know. The Maps which accompany the work are well-executed, and will be found extremely useful and convenient. We take an extract from the Third Chapter, as containing matter of more general entertaintment.

"The Ile of France was an abfolute defert when Mafcaregnas difcovered it. The French who first established themfelves there, were certain planters from the Ifle of Bourbon, who brought with them fimplicity of manners, good faith, an hofpitable difpofition, and an indifference for riches. M. de la Bourdonnais, who may, in fome degree, be confidered as the founder of this colony, brought fome workmen along with him. When, however, he had rendered this island interesting by his labours, and it was thought convenient as a ftaple for their commerce of the Indies, perfons of all conditions fettled in it.

"The agents of the Company, who poffeffed all the principal employments in the ifland, exercifed too much of that financial difpofition, which is difcouraging to thofe who are employed in cultivating the earth. The whole of the public eftablishment was at their difpofal; they, at the fame time, controlled the police, the civil administration, and magazines of the island; fome of them cleared the land and built houfes, all of which they difpofed of, at a very high price, to those who had ventured hither, in hope of advancing their fortune. There was confequently a great outcry against them; but the power was in their hands, and complaint was of no avail.

"Several perfons in the marine fervice of the Company fettled here. They had long complained, that while they encountered dangers and fuffered fatigues in fupport of the Eaft Indian commerce, others acquired the honours and emoluments of it. As this fettlement was fo near to India, a fanguine hope of advantage from fixing in it animated their mind, and they became its inhabitants.

"Several military officers of the Company arrived here; they were very refpectable perfons, and fome of them diftinguished for their birth. They could not imagine that an officer would debase himself fo far as to receive orders from a man who had formerly been a clerk in an accompting-houfe, though he might condefcend to receive their pay. Nor did they like the failors, who are rather too peremptory in their manners. On becoming inhabitants, they retained their original difpofition, and confequently did not advance their for

tunes.

"Some of the King's regiments put in here and made fome stay; while feveral of the officers, allured by the beauty of the climate and the love of repofe, were induced to establish themselves in the island : but every thing was at the difpofition, and fubmitted to the power of the Company.

"The inhabitants were also increased by the arrival of fome miffionaries of the order of St. Lazarus.

"To complete the fettlement of this ifland, fome merchants with fmall capitals arrived, and found it without commerce. These people augmented the abufes of money jobbing, which they found already

eftablished,

eftablished, and employed themfelves in forming petty monopolies : they foon became obnoxious, and acquired the name of Banians, or Jers. On the other hand, they affected to defpife any particular diftinctions of the inhabitants, and were fond of propagating the opinion, that, after having pafled the line, a general equality prevailed. "Such was the fituation of this colony when it was ceded to the King in the year 1765.

"One part of the inhabitants, who were attached to the Company from gratitude, beheld, with pain, a royal adminiftration; while the other part, who had fo long looked for favour from a new government, feeing it principally occupied in plans of economy, were proportionably chagrined and disappointed.

"The foldiers furnish a confiderable number of workmen, as the moderate heat permits the white people to work in the open air; though they have not been rendered fo beneficial to the colony as they might have been, in a more enlarged difpofition of their capacities.

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Though the feafaring people are always going and coming, they have, nevertheless, a confiderable influence on the manners of the colony. Their policy is to complain alike of the places which they left, and of thofe at which they arrive: they have always bought too dear and fold too cheap, and think they are ruined if they do not gain an hundred and fifty per cent.

"An hogfhead of claret cofts five hundred livres, and every thing elfe in proportion. It is fcarce credible, that the merchandize of Europe is dearer here than in India; and that Indian commodities fetch a higher price here than in Europe. The maritime people are fo neceffary to the inhabitants, that they are held in great confidera tion.

"The greater part of the married people live on their plantations; and the women feldom vifit the town, but when they are tempted by a ball, or are called to perform fome effential duties of their religion. They are paffionately fond of dancing; and no fooner is a ball announced, than they come in their palanquins from every quarter, as the roads will not admit of wheel carriages.

"The women have but little colour, but they are well made, and, in general, hand fome. Nature has given them a confiderable portion of wit and vivacity: and if their education were not neglected, their fociety would be very agreeable: they are very fond mothers; and if they ever fail in fidelity to the marriage vow, it is too often owing to the indifference of their hufbands, or to the Parifiam manners which have been introduced among them. Their ordinary dress is fine muflin, lined with rofe-coloured taffetas.

