i 82 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
from ten to sixteen feet deep. The waves of the sea smoked at the distance of thirty 
fathom from the place where the lava precipitated itself into the waters, assuming a 
yellowish-green colour, and forming a broad line, to the leewrad, of the same hue. 
u This current running parallel to another of a former period, which consists also 
of several beds of melted matter, formed a projection, whose base was volcanised 
sand, mixed with a kind of ferruginous foam. Eleven days after the lava had reached 
the sea, a solid crust was formed on its surface, which was sufficiently strong to 
admit of being ascended, to about fifteen paces from the place whence it issued. 
Indeed one might venture to walk without danger on a torrent of burning lava, if 
due precautions were taken. In the level parts it soon grows cool, and becomes 
hard as thick ice, while, through the crevices, the liquid matter might be seen flowing 
on without interruption. When, however, it meets with any obstacle, it forces its 
way through the external crust, and covers it with a new bed of boiling lava. On 
the 1st of August the lava ceased to flow, but it diffused a considerable quantity of 
smoke, and appeared at the bottom to be red-hot for some time afterwards. It was 
believed that another crater was discovered at about a league from St. Denis, the 
capital of the island: clouds of smoke and a very strong heat issued from a ravine, 
which it was impracticable to approach during the space of a month. At the end, 
however, of that period, it appeared that this heat and the smoke that accompanied 
it, issued from a cavern, that was the hiding-place of some Maroon Negroes. A 
fire having been lighted in this place, either on purpose or by accident, was main¬ 
tained by a large quantity of leaves, stalks, and other combustible materials, which 
were very slow in consuming, because the cavern admitted but a small portion of 
air. The remains of birds nests, which were found there, clearly proved that the 
cavern had not always been exposed to a similar degree of heat; and this circum¬ 
stance, strengthened by other observations, quieted the alarms that this novel appear¬ 
ance had excited. 
“ The Isle of France, which is in the vicinity of the Isle of Bourbon, is considered 
as a country which has been exposed to the violent convulsions of nature. It abounds 
in caverns, precipices, waterfalls, subterraneous passages, iron mines, calcined stones, 
vitrifications, burnt sand, and pyrites, which are general indications of ancient 
volcanoes; but, on account of their antiquity, it is not possible at this time to deter¬ 
mine their situation. The most lofty mountains in this island have not more than 
five hundred fathom of elevation, while, in the Isle of Bourbon, there are peaks 
