180 



The Naturalist. 



that had visited Mauritius. On another he described an East- 

 Indiaman dismasted 400 miles off, and said afterwards that he could 

 see her rigging up jury-masts, and steering for Port Louis, which was 

 the case. 



He used to stand on a hill on the coast at dawn, and after surveying 

 with the naked eye, not the horizon, but the sky, he used to go and 

 describe what he had seen. Objects appeared to him upside down, as 

 as they do under the microscope. Though he tried his powers in 

 Europe, and even in Bourbon, he could only exercise his uncommon 

 faculty in Mauritius, a circumstance probably due to the extreme 

 rarity of the atmosphere of that island. 



After the conclusion of the French war in 1810 — to return once 

 to Eodrigues — nothing of interest occurred there till 1874, when the 

 Transit of Venus expedition, to which I had the honour to be 

 attached, visited the island. 



The trade of Eodrigues has seen better days. Formerly planters 

 lived there, and cultivated sugar-cane, indigo, vanilla, and coffee ; but 

 the cyclones were so destructive to the crops that they gave it up, and 

 the only traces of their occupation are found in the orange and coffee- 

 bushes and indigo plants, and so on, now growing wild. There are 

 now only two exports — dried fish, caught round the island, and cattle, 

 which are bred there, and which live to the number of many thousands 

 in a half-wild state all over it. We were advised to carry a few ball 

 cartridges w^hen w-andering over the island, in case the cattle were 

 aggressive, as I believe they are occasionally. The principal imports, 

 as far as I know, are rice and rum. The rice, with patates, or sweet 

 potatoes, and dried fish, forms the staple food of the natives ; and as 

 for the rum, they consume as much as they can get hold of. 



The natives, or Creoles, are a mixed race ; the principal element in 

 the breed is Malagash, or Madagascar negro. Then they have a touch 

 of Hindoo, and a touch of French blood ; and they have inherited, I 

 think, the vices of all these three races, and have a few of their own 

 besides. They may, of course, have inherited all the virtues of the 

 three nations as well, but I must say they don't quite give you that 

 idea. They are dishonest, dirty, revengeful, and very idle. The most 

 energetic of the natives are fishermen ; they catch fish in long nets, 

 treat it like Finnan haddocks, and dry it on the rocks in the sun, 

 after which it is sent to Mauritius, tied up in large bundles. Others 

 plant sweet potatoes and a little tobacco, and pass the rest of their 

 time as happy, idle loafers. They all carry knives, and would be very 

 unpleasant neighbours if they had more courage. One drew a knife, 



