HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
95 
16 It has been said, that one hundred pounds weight of this mineral will give 
fifteen pounds of wrought iron ; but M. le Gentil saw, that nine thousand pounds 
of mineral gave'from fifteen hundred to two thousand two hundred pounds of cast 
iron. This is about twenty per cent.; but these fifteen hundred, or two thousand 
two hundred pounds of cast iron, did. not give half that quantity of wrought iron ; 
consequently this mine did not produce more than ten pounds of wrought iron for 
each hundred of mineral. 
“ At Villebagne the mine appeared to be more abundant; but it is the distance 
of a league from the forges, in very elevated spots, and intersected by ravines and 
precipices. In the still more elevated parts, such as the military quarter of Nouvelle 
Dec-ouverte , the mines appeared equally productive; but if Villebagne is excepted, 
these spots give but little encouragement to establish forges, as there is not sufficient 
water to answer all their demands: nor is it probable that the proprietors of the 
forges will ever go two or three leagues from Pamplemousses among frighful moun¬ 
tains, and where there are no roads, to rake up the ground, in order to bring iron 
to their furnaces ; besides, these mines are, as it were, on the surface of the earth. 
The East India Company had set apart, for these forges, an extent of wood of ten 
thousand acres, called the Reserves : they then imagined, that, by making regular falls 
in these lofty woods, they would shoot forth again the following year, and that the 
young trees being left untouched, would replace the larger ones. But how many 
generations will pass away before this fine forest is reproduced ? as, according to the 
opinion of M. le Gentil, the woods once cut down, in the Isle of France, do not grow 
again; so that the forest which is appropriated to maintain the fire at the forges of 
Mondesir, will soon be transformed into a vast desert. In tjie year 1770, the people 
belonging- to them were obliged to go a league and an half to fetch charcoal, and 
every year will proportionably increase that distance : so that themutual decrease of 
wood and mineral, will insensibly bring on the decay of this branch of commerce. 
“Coffee is a valuable production: it is planted in the Isle of Bourbon at six feet 
distance. One foot is supposed to give about four pounds; nevertheless a tree is 
not expected to produce more than a pound of coffee ; so that a plantation which 
possesses fifty thousand feet of coffee, does not yield more than fifty thousand pounds 
ofu ;, and for every thousand feet a Negro is necessary for its cultivation. The 
Comp, ny has, for a long time, fixed the price of coffee in the Isle of Bourbon, for 
wbic it gave eight pence per pound : so that a planter possessed of fifty thousand 
