HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
no 
bait was no sooner thrown into the water than they instantly seized it. They have 
sometimes indeed been shot, with the ordinary ammunition of the sportsman. 
6 ‘ The vallies, which are fertilised by these beautiful rivulets, insensibly widen as 
they approach the sea, till they extend sometimes into plains of two thousand yards 
broad, whose soil, to the depth of eight or ten feet, possesses the most fertile qua¬ 
lities : they are also covered with those delightful groves which have been already 
mentioned, beneath whose shade, in the noon-tide of the hottest season, the air 
possesses a most agreeable and enlivening freshness. The trees shoot up their tufted 
tops to the same height, and interlacing their branches with each other, form a suc- 
session of leafy canopies which blend, as it were, into a large platform of never- 
failing verdure; while the stems, like so many strait and lofty pillars, at once 
support and nourish it: an unrivalled example of the architecture of nature. At 
the same time the greatest part of the trees which adorn this little paradise, are not 
less useful to the service,* than gratifying to the senses of man. The different kinds 
of palm tree, are so many astonishing magazines to supply the necessaries of life: 
their fruit is excellent; while the juice which flows from their trunks is, without 
any preparation, a very delicious and salutary beverage. The leaves of some of 
them are esculent, and of a grateful taste; while others bear a resemblance to linen 
and silken stuffs. These wonderful trees abound in every part of the island, 
and it may be expected that some account should be given of them. 
Of the different sorts of Trees . 
<l Palm trees, of which there are more than thirty kinds, have been so frequently 
described, as to render a minute account of them superfluous: it may be proper, 
however, to give some general account of those which we found in the Isle of 
Rodriguez. They are in general about thirty or forty feet in height; their trunk is 
strait and without leaves, but covered with a kind of sharp scales, which are some¬ 
what raised at the point: others have a smooth bark. At the upper part of the 
trunk grow the branches of palm leaves, which hang around like so many plumes of 
feathers: beneath these branches grow long clusters of fruit, which is green, and 
of the size as well as the shape of an egg : it is known by the name of date. In the 
centre of this large leafy plumage, and on the summit of the trunk, grows what is 
called the cabbage: it is not visible; as the branches rise all around and over¬ 
top its situation. It is composed of tender leaves, which adhere closely to each 
