CHAPTER VII
.
The Sugar-cane Plantations.--Indian Laborers.--A Lawsuit.--The Botanic Garden.--Plants and Animals.--Singular Monument.--The Waterfall.--Mont Orgeuil.--Trou du Cerf.--The Creoles and the French.--Farewell to the Mauritius.
The greatest sugar-cane plantations are in the district of Pamplemousse, in which also the Botanical Gardens are situated. I visited the Monchoisy plantation, the property of Mr. Lambert. The manager, Mr. Gilat, was kind enough to escort me through the fields and buildings, and to give me such a lucid explanation of the method of growing and preparing the sugar-cane, that I can not do better than give his own words, as nearly as I can remember them.
“The sugar-cane is not raised from seed, but pieces of cane are planted. The first cane requires eighteen months to ripen; but as, during this time, the chief stem puts out shoots, each of the following harvests can be gathered in at intervals of twelve months, so that three crops are obtained in four years and a half. After the fourth harvest the field must be thoroughly cleared of the cane. If the land is virgin soil on which no former crop has been raised, fresh slips of cane can at once be planted, and thus eight crops may be obtained in nine years. If this is not the case, ambrezades must be planted--a leafy plant, which grows to the height of eight or nine feet, and whose leaves, continually falling, decay on the ground and fertilize it. After two years the plants are rooted out, and the land becomes a sugar plantation again.”
For about the last ten years the custom has prevailed of dressing the land with guano, and very good results have been obtained. On good ground 8000 lbs. per acre have been raised, and on bad soil, that formerly yielded 2000 lbs. at the most, the produce has been doubled.
I was much astonished to see the beautiful widespread plains of Pamplemousse covered with great pieces of lava. It would appear as if nothing could grow under such circumstances; but I heard that this peculiarity of the soil is favorable to the sugar-cane, which will not bear a long drought. It is planted between these fragments of rock, and the rain-water, collecting in pools in the clefts and holes, keeps the ground moist for a long time.
When the canes are ripe and the harvest begins, no more is cut down each day than can be pressed and boiled at once, for the great heat soon spoils the sap in the canes. The cane is pressed between two rollers, turned by steam, with such force that it is crushed quite flat and dry; it is then used as fuel for boiling the kettles.
The juice runs successively into six kettles or pans, of which the first is most fiercely heated; the force of the fire is made to diminish under each of the others. In the last kettle the sugar is found almost half produced. It is then placed on great wooden tables where it is left to cool, and here the mass granulates into crystals of the size of a pin’s head. As a final operation, it is poured into wooden vessels perforated with small holes, through which the molasses still contained in the sugar may filter. The whole process requires eight or ten days for its completion. Before the sugar is packed, it is spread out on great terraces to dry for some hours in the sun. It is shipped in bags containing 150 lbs. each.
Mr. Lambert’s sugar plantation contains 2000 acres of land, but of course only a part of this is planted each year. He has 600 laborers, who are engaged for seven months in the year in the field, and during the other five in getting in the crop and boiling it. In a good year--that is, when the rainy season sets in early and lasts long--Mr. Lambert gets three million pounds of sugar from his plantation; but he is well content with two millions and a half. A hundred pounds of sugar are worth from nine to twelve shillings.
The largest planter in the Mauritius is a Mr. Rocheconte, who is said to produce nearly seven million pounds of sugar annually.
Sugar, and nothing but sugar, is to be seen in this island. Every undertaking has reference to sugar, and all the conversation is about sugar. Mauritius might be called the sugar island, and its coat of arms should be a bundle of sugar-canes and three sugar-bags rampant.
During a residence of some weeks I had opportunities of observing the condition and circumstances of the laborers. They are called “coolies,” and come, as I have mentioned, from all parts of India. They hire themselves for five years, and the planter who hires them has to give each laborer 8s. or 10s. a month, 50 lbs. of rice, 4 lbs. of dried fish, 4 lbs. of beans, 4 lbs. of fat or oil, a sufficiency of salt, and a little hut to live in, besides the sum he has to pay to the government for their passage.
The laborer’s condition is not nearly so good as that of a servant. He has to work heavily in the cane-field and the boiling-house, and is much more exposed than the domestic servant to the arbitrary power of his master; for he may not leave until his five years’ contract has expired. He may certainly go and complain if he is hardly used, for there are judges to hear, and laws to redress his woes; but as the judges are frequently planters themselves, the poor laborer seldom finds the verdict given in his favor. The laborer has also frequently to walk eight or ten miles before he gets to the court. In the week he has no time to go, and on Sundays he finds it closed. If, after much trouble, he at length succeeds in reaching the abode of justice, he finds, perhaps, that the court is engaged in a multiplicity of affairs, and is told to go and come again some other day. To make the thing more difficult for him, he is not admitted at all unless he brings witnesses. How is he to get these? None of his companions in misfortune will dare to render him such a service, for fear of punishment, or even corporal ill usage at the hands of his master.
