HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
i 9 i 
There is still another small increasing quarter, called Flick, or Flacq. 
The quarter of Port Bourbon , on the south-east, continues to be neglected. 
The town of Port Louis, which is also called the Camp, because the Dutch, 
when they first visited the island, formed a camp there, is situated at the extremity 
of Port Louis, at the opening of a valley which is about three quarters of a league 
in depth, and four hundred fathoms in breadth, and is terminated by a circular chain 
of lofty mountains. 
The sides of these mountains are covered with an high grass, which, in dry 
seasons, is commonly burned by the Maroon Negroes. This circumstance gives to 
the mountains a dreary aspect, and has occasioned some navigators,, who have not 
landed on the islafid, to describe it as a barren country. 
The highest part of the Monies , or mountains which inclose the bottom of the 
valley, has been shattered; the most elevated of its parts is at its extremity, and is 
called Peterbotte. Its summit is terminated by a naked and insulated rock, called 
le Pouce , which is said to resemble the figure of a woman. There are a great 
number of trees in the vicinity of the Pouce; and a rivulet springs from it,, which 
flows through the town.* 
* The following extract from the Romance of Paul and Virginia, by Eernardin St. Pierre, and 
which is the opening of it, is such a correct as well as interesting description, that we have no 
hesitation in offering it as an embellishment to this part of our History. 
“ On the eastern side of the mountain which rises above Port Louis, in the Isle of France, and 
in a spot that bears the marks of former cultivation, are seen the ruins of two huts. They are 
situated near the centre of a circular valley, formed by stupendous rocks, and which opens only to 
the north. On the left rises the mountain called the Morne de la Decouverte, from whence signals 
are displayed to the ships which approach the island, and at the footof-it is the town of Port Louis. 
On the right is the road which leads from Port Louis to Pamplemousses, and beyond it the church 
lifts its head, surrounded by its avenues of bamboo; in the midst of a spacious plain : a forest then 
succeeds, which stretches on to the extremities of the island. This spot commands a view of the 
Bay du Tombeau ; a little to the right is Cap Malheureux ; and beyond is the expanded ocean, .on 
the surface of which appear severafuninhabited islands; and among, the rest the Coin de Mire, 
which resembles a bastion in the midst of the waves. 
“ At the entrance of the valley, which displays a view of so many various objects, the echoes of 
the mountains incessantly repeat the hollow noise of the winds which agitate the neighbouring 
forests, and the hoarse murmur of the waves that break over the distant reefs; but near the ruined 
huts all is calm and still; and the objects which there meet the eye, are rude steep rocks, that rise 
like a surrounding rampart. Knots of trees grow at their base, in their rifted sides, and on their 
