COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
113 
ing. The principal attention of the hahitans ap- i82i. 
peared to be given to the cultivation of the sugar Sept. 27. 
cane and maize, both of which had begun to 
produce an abundant return to the planters ; the 
manihot is also generally cultivated : but the 
dreadful effects of the hurricanes, to which this 
island is exposed, render property of so preca- 
rious and doubtful a tenure, that nothing is se- 
cure until the season for these destructive visi- 
tations is over ; they last [from the beginning of 
December to the end of April, and generally 
occur about the full of the moon, being inva- 
riably preceded by an unsteady motion of the 
mercury in the barometer. They are not always 
so violent as to be termed hurricanes : the last 
experienced before our visit, was merely a “ coup 
de vent” by which very little damage was sus- 
tained'^. 
The town of Port Louis, which is at the north- 
west, or leeward, side of the island, is built at 
the extremity of an amphitheatre of low land, 
backed in by a high and precipitous range, upon 
* In the month of January, 1824, this unfortunate island was 
again visited and laid waste by a tremendous hurricane that did 
very considerable damage, and has in a great measure destroyed 
the prosperous state which the island was beginning to arrive at, 
from the previous long absence of this dreadful visitation. 
VoL. II. I 
