7 b 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
ferocity of their character, the subject of continual alarm to the planters who live in 
the vicinity of the forests which they inhabit. When they are taken, they are punished 
with the greatest severity; but what appears perhaps to be a cruel treatment, is the 
effect of dire necessity, as the French are naturally humane; and if very severe 
examples were not made, they would not live in safety. It is indeed well known, that 
many inconveniences have resulted from the indulgence of the planters, particularly 
in granting liberty to the favourite slaves; so that it has been absolutely necessary 
to abridge that power, and to limit freedom to those alone who have saved the life 
of their master.” 
The Theory of the Island , and its Caverns. 
On a first inspection of the surface of the Isle of France, there is every reason to 
imagine, that it has undergone some violent shock; and that all the stones which 
are'found on it have been thrown out of a volcano; or that they have proceeded 
from some general explosion in the island, which has occasioned the disorder 
wherein they now appear. Such is the general opinion in the island; but it is not 
fjom an inspection of the exterior soil alone, that a right judgment can be formed of 
the early state of the Isle of France. 
When the causeys were made which serve to pass the ravines at the entrance of 
Moka and the Plains of Willems , a rampart was thrown up to the right and left, 
in the adjoining highlands, from twelve to fifteen feet in height, and the earth that 
was taken from them served to form the upper part of the causeys. On digging to 
raise these;ramparts a reddish earth presented itself, intermixed with blocks of stones 
of different sizes, but almost all of them round. These stones are not solid, and are 
very brittle; and their grain is the same as that of the hard stones which are found in 
other parts of the island; they are .enveloped in a kind of hard crust, of the same co* 
lour as the ground from which they were extracted. Every part of the island contains 
these stones in great abundance; some of them are of an enormous size. When 
the surface of the lands have been cleared, fresh ones always appear after a succes¬ 
sion of rains; particularly in those parts where the land descends, as on the Plains 
of Willems,. 
These stones are formed in the ground, and harden there as in a quarry: they 
cannot be broken or worked but by gunpowder and the hammer; they are withal 
