34^ 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
CHAPTER XV. 
The Course, on leaving the Isles of France and Bourbon to proceed to India , during 
the South-west Monsoon.—The Course , from the Cape of Good Hope to India , 
during the South-west Monsoon , passing to the East , and in Sight of the 
Island Rodriguez .— Voyage to India during the North-east Monsoon. 
"A t the commencement of our navigation to India, the ships bound thither from 
the Isle of Bourbon, generally held the great course which passes to the east of the 
Isles, and avoided the dangers which are known to prevail in the Archipelago to the 
north-east of Madagascar. For that purpose it is necessary to leave the region of 
the general winds, in order to attain that of the variable ones, and to get afterwards 
to the east, so as to be able, with the general winds from the south-east to the east, 
to make the land of the Island of Ceylon. This course employs a very considerable 
portion of time, and generally occupies two months: some ships have indeed, though 
very seldom, made it in a shorter period.* 
* <e In the year 1719, the new East India Company having entrusted to my father, M. d’Apres 
de Blangy, the command of the first ships which it sent to the Indies, with the title of Counsellor 
in the Superior Council, he fitted out at Havre the ship le Solide, on board of which I made my 
first voyage, in the quality of Honorary Ensign. 
<c We departed from the road of Havre on the 14th of December, and after having been obliged 
to put into Falmouth, on the English coast, from contrary winds, we continued our course. We 
crossed the Equinoctial line on the 18th of February, 1720, 19 0 to the west of the meridian of Paris ; 
we doubled the Cape of Good Hope on the 17th of April, and on the 8th of May we arrived at the 
Isle of Bourbon. We remained there till the 29th of the same month, when we sailed from the 
road of St. Paul, with such a favourable wind, that on the following day we passed six leagues to 
the south of the Isle of France, which was then known by the name of Mauritius. From thence, 
having during several days fresh gales from the north-west, to the west and south, which, as is well 
known, are very uncommon in that season, we got, without passing the tropic, sufficiently to the 
east, to get up afterwards to the northward; so that in the morning of the 27th of June, we 
neared the south part of the Island of Ceylon, six or seven leagues to the west of the great shoal. 
On the xst of July, in the evening, we moored opposite Gondelour , and on the following day in 
the road of Pondicherry, after a passage of thirty days from the Isle of Bourbon. I do not know 
any example of so short a passage by the general course.” 
