HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
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« Though I do not behold, from my hermitage, which is embosomed in a forest, 
that multitude of objects which present themselves from this elevated situation, 
it is not without circumstances peculiarly interesting to one who, like myself, 
looks, for his best satisfactions, into the secret recesses of his own mind. The river, 
which flows before my door, takes its course in an undeviating direction through 
the woods, presenting to my view a long canal shaded with.trees of every foliage. 
There are the ebony and cinnamon trees, with others of various name and figure, 
enriched and varied by tufts of palms, which rise above the rest, and whose tops 
resting, as it were, upon the summit of the wood, gives the appearance of one forest 
resting upon another. The creeping plants of divers kinds, form alternately arcades 
of flowers, and curtains of verdure. The groves dispense their aromatic odours; 
and, in the season of their flowers, the passenger bears on his garments their delight¬ 
ful perfume, long after he has quitted the shade of the trees on which they blow. At 
the close of summer, several kinds of foreign birds arrive, by an incomprehensible 
instinct, from distant and unknown regions, and over a vast extent of ocean, to col¬ 
lect the grain which is yielded by the vegetables of this island; while they enliven, by 
the splendour of their plumage, the foliage of the trees, which are embrowned by the 
sun. Among others, there are various kinds of parrots, and the blue pigeon, called 
here the Dutch pigeon. Monkies, which are the domiciliated inhabitants of the 
forest, amuse themselves among the dusky branches; sometimes they are suspended 
by the tail, and balance themselves in the air; at other times, they are seen leaping 
from branch to branch, with their young ones in their arms. Here the murderous 
gun has never alarmed these peaceful children of nature: here nothing is heard but 
the cries of joy, the warblings of birds, and the murmur of rivulets,” &c. 
Commerce , Agriculture , and Defence of the Island. 
This colony imports its plate from China, its linen and clothes from the Indies, 
its slaves and cattle from Madagascar, a part of its provisions from the Cape of 
Good Hope, its money from Cadiz, and its administration from France. 
M. la Bourdonnais wished to make it an entrepot for our commerce, and the 
bulwark of our settlements in India. 
It has been supposed that the commodities, cloths, linen, and manufactures of 
France, would have sufficed for the consumption of the island; and that the cottons 
of Normandy would be preferable to the linens of Bengal, for the slaves. It is cer- 