They poffefs, in a great degree, the more eftimable domeftic qualities; they feldom or never drink any thing but water, and their cleanliness is extreme. Their children are never confined in swaddling clothes, but ron about almost as foon as they are born; they are otten bathed, and allowed to eat fruit at their own difcretion. As they are left entirely to themfelves, and are uncontrouled by the fuperintendance of education, they foon become ftrong and robuft, and their temperament advances in proportion. The females are fometimes married at eleven years of age.

"There

"There are about four hundred planters in this island, and about an hundred women of fuperior rank, not more than ten of whom live in the town. On firing the evening gun, at eight o'clock, every one retires to his own habitation.

"The Blacks.

"Of the population of this ifland, we must confider the Indians and Negroes as forming a confiderable proportion.

"The firft are from the coaft of Malabar, and are very mild and gentle people: they come from Pondicherry, and let themfelves out for a certain number of years. They are almoft all of them workmen, and occupy a fuburb which is called the Black Camp; they are of a deeper colour than the iflanders of Madagascar, who are real Negroes, have the features of Europeans, and their hair is not woolly: they are fober and economical. Their head is dressed with a turban, and they wear long dresses of muflin, with large gold ear-rings, and filver bracelets at the wrists. There are fome who enter into the fervice of the rich and titled inhabitants, as pions; a kind of domeftic, which answers to the character of an European running footman: his peculiar diftinction is a cane in his hand, and a dagger at his girdle. It were to be wished that there were a greater number of the inhabitants of Malabar established in this island, particularly of the cast of hufbandmen.

"At prefent, Madagascar furnishes the Negroes which are deftined to cultivate the land in the Ifle of Bourbon. The common price of one of them is a barrel of gunpowder, a few muskets, fome pieces of cloth, and, above all, a certain proportion of piaftres. The deareft of them cofts about fifty crowns of France.

"Thefe people have neither fo flat a nofe, or fo dark a complexion as thofe of Guinea; fome of them are only brown; while others, as the Balambous, have long hair: nay, others of them have fair, and even red hair. They are dexterous, intelligent, and have a fenfe of honour and gratitude. The greateft infult which can be offered to one of thefe people, is to fpeak difrefpectfully of his family; they are far lefs fenfible to perfonal injuries. In their own country they work up various articles, with equal ingenuity and induftry. Their zagaye, or half pike, is very well forged, though a couple of ftones form their hammer and their anvil. The linens which their women weave are very fine, and well dyed; thefe they caft around them in a graceful form, and the manner in which they arrange their hair pro duces a pleafing head-drefs; it confifts of curls and treffes very taftefully blended with each other, and is the work of the women. They are paffionately fond of dancing and mufic; their inftrument is the tantam, which is a bow fixed to a gourd, from whence they draw a foft harmonious found, with which they accompany the airs that they compofe. Love is the general fabject of them, and the girls dance to the fongs of their lovers: the fpectators beat time and applaud.

They are very hofpitable. A black who is on a journey, enters without previous ceremony, or being known to the owner, into any hut which fuits his convenience; and thofe whom he finds in it moft willingly fhare their meal with him. Nor is it their custom to ask from whence he comes, or whither he is going.

"Such

"Such are the qualifications and manners with which they arrive at the Ifle of France. They are all difembarked with no clothing of any kind, but a ftrip of linen round their loins. The men are placed on one fide of the beach, and the women with their children on the other. The planters then examine them, and make their purchases accordingly. Brothers, fifters, friends, and lovers, are now feparated, and are led away to the refpective plantations to which they are deftined. Sometimes, in the paroxyfms of their defpair, they imagine that the white people are preparing to eat them, that they make red wine of their blood, and gunpowder of their bones.

