450 A VOYAGE TO [At Mauritius. 
iso6* of seeing his sugar and cotton manufactories, as also the embouchure 
of the rivers du Tamarin and du Rempart. The bay into which 
they are discharged is no more than a sandy bight in the low land, 
partly filled up with coral ; and it would soon be wholly so, did not 
the fresh stream from the rivers keep a channel open in the middle ; 
it is however so shallow, that except in fine weather fishing boats 
even cannot enter without risk. 
Upon a plantation in the Plains of St. Pierre, about one mile 
from the foot of the Montagne du Rempart, are some caverns which 
M. Curtat procured me the means of examining. In the entrance of 
one is a perpetual spring, from which a stream takes its course under 
ground, in a vaulted passage ; M. Ducas, the proprietor of the 
plantation, said he had traced it upon a raft, by the light of flambeaux, 
more than half a mile without finding its issue ; but he supposed it to 
be in a small lake near the sea side. The other caverns had evidently 
been connected with the first, until the roof gave way in two places 
and separated them. The middle portion has a lofty arch, and might 
be formed into two spacious apartments ; its length is not many 
fathoms, but the third portion, though less spacious, runs in a wind- 
ing course of several hundred yards. From being unprovided with 
torches we did not pass the whole length of this third cavern ; but 
at the two extremities, and as far within as could be distinguished, 
the roof admitted of standing upright, and the breadth was eight 
or ten yards from side to side. 
About thirty years before, this part of the Plains de St. Pierre 
had been covered with wood, and the caverns inhabited by a set of 
maroon negroes, whose depredations and murders spread consterna- 
tion in the neighbourhood. Their main retreat in the third cavern 
was discovered by a man whom they had left for dead ; but having 
watched them to their haunt, he gave information to the officers of 
justice, and troops were sent to take them. After securing the fur- 
ther outlet, the soldiers crept to the principal entrance, near which 
the maroons kept a sentinel with loaded musket in the top of a tree ; 
