HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
antelopes are common in Africa, Asia, and the East Indies. The African antelopes 
resemble the roebuck in size and figure; their ears are large, and lined with a very 
black hair, which has the gloss of ebony: their horns are black, with fluted rings to 
half their length, and resemble the antique lyre. The outline of the horns of the 
female are less round and curvated than those of the male. At their root there 
is a tuft of hair, which is longer than that of the rest of the body. Their hoofs 
have the same polish as those of goats: the Arabs, indeed, call them by the latter 
name. 
The antelopes are gregarious, and chew the cud. Their large black eyes are so 
lively, and at the same time so tender, that the Eastern people think them a compli¬ 
mentary comparison for the eyes of a beautiful woman. The fore legs are not so 
long as the hinder ones, which, as in the hare, gives more facility in ascending than 
descending. As to their colour, the greater part are fallow on the upper parts of their 
body, and white under the belly, with a brown stripe which separates these two colours 
on the lower part of the flanks. 
The wild antelopes are taken by means of a tame one, to whose horns a snare 
made of cords'is curiously attached. When an herd is found, the tame animal is 
sent among them; when the wild males instantly advance to oppose him, and, in 
butting violently with their horns, are entangled in the noose. In this struggle 
they both fall to the ground, when the hunter arrives to kill the one and disengage 
the other. 
We have as yet but a small quantity of wild boars, which we call Maroon hogs. 
They are the descendants of those which the Portuguese left behind them in the 
woods of these islands, when they made the discovery of them. Those which we 
breed for our domestic purposes, are of the small China kind. Our goats also have 
proceeded from those left here by the original discoverers. 
The Maroon hogs are not so mischievous as our wild boars in Europe. They 
are very fat, as well as the deer; and the heat allays the fierceness of the one, as 
well as the running of the other. 
When a stag is killed, an entertainment always follows, as the flesh will not 
keep more than two days: the neighbours are accordingly invited to partake of 
the feast; and though this island does not produce wine, rather from a defect in 
the knowledge of cultivating a vineyard, than any unfavourable qualities in 