"Their manner of life is as follows; at day-break, the smacking of a whip is the fignal that calls them to their work; and they then proceed to the plantation, where they labour in a state of almost entire nakedness, and in the heat of the fun. Their nourishment is ground maize boiled in water, or loaves of the manioc; and a fmall piece of cloth is their only covering. For the leaft act of negligence, they are tied hand and foot to a ladder, when the overfeer gives them a certain number of ftrokes on their back, with a long whip; and with a threepointed collar clafped round their necks, they are brought back to their work. It is not neceffary to defcribe the feverity with which thefe punishments are fometimes inflicted. On their return to their habitations in the evening, they are compelled to pray to God for the profperity of their mafters,

"There is a fubfifting law in favour of flaves, called the Code Noir, which ordains that they fhall receive no more than thirty ftrokes at each chastisement; that they fhall not work on Sundays; that meat shall be given them every week, and shirts every year: but this law is not observed.

"The Negroes are naturally of a lively difpofition, but their flate of flavery foon renders them melancholy. Love alone feems to allay their pain they exert themselves to the utmoft in order to obtain a wife; and, if they can choose for themselves, they always prefer those who are advanced into a ftate of womanhood, who, they fay, make the best foup. They immediately give them all they poffefs; and if their wives live in another plantation, they will undertake the most difficult and dangerous journies to fee them. On fuch occations they fear neither fatigue nor punishment. Parties of them fometimes meet in the middle of the night, when they dance beneath the shelter of a rock, to the mournful found of a gourd filled with peas.

"The difcontented Negroes generally fly for refuge into the woods, where they are purfued by detachments of foldiers: when they are taken, they are punished with great severity; and the third offence of this kind is followed by death.

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Religion is, indeed, fometimes-employed to alleviate the evils of their fituation. Some of them are occafionally baptifed: they are then told that they are become the brethren of the white people, and that they will go into paradife; but it is not an easy matter to perfuade them, that the Europeans will ever prove their guides to heaven.

"It is not for us to difcufs, in this place, the fubject of slavery, on which very able writers have differed, and with which volumes have been filled. That difcipline, and fometimes a fevere one, may be nex

ceffary

ceffary in the management of plantations, cannot be denied, and that the owners fometimes exercife their power with unneceffary rigour, muft alfo be acknowledged; at the fame time it would be ridiculous to affert that, because a white man is the mafter of a plantation, he muft be cruel, and because a black man is a flave, he must be wretched. We fhall conclude this subject with fome remarks of the late Admiral Kempenfelt, made by him in the year 1758:

"The flaves of Madagascar are the most inclined to defert from their mafters. Many of them, incited by the love of liberty, have retired into the moft inacceffible woods and mountains, and, forming themselves into bodies, attack the plantations in which they have been flaves. The mifchief they occafion is fometimes very destructive, both to the plantations, as well as to those who inhabit them. When they are impelled by hunger, neither domeftic or wild animal, not even the monkies, efcape them. They alfo make a kind of short fpear or ja velin, which they throw to a confiderable diftance, and with great dexterity. Many, on their desertion, have put out to fea in canoes which they have ftolen, and have trusted to the mercy of the waves, in order to regain their native island of Madagafcar; and it is known that fome of them, by the force of the currents, and the favour of the winds, which generally blow that way, have arrived there, having been recognized by French people who had feen them at Mauritius.

"Many of the black Maroons have been taken and destroyed by the detachments of troops that are fent after them; they are ftill however numerous, and from the ferocity of their character, the subject of continual alarm to the planters, who live in the vicinity of the forefts which they inhabit. When they are taken, they are punished with the greatest severity; but what appears perhaps to be a cruel treatment is the effect of dire neceffity, as the French are naturally humane; and if very fevere examples were not made, they would not live in fafety. It is indeed well known, that many inconveniences have refulted from the indulgence of the planters, particularly in granting liberty to the favourite llaves; fo that it has been abfolutely neceffary to abridge that power, and to limit freedom to those alone who have faved the life of their mafter." P. 72.

The local fituation of the Iflands of Bourbon and Mauritius, renders them of peculiar importance to the European power who poffeffes them; particularly as the former mode of proceeding to India by the Mofambique Channel feems to be laid afide. They are alike remarkable for the falubrity of their climate, and the excellency of their natural productions, and render the intercourfe with India eafy and agreeable. This publication will, without doubt, render the navigation of thofe feas more eafy; and the number of aftronomical, geographical, and maritime obfervations which it comprehends, would have made it a moft acceptable, and indeed valuable addition to our collections of a limilar kind, if a little more skill had been applied in compiling the most effential ingre

dients

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