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HISTORY OF MAURITIUS'. 
“ The hurricane, to which this island is subject in the months of January or 
February, is a most formidable enemy. We twice experienced the horrors of 
it. This 'furious wind generally, springs up after mild weather, and even after 
a calm. Its extreme violence lasted during the space of an hour; when we saw 
several large trees laid prostrate, and our own huts shattered to pieces. The- 
sea was in a most terrible state of agitation, and, raising its billows like mountains,, 
drove them against the shore with such impetuosity, that they seemed to threaten its 
existence. The heavens were confounded with the earth; the air thickened, and 
covered’ us with darkness; while the clouds, rolling over each other, dissolved in 
such streams of rain, that the fine and fertile vallies exhibited a general inundation, 
whose torrents bore down every thing before them. The animals instinctively 
preserved themselves from the fury of the storm, by taking refuge in the holes of the 
mountains; they soon however reappeared, as the weather, in a short time, reassumed 
its serene and pleasant state. The last of the two hurricanes which we experienced 
at Rodriguez, was much more terrible than the former: in the midst of its greatest 
violence, there was a sudden calm, and extraordinary stillness, which induced us to 
think that it was passed away; but it soon returned with a renewed and aggravated 
fury. It entirely destroyed all our gardens, by overwhelming them with a deluge- 
of salt water;, but as the soil was not injured by that circumstance, our first-occu¬ 
pation, on quitting the recesses of the rocks, where we had taken shelter, was to sow 
our seeds, as we had already done. 
“ The last enemy with which, we had to contend, was the green caterpillar, which 
always succeeds the hurricanes. These reptiles greatly annoyed us, from February 
to April, by eating our melons; of which they would not leave a single leaf. 
Experience, however, at length taught us to keep the plants covered between 
sunset and sunrise; by which precaution they were at length preserved. As 
this vermin did not touch either endive or purslane, it may be reasonably pre¬ 
sumed, that there are other herbs and vegetables which would be unpalatable to them. 
** There are also small scorpions in some parts of the island; but they are by 
no means dangerous, as we were stung by them-without any other inconvenience 
than the sensation of being pricked by a pin. 
When we bathed in the sea, or waded in it for the purpose of fishing, we were 
often surrounded by shoals of sharks, some of which were of a large size, without 
receiving the least injury from them, When we .were upon the fatal rock of the: 
