150 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
dreadful proofs of its violence. The anchorage is not good off any part of the 
island; nor are hurricanes unfrequent. When they arise, trees are torn up by the 
roots, houses are blown away, and if the ships are not driven on shore, they are 
sunk by its fury. 
“ There were two Frenchmen on that side of the island where the three vessels 
cast anchor. Their little habitation was situated near a cascade, which fell from a 
large rock, and in the midst of plantations of tobacco, roots, and garden herbs. 
They had formed an enclosure, which contained hogs and goats, not only for their 
own convenience, but to sell to strangers who might touch at the island and could 
not spare time to procure them by hunting. This arrangement had some time 
before proved very useful to them, when a large English ship, called the Charles, 
commanded by Captain Barker, stopped at the island to take in water. They then 
exchanged their animals for brandy, oil, vinegar, and cloths, of which they stood 
in great need. One of these Frenchmen was named Louis Payen, and had passed 
three years in this solitude, after having lived twice that period at Madagascar ; the 
other seemed to act in the capacity of a servant. Besides the two Frenchmen, the 
island was inhabited by ten Negroes, seven men and three women, who had been 
sent from Madagascar. They had revolted against the Frenchmen, and retired into 
the mountains, where they were beyond the reach of fire-arms. Six soldiers were 
sent in search of them; but they remained secure in the inacessible parts of the 
mountains. 
“ These ships left at Mascaregnas the Sieur Baudry, a merchant, who was sick, 
and the Sieur Renaud, one of the principal clerks of the India Company, with 
twenty artisans under his direction.” 
Voyage of M. de la Haye to the East Indies , in the years 1670 and 1671.* 
“ M. de la Haye was governor of St. Venan and colonel of a regiment of. 
infantry, when he was appointed by the king to the command of a squadron which 
was the most considerable that had been hitherto sent from France to the Indies. 
It consisted of five ships of war, a dispatch frigate, and three vessels armed en flute , 
which carried two thousand and fifty men. It received orders, not only to stop 
at Madagascar and the Isle of Bourbon, to declare M. de la Haye governor-general 
in the name of the king, but to visit all the French establishments in the Indies. 
* It was published at Paris, in 1698, in i2mo. under the title of Journal des Grandes hides. 
