HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
505 
61 Others, agreeable to a new system which engaged their attention, were of 
opinion, that the inhabitants of the Isle of France should be allowed to trade to 
India, which they had never yet been suffered to do. The supporters of this system 
maintained, that the proposed freedom would prove an abundant source of wealth 
to the colony, and consequently to the mother-country. But the island was then in 
want of both vessels and specie; it had no article for exportation, nor any means of 
consumption. For all these reasons the experiment proved unsuccessful; and it 
was resolved that the island should be entirely confined to agriculture. 
“ This new regulation gave rise to fresh mistakes. Men were sent from the 
mother-country to the colony, who neither understood husbandry, nor were accus¬ 
tomed to labour. The lands were distributed at a venture, and without distin¬ 
guishing what was to be cleared from that which was already in a state for cultiva¬ 
tion. Money was advanced to the planters, not in proportion to their industry, 
but to the interest they could make with the government. The Company, who 
got cent, per cent, upon the commodities the colony drew from Europe, and fifty 
per cent, upon those that were sent in from India, required that the produce of the 
country should be delivered into their warehouses, at a very low price. To com¬ 
plete the misfortunes of the colony, the Company, who had kept all the power in 
their own hands, broke the engagements they had entered into with their subjects, 
or rather with their slaves. 
4< Under such an administration no improvements could be expected. Discou¬ 
ragement threw most of the colonists into a state of inaction; those who had some^ 
share of industry remaining, were either in want of the means that lead to pros¬ 
perity, or were not supported by that strength of mind which enables men to sur¬ 
mount the difficulties which always attend on new settlements. Those who had 
an opportunity of seeing and observing the agriculture of the Isle of France, found 
it little better than what they had seen among the savages. 
“ In 1764 the government took the colony under its own immediate controul. 
From that period to 1776 a population has been successively formed there of six 
thousand three hundred and eighty-six white men, including two thousand nine 
hundred and fifty-five soldiers, eleven hundred and ninety-nine free Negroes, and 
twenty-five thousand one hundred and fifty four slaves. The cattle on the island 
have also been increased to twenty-five thousand three hundred and sixty-seven. 
3T 
