HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
158 
redoubt, which is too far from the sea ; a battery in front of the government build¬ 
ings, and a drawbridge. Behind the town is a large plain, which is called the Camp 
de Lorraine.* 
“ The soil is more sandy at Bourbon than in the Isle of France; it is intermixed, 
for some distance from the sea, with the same round pebbles which cover the shore; 
a circumstance that justifies the conjecture that the sea has, in this part of the island, 
retired from the land. 
st An old man, aged upwards of fourscore years, informed us, that he was one of 
those who took possession of the Isle of France when the Dutch abandoned it: 
twelve Frenchmen landed there in the morning for that purpose, and in the after¬ 
noon of the same day an English vessel anchored off it with the same intention; 
but it arrived too late. 
** The manners of the ancient inhabitants of the Isle of Bourbon were distinguished 
by their simplicity: the greater part of the houses were without fastenings, and a 
lock was so rare as to be an object of curiosity : they frequently kept their money 
in turtle-shells, and placed them over their doors. They clad themselves in blue 
linen, but disdained both shoes and stockings, and lived on rice and coffee: they 
received few or no articles from Europe, and were content to live without luxury, 
so that they could live free from want. With this spirit of temperance and modera¬ 
tion, they possessed all the concomitant virtues—intergrity in their commercial deal¬ 
ings, and a noble generosity in their general conduct. When a stranger appeared 
among them, their hospitality knew no bounds. 
“ The last war in India has occasioned, in some small degree, a relaxation of 
their morals. The volunteers of Bourbon and Mauritius distinguished themselves 
in its campaigns by their bravery; but the silks of Asia, and the military distinctions 
of France, have found an entrance into the island. The children having become 
more opulent than their fathers, required an higher degree of consideration; and 
have quitted their native home, and the repose of rural life, to seek those pleasures 
and honours which are to be found in Europe. As it is become a principal object of 
those who are fathers to advance the fortune of their sons, they send them to France, 
from whence they seldom return ; so that there are now in this island five hundred 
marriageable women, who are growing old without any prospect of enjoying the 
comforts of the married state, t 
• St. Pierre. 
f Idem. 
