48 * 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
viceroys over different districts of the island : they all take the title of sultan, though 
subordinate to the authority of their father; and each of them has his guards, his 
crown, his sceptre, and all the other symbols of royalty, with a numerous court. 
The sultan never appears without being attended by twenty of the principal persons 
of the island : and, on these occasions, he is clad in a long robe of striped calico, 
which hangs from his shoulders to his feet, with a turban on his head. The people 
also generally wear long garments of a similar stuff; they continually chew the 
areka or beetle nut, like the Indians of the East, to whom they bear a great resem¬ 
blance in their manners and actions. 
The Island of Johanna is the most frequented by, and best known to, Europeans; 
who frequently touch there for refreshments, in their voyage to Bombay or the 
coast of Malabar. This island is in twelve degrees twenty minutes south latitude; 
is thirty miles in length, fifteen in breadth, and about fourscore in circumference; 
although certain parts of it are very mountainous, it is equally pleasant and fertile; 
the soil is naturally good, and its various rivers render it abundant in all the 
neecessaries of life. 
To give an idea of the beauty of this island we shall relate the account of an 
excursion made into the interior parts of it by Mr. Grose. It it as follows:— 
“ We set out very early in the morning, with a design of penetrating about six 
miles into the country before the sun should incommode us, and it was no common 
undertaking, considering the mountainous surface that we had to pass. We had 
taken our fowling-pieces, in the hope of killing game if we could attain the summit 
of the mountains, whither they retire; but, notwithstanding our utmost efforts to 
climb up them on our hands and knees, we found it impossible, and were obliged to 
content ourselves with the small birds that we found in the vallies, and on the hills 
whose ascent we had accomplished. We breakfasted on pine-apples, and the milk 
of cocoa-nuts served to assuage our thirst. Towards noon we arrived at a fine 
lake, on whose banks we sat down to make another repast, and to enjoy the natural 
cascades which fell from the rocks, and, by blending their several noises from their 
respective distances, produced a soft and agreeable kind of water-music. 
“ The orange and lemon trees, bending beneath the weight of their fruit, dispersed 
a fragrance that embalmed the air: there were, also wild pine trees, which bore a 
fruit of thirteen inches in circumference, and of a more exquisite flavour than those 
I have since eaten in India: our guides also pointed out to us a great number of 
