HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
568 
By a law of the Colonial Assembly, passed in 1799, the corn of the country was 
received in the public magazines, at four piastres the hundred weight. The price 
of foreign rice varies from one to four piastres the hundred weight. That of the 
country, as it is better and fresher, is never under two piastres the hundred weight. 
The present State of Agriculture in the Isle of France , as given by an Inhabitant 
of that Island, ivbo arrived in London in 1800. 
The soil of this island is very diversified. Although, by its climate, it is adapted 
for all colonial productions, it has not equally answered to all the different kinds of 
cultivation which the inhabitants have endeavoured to naturalize.* The planta¬ 
tions of coffee, being of the most simple culture, and requiring less expence and 
establishments, were the first which they adopted; but other objects of culture, such 
as cotton, having appeared more profitable, coffee has not become so general as it 
would otherwise have been. The cotton, which had promised such advantageous 
returns, has likewise been neglected in its turn, for the same reason; because the 
cultivation of indigo was become the most popular; but the great profit which the 
first sugar plantations afforded, has induced them to establish some wherever they 
could procure a quantity of water above the level of the earth, sufficient to work a 
sugar mill. Several sugar plantations have already proved successful, and many 
others are expected equally to succeed. Unfortunately, the mountains, though co¬ 
vered with fine trees, have been found, in certain spots, to have a white stone or jrock 
too near the mould,+ but those who have suffered from this inconvenience have 
indemnified themselves, for the present, by felling woods.* 
* The inhabitants complain that the soil is not sufficiently fertile, although it is very rich 
in natural productions; but the fact is, that they continually exhaust it, never letting it remain 
fallow, nor supplying it with the necessary manure. 
f It is not astonishing that the mould on the brows of the mountains should become dry, or be 
carried away by the running waters, when the trees have been cut down which preserved and de¬ 
fended it from the sun, winds, and waters; and, when no expence is made to defend it against 
these natural inconveniences : on the contrary, the soil is exhausted by two harvests in the year. 
Had not the soil been originally excellent, it would not have produced such fine trees as are 
found upon it, and which are continually felled without regularity or measure. 
X This felling of the woods ought to be observed and controuled by the administration; as the 
inhabitants, to^ accelerate their fortunes, will soon have laid waste the whole island; so that it will 