I will relate an incident which happened during my residence in the Mauritius.
On one of the plantations ten laborers wished, upon the expiration of their contract, to quit their employer and take service with another. The planter heard of this, and three weeks before the articles of these ten men expired, he persuaded ten others to give in the papers of the malcontents as their own, and to have the contract renewed for a year. Then he called the discontented laborers separately before him, showed each one the contract, and told him he had another year to serve. Of course the people persisted that this was impossible, as they had not been at the court at all, and had never had the writing in their hands. The planter replied that the contract was perfectly valid, and declared that if they complained before the court they would not be heard, and that corporal chastisement would most likely be their reward. Moreover, if they went, he would not pay the wages he owed them for five months’ work, unless under compulsion.
The poor fellows were at a loss what to do. Fortunately, an official of high position lived close by, and one who was known as an honest, philanthropic man. To him they went, told their story, and begged his protection, which he at once promised. The affair came before the court, but the trial went on very slowly, as none of the planter’s people dared to give evidence. Even if they had the will, it would have been difficult for them to do so, as the planter forbade his people to go out, and had them carefully watched and prevented from communicating with any one all the time the action was proceeding.
In the course of some ten weeks, five sittings or hearings took place. The first three were held before a single judge, who was a planter into the bargain. The protector of the poor plaintiffs insisted that three judges should be appointed, as the law demands, and protested against the one judge, who could not but appear as influenced by his position as a planter. As this demand proceeded from a man in a high position, and was, moreover, strictly legal, it was complied with, and the first judge only attended the two subsequent sittings to give explanations respecting the former three.
At the fifth sitting the action was certainly decided in favor of the coolies, but the verdict was given in a manner I should never have thought possible in a land under English rule.
The judge, or planter, who had heard the plaintiffs in the first three sittings declared that when the ten people first came to him, he could not know whether they were the real proprietors of the papers, for that hundreds of laborers came to him with similar complaints every day.
He had written out the new contract on unstamped paper, as he happened to have none with a stamp by him, and the people, not one of whom could write, had attached their crosses as signatures. Afterward he had the contract rewritten on stamped paper, as it would otherwise have been invalid, and in order not to call up the people again, his clerk had affixed the crosses. As the people had, therefore, not signed with their own hands, the contract was void, and the coolies were free; and thus the action was decided.
The real circumstances of the case were entirely different. If the poor coolies had not found an influential protector, the planter-judge would have decided the affair in favor of the employer. The appearance of the official personage upon the stage compelled the judges to show at least an appearance of justice; and so they saved themselves by finding out a FORGERY, for which, in any other country, the judge and his clerk would not only have lost their places to a certainty, but have been provided with board and lodging, and a restricted number of companions, in a certain great public establishment.
The planter got off unpunished, though, even according to the Mauritian laws, framed with great regard for the planter’s convenience, he should have been subjected to a fine and a year’s imprisonment.
To crown his worthy action, he cheated the poor coolies, and mulcted them of a month’s pay, under the pretext that they had done little work, broken some of their implements, and stolen others.
This paltry person is very much looked up to in the Mauritius, and is received with pleasure in society. He is rich certainly, and is a regular attendant at church, and here, as elsewhere, people have peculiar ideas as to wealth and religion--ideas which plain honest folks are too dull to appreciate.
I would not quit the district of Pamplemousse without visiting the Botanical Garden, which is under the superintendence of the accomplished botanist and director, Mr. Duncan.
Scarcely had I spent a quarter of an hour with this amiable man, a Scotchman by birth, before he invited me, in the most friendly manner, to spend a few days in his house, that I might be able to examine the treasures of the garden at my leisure. Though I had become somewhat careful in the matter of Mauritian invitations, I could not resist the real good-nature of Mr. Duncan. I staid with him, and had no cause to repent it. Mr. Duncan was a man of a few words, but he _did_ what he could to make my residence in his house agreeable. When he saw that I was collecting insects, he himself helped me in my search, and often brought me some new specimens for my collection.
I walked several times with him through the Botanical Garden, which is very rich in plants and trees from all parts of the world. Here I saw for the first time trees and shrubs from Madagascar, indigenous to that island. I particularly admired a water-plant, the _Hydrogiton fenestralis_, whose leaves, three inches in length and one in breadth, are quite pierced through, as if by artificial means pieces had been broken out. A tree, the _Adansonia digitata_, is remarkable, not for its beauty, but for its ugliness. The stem is of uniform clumsy thickness to a height of eight or ten feet; then it becomes suddenly thin: the bark is of a light, unsightly color, quite smooth and almost shining.
