HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 19 
their discovery of them, was to people them with some animals; with goats, monkies, 
and pigs. 
1580.—In the year 1580, the Spaniards became masters of these islands: Philip 
the I Id, King of Spain, having usurped the government of Portugal in this year, 
on the death of Henry of Portugal, became possessed, at the same time, of the Por¬ 
tuguese possessions in the Indian seas. The two islands which bore the names 
of Cerne and Mascaregnas, during the greater part of this century, had not yet 
experienced any of those advantages of which tjbey were susceptible, nor were any 
settlements made on them; as the other conquests and discoveries of the Por¬ 
tuguese were too numerous and considerable to allow any attention to these 
objects. 
These islands suffered the same neglect under the dominion of the Spaniards, 
which did not exceed a period of eighteen years. But if Portugal was not in a con¬ 
dition to maintain all its possessions, Spain, though a widely extended power, la¬ 
boured under superior difficulties. She had to preserve, at the same time, her 
discoveries and conquests in South America, as well as those in the East and West 
Indies, whilst, in Europe, she could not quell the increasing efforts of her own 
rebellious subjects in Belgium. The consequences of that rebellion are well known; 
and Spain, by losing this essential part of her dominions, was forced, in the year 1598, 
to abandon to the Belgic insurgents, or the Dutch, the whole commerce of the 
East Indies. 
At this epocha, and even from the death of King Sebastian, Portugal was fallen 
into a state of confusion which had' brought on its ruin, and was the cause of her 
parsing, by degrees, under the dominion of Philip the Second. Accordingly, the 
Portuguese settled in the East Indies, considering themselves as deprived of their 
mother country, some,of them assumed independence, others became pirates, and 
the rest entered into the service of the country princes, where many of them, from 
their superiority over the natives, became ministers or generals. They, however, 
acted without zeal for their general interests, which they sacrificed to their own indi¬ 
vidual objects; so that their separate enterprizes and conquests at length terminated 
in three distinct and hostile governments. They therefore lost their power, when 
the Belgians, or Dutch, actuated by a more humane and tolerating spirit, appeared 
ip India, to dispute with them the empire of it. 
The Dutch having revolted from, and maintained a successful war against, their 
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