield being from 2| to 3 tons per acre. 



MAURITIUS. 

 This is a beautiful island in the Indian ocean, heretofore chiefly known as the scene of the 

 pathetic story of Paul and Virginia. Hereafter it will be more celebrated, though less roman- 

 tic, for its immense production of sugar, and also for being most conveniently situated as a 

 coal station for steamers in the Indian seas. 



It is of no great extent, being an irregular oval, varying in length from N.E. to S.W. about 

 36 miles, and of a breadth varying from 18 to 27 miles, with an area of about 500,000 acres. 

 Its situation renders it suitable for various intertropical productions ; but one of these alone 

 seems to have monoj)olized the industry and enterprise of the people. The exportation of sugar 

 was, in 1812, 969,264 French lbs. ; in 1820, 15,524,755 ; and in 1830, 67,926,692. From this 

 time to 1843-'44, it vacillated from the above to 59,545,885 French lbs. It was during this 

 period that the English emancipation act went into effect. In 1845-'46, the exportation was 

 102,168,168 French lbs.; in 1851-'52, 137,375,179; and in 1852-'53, it promised to reach 

 140,000,000; which, in English weight, would be 154,328,125 lbs. avoirdupois. What an im- 

 mense amount for annual exportation from so small a surface ! 



The island consists of lofty mountains, descending on all sides towards the ocean. The soil 

 is a clayey loam, with prodigious quantities of surface stone upon it. On the elevated portions, 

 the temperature is cool, and at times cold; near the sea it is warm; and the lands are richer 

 than they are more inland. The sugar culture was accordingly confined to a comparatively 

 narrow belt, near the coast, for many years. But since the application of guano to European 

 agriculture, it has been largely imported into Mauritius ; causing the amount of sugar lands to 

 be greatly augmented, and their farther extension is still in progress. But, with a propitious 

 climate, good lands, and the best of fertilizers, such crops as the above could not be produced 

 without a sufficient supply of labor ; and of this there seems to be an abundance. I say an 

 abundance, from the fact of the extremely low rate of wages, though there are even yet some 

 complaints of a deficiency. Here there can be no well-grounded petitions — i. e., from the ne- 

 cessity of the case — for differential duties in favor of sugars the production of hireling labor, 

 over those the production of slave labor. Nor is this free labor freely rendered, nor free from 

 compulsion, if we may judge from certain exhibitions in a coal-yard, within full view of our 

 ship. The full-grown free laborer, procured from Hindostan, and indented for five years, 

 costs, per annum, for hire, food, clothing, medicine, &c, only about $50, without the expenses 

 attending the young, the inefficient, and the aged. Than this, it is scarcely possible that slaves 

 can cost less annually, if, perchance, nearly so little, either in Brazil or Cuba ; and in Louis- 

 iana they cannot cost less than from $100 to $150 or $200 each. And thus it always is, that 

 in densely populated countries, where necessity, stronger than law, forces the laborers to work, 

 it is to the proprietor's pecuniary advantage to employ hireling rather than slave labor. 



It is under such circumstances that emancipation naturally takes place, and will ever take 



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