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HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
West Indies. It is generally cultivated on the declivities of the mountains; rises 
to five or six feet, bears a white flower, and a fruit which resembles a cherry, that 
contains two grains inclosed in an husk: it is gathered in May and June, and is 
dried in the sun on platforms; it is then beat to disengage it from the husk, and is 
exported in sacks made of a double matting. The Company buy it of the inhabi¬ 
tants, at twenty French livres the hundred weight, and engage to take three millions 
of pounds, or fifteen hundred ton per annum ; it is generally sold in the East at from 
seventy to eighty livres. The inhabitants have undertaken to make arrack, sugar, and 
indigo,* as well as to breed silk worms; but as the latter enterprize was not encou¬ 
raged by the Company, it has proved unsuccessful, though it promised much in the 
beginning. 
“ They have great plenty of cattle, sheep, and goats, as well as hogs; with poultry 
of every kind, and,many species of wild fowl. They annually export a large quantity 
of grain and provisions to the Island of Mauritius, and all their vessels are victualled 
with these articles. They have a great number of horses, ofasmall size but very strong. 
“ This island is very much infested by snails, grasshoppers, and other insects; as 
well as by rats and small birds, which make a terrible havock in the harvests. They 
sometimes suffer also from the extreme drought of the season. 
“ The islanders are, in general, very healthy and robust; and as the air is 
.wholesome, they often attain to a very advanced age. The most common disorders 
among them are those of the stomach, which are caused by worms and indiges¬ 
tion: convulsions, proceeding from colds, after taking emetics or purgative medi¬ 
cines, are not uncommon; and death frequently follows from receiving wounds. 
Inflammatory fevers are not dangerous, and putrid fevers are, in a great measure, 
unknown: the tooth-ach is so common, that there are very few people at the age of 
twenty years who have not lost some of their teeth. 
“ The first inhabitants, by intermarrying with the black women of Madagascar, 
have transmitted some degree of that colour to their descendants, who retain a propor¬ 
tion of the original complexion of their female ancestors. Not a fiftieth part of the 
free natives are really white; and those which are the most remarkable in that par¬ 
ticular, are the descendants of English pirates. The Creoles enjoy the privileges of 
the second order of French nobility. 
" As they have but little or no commerce, the inhabitants live by the cultivation 
• The indigo plant grows wild in this island, and mulberry trees are in great abundance. 
