HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
7S 
they come from Pondicherry, and let themselves out for a certain number of years. 
They are almost all of them workmen, and occupy a suburb which is called the 
Black Camp; they are of a deeper colour than the islanders of Madagascar, who are 
real Negroes, have the features of Europeans, and their hair is not woolly: they are 
sober and economical. Their head is dressed with a turban, and they wear long 
dresses of muslin, with large gold ear-rings, and silver bracelets at the wrists. There 
are some who enter into the service of the rich and titled inhabitants, as pious ; a 
kind of domestic, which answers to the character of an European running footman: 
his peculiar distinction is a cane in his hand, and a dagger at his girdle. It were to 
be wished that there were a greater number of the inhabitants of Malabar established 
in this island, particularly of the cast of husbandmen. 
At present, Madagascar furnishes the Negroes which are destined to cultivate the 
land in the Isle of Bourbon. The common price of one of them is a barrel of 
gunpowder, a few muskets, some pieces of cloth, and, above all, a certain propor¬ 
tion of piastres. The dearest of them costs about fifty crowns of France.* 
These people have neither so flat a nose, or so dark a complexion, as those of 
Guinea; some of them are only brown; while others, as the Balambous, have long 
hair: nay, others of them have fair, and even red hair. They are dexterous, intelli¬ 
gent, and have a sense of honour and gratitude. The greatest insult which can be 
offered to one of these people, is to speak disrespectfully of his family; they are far 
less sensible to personal injuries. In their own country they work up various articles, 
with equal ingenuity and industry. Their zagaye, or half-pike, is very well forged, 
though a couple of stones form their hammer and their anvil. The linens which their 
women weave are very fine and well dyed; these they cast around them in a grace¬ 
ful form, and the manner in which they arrange their hair produces a pleasing head¬ 
dress; it consists of curls and tresses very tastefully blended with each other, and is 
the work of the women. They are passionately fond of dancing and music; their 
instrument is the tantam, which is a bow fixed to a gourd, from whence they draw 
a soft harmonious sound, with which they accompany the airs that they compose. 
Love is the general subject of them, and the girls dance to the songs of their lovers: 
the spectators beat time and applaud. 
They are very hospitable. A black who is on a journey, enters without previous 
ceremony, or being known to the owner, into any hut which suits his convenience; 
* In 1768. 
