3 l 4 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
France, is full of shoal waters; it would therefore be very dangerous to attempt 
the passage, without being well acquainted with every circumstance of it. 
“ If a calm should come on when you are between these islands, the best mode 
of proceeding would be to moor with the ebb anchor, in fifteen or twenty fathom, 
the common bottom being gravel or coral; by which precaution you will avoid 
being thrown by the current on the reef which is joined to the Isle Longue t or 
carried away between it and the Isle Ronde , where there is a great deal of shoal 
water, as well as a chain of rocks, extending from the Isle Ronde near a league 
to the west-north-west. It never breaks, however, but when the sea is agitated; so 
that this channel is both narrow and dangerous. I have passed it, and could plainly 
distinguish the bottom at the point of the reef: but though I met with no accident, 
it appears to me to be a preferable course, when one is to the leeward of the Isle 
Ronde , to pass on the outside of the Isle Longue , to range along it at the distance 
of half a league, and to steer towards the Pointe des Canonniers. 
" Having doubled the latter, you will continue your course in making free with 
the land, so as to range as near as possible to the point of the arm of the sea, 
which is about a league from it: you must then stretch out to the distance of a 
quarter of a league from the reefs which line the shore, taking care of those at the 
entrance of the Bay des Tortues, and before that of Tombe'au , which advance the 
furthest into the sea. To avoid them, you must manoeuvre so as to keep yourself 
in from thirteen to fourteen fathom water during the day, and in twenty fathom 
during the night. 
“ From the reef du Tombeau , the course must be taken a little more to the south; 
and you must keep on to the south-south-west, till you have got in the same line 
with the starboard point of the Great River, the mountain of the Guard-house, and a 
small hill. From this position, you will proceed to the south-west towards two 
buoys which are at the entrance of the port, at the end of the reef of the Isle aux 
Tonneliers , on which there are two small flags to serve as marks. You will con¬ 
tinue this course till you open the most advanced ,point of the Isle aux Tonneliers , 
by the small mountain in the bottom of the; bay; you will then anchor in fourteen 
or fifteen fathom, at the distance of a cable’s length from the two small flags which 
have been already mentioned. 
“ If the winds blow from the north or north-west, as it sometimes happens, it 
