4 io 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
CHAPTER XXII. 
Extracts from a Letter of Baron Grant , relative to the Isle of France .— 
Observations on India.—Brief Account of Pondicherry , &c. 
LETTER XIII. 
Isle of France,. October, 1754. 
* * * * If it were not that we apprehend a war, and the sudden arrival of our 
enemies, it would be no common folly to leave so delightful a climate as this. 
When I first arrived at Mauritius, I heard the inhabitants observe, that nothing 
was to be done by way of advancing one’s fortune; and an ordinary maintenance 
was all that could be expected. My experience, however, is in direct opposition to 
such a declaration; and I perceive that every year the revenues of the inhabitants 
increase. If I had not a family and relations in France, whom I love and long to see 
again, I should be very well contented to finish my days here; but having had the 
misfortune this year to lose the most amiable of wives,* and my second son being 
dead lately of the small-pox; these cruel accidents determine me to prepare myself for 
my departure; and, in the mean time, to send my only son immediately to France. 
We have received the pleasing assurances that M. David, our Governor, will 
return; he is impatiently expected here, and will be received with the sincerest 
pleasure by us all. I have no reason to complain of M. Bouvet, his brother-in-law, 
whom he appointed to occupy his situation till he should return, or a successor be 
named; on the contrary, I feel myself indebted to him for many acts of attention 
and civility. We understand there is a difference among the Directors respecting 
the return of M. David; we shall however know their decision by the ships whose 
arrival is now the object of our impatient expectation. The harvests have very gene¬ 
rally failed throughout the island. I am this year the only fortunate cultivator in 
it: I sowed two thousand two hundred pounds of corn, and have gathered sixty-six 
thousand. * * * * See. t Grant. 
• She was a lady of the family of Grenville, whom Baron Grant married in the year 1746. 
+ We suppress, in the Letters of Baron Grant, many observations which would be no more than 
repetitions of the different authors cited in this Volume. 
