34 PORT LOUIS. 



which has now scarcely water enough for a large 

 corvette. The reefs ahout the entrance are nearly 

 dry at low water, at which time one may wade to 

 their outer margin, as is daily practised hy hundreds 

 of fishermen. 



Passing' through the closely packed lines of ship- 

 ping-, and landing as a stranger at Port Louis, 

 perhaps the first thing to engage attention is the 

 strange mixture of nations, — representatives, he 

 might at first he inclined to imagine, of half the 

 countries of the earth. He stares at a Coolie irom 

 Madras with a breach cloth and soldier's jacket, or 

 a stately, hearded Moor, striking a hargain with a 

 Parsee merchant ; a Chinaman, with two bundles 

 slung on a bamboo, hurries past, jostling a group of 

 young Creole exquisites smoking their cheroots at a 

 corner, and talking of last night's Norma, or the 

 programme of the evening's performance at the 

 Hippodrome in the Champ de Mars ; his eye next 

 catches a couple of sailors reeling out of a grog- 

 shop, to the amusement of a group of laughing 

 negresses in white muslin dresses of the latest 

 Parisian fashion, contrasting strongly with a mo- 

 destly attired Cingalese woman, and an Indian 

 ayah with her young charge. Amidst all this the 

 French langniage prevails ; everything more or less 

 pertains of the French character, and an Enghsh- 

 man can scarcely believe that he is in one of the 

 colonies of his own country. 



May 16^/*.— Few passing visitors, like ourselves, 



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