502 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
tain that money alone ought to be the circulating medium, and not paper, in which 
nobody puts any confidence. 
Of all foreign countries, Madagascar is the most necessary to ils commerce, on 
account of its slaves and cattle. 
If it was seriously intended to place the commerce of this island in a flourishing 
situation, it w 7 ould be necessary to clear Port Louis from a number of hulls of vessels 
which choak up the bason, and the 1 more so, as. they are forming themselves into a 
kind of reef by the growth of the madreporass, with which they are overloaded, and 
in some measure petrified. > • ■ ,-r.tr t : 
They w T ho have great property in lands which may < be easily cleared, particularly 
near the port, should be compelled ter clear them. - . ' .ih-m.o b • : 
Beasts of burthen ought likewise to be. : increased, especiaUyjasses, so useful in 
mountainous countries; an ass. carrying double the load of a Negro. 
It would be likewise necessary fdr the administration to consult husbandmen, as 
to the properest mode of cultivating the island. 
There are a great many soldiers* to whom lands might be given to clear.and cul¬ 
tivate; it would also be a politic measure to marry them. Had this plan been pur¬ 
sued, the whole island would have been in a connected state, and there would have 
been a nursery of Indian soldiers and sailors. 
Nature has amply provided for the defence of the island, which is almost sur¬ 
rounded, at some distance from the shore, by a range of breakers ; where this range 
is broken, the coast is formed of inaccessible rocks. In short, the island itself would 
be inaccessible were it not for some passages between the reefs, of which there are 
eleven, formed by the currents of the rivers, which are opposite to them. 
The exterior defence of the island, therefore, consists in preventing all access to 
these openings: some might be shut up by floating chains, and others might be 
defended by batteries built on shore. 
As a boat may be worked between the reefs and the shore, gun-boats might be 
used, to advance the fire when the passage is at too great a distance from the cannon 
on the coast. 
Behind the reefs the shore is of easy access; but the accessible places might be 
rendered impracticable, as they are become at the extremity of the South-east Port: 
it is only necessary to plant mango trees to produce that effect. In those parts of 
the coast which is continually beaten by the waves, if there should be some beds of 