There were many spice-trees, and a few specimens of the beautiful water-palm, which I have already seen and described in my “Second Voyage round the World.”
I am no botanist, and therefore can give no detailed description of the garden; but competent persons have assured me that it is very judiciously and scientifically laid out. To look at the varied and numerous plants, and the extensive plantations, sometimes requiring great labor to cultivate, no one would believe that Mr. Duncan has very restricted resources at his command. The government only allows him twenty-five laborers, Malabars and Bengalees, who certainly do not get through as much work as eight or ten strong Europeans would accomplish.
As I am on the subject of plants and trees, I will mention the fruits produced in the Mauritius. Among the most common are many kinds of bananas and mangoes, citchy, butter-fruit, splendid pine-apples, sweet melons and watermelons. The watermelons here attain an enormous size, some weighing more than thirty pounds, but they have little flavor. Peaches are abundant, but require much care to bring them to perfection. Pomegranates are also found of great size, besides papayas and other similar fruits. I have described all these in my former works, to which I accordingly refer my readers.
As regards the animal world, the Mauritius is fortunate in possessing neither beasts of prey nor poisonous reptiles. The centipedes and scorpions found here are small; their sting is painful, but not dangerous. Ants are also not so numerous here as in India and South America. I could sometimes leave the insects I had collected for half a day together on the table, and the ants did not get at them, while in other hot countries these depredators would be devouring their prey within a few minutes. The musquitoes are troublesome enough, and sometimes drive strangers to desperation. Those who have been resident here for some years are said, like the natives, to enjoy a comparative immunity from their attacks.
The disagreeable kakerlak sometimes plays his pranks here, but is far less obnoxious than in other countries. They say that very exciting combats sometimes takes place between the kakerlak and the beautiful green fly called _Sphex viridi-cyanea_. I was not fortunate enough to witness such a fight, but only read the account of one in the “Voyages of Monsieur Bory de St. Vincent.” The fly flutters round the kakerlak until the latter becomes motionless, as if magnetized; then she seizes him, drags him to a hole already selected for the purpose, lays eggs in his body, stops up the hole with a kind of cement, and leaves her victim to his enforced companions, by whom he is quickly devoured.
I had almost forgotten to mention an object of interest in the district of Pamplemousse--a tomb, in remembrance of the pretty story of “Paul and Virginia,” the scene of which Bernardin de St. Pierre has laid in this island.
The month of April was already coming round, and, excepting in my excursions in the district of Pamplemousse and a few drives in and about Mocca, I had seen nothing of the Mauritius. I was loth to quit the island without at least visiting the most interesting points, but how to manage this was the question. The friendly judge, Mr. Satis, invited me to an excursion to the Tamarin waterfall. On the way we passed the country house of Mr. Moon, who had been invited by Mr. Satis to join our party.
We soon came to the waterfall, distant scarcely an English mile from Mr. Moon’s country house; and just opposite to the cascade, under some shady trees, Mr. Satis had taken care to have a good luncheon ready for us.
A more beautiful spot could scarcely have been chosen. We encamped on an elevated plateau, 1160 feet above the level of the sea; on one side was a gorge 800 feet deep, and at least 500 broad at its top, but narrowing toward the sea. Into this gorge the stream leaps headlong, forming seven beautiful waterfalls, two of them more than 100 feet in depth. It rushes, foaming in headlong haste, through a region clothed with the richest verdure, and closes in the neighboring sea its short but troubled course. The appearance of the fall is said to be much more majestic after long rains, when the smaller cascades become absorbed into one great fall, and the whole mass of water rushes down into its deep bed in only two leaps.
This delightful day will be always a bright spot in my memory, not only for the beautiful spectacle I saw, but for the pleasure I derived from my acquaintance with the amiable Moon family. I became as friendly with Mrs. Moon as if I had known her a long time, and very glad was I when she heartily invited me to stay some time in her house. Unhappily, the time fixed for my departure for Madagascar was at hand, and I could only spend three days with the family--three happy days, which made amends for many previous disappointments.
In Mrs. Moon I not only made the acquaintance of a very amiable but of a very accomplished lady; her talent for painting is quite remarkable. At the request of the directors of the British Museum she has made colored drawings of all the 120 different kinds of mangoes, and also of the medicinal plants found in the Mauritius.
Mr. and Mrs. Moon, and their equally obliging relative, Mr. Caldwell, were at once eager to show me the “lions” of their island, and the next day they took me to “Mont Orgueil,” from which the best view of the country and of the mountains can be had. On one side appears the “Morne Brabant,” a mountain extending far out into the sea, and connected with the main land only by a narrow tongue of earth; not far from this rises the “Piton de la Rivière Noire,” the highest mountain in the island, 2564 feet. In another direction the “Tamarin” and “Rempart” rear their heads; and in a fourth is to be seen a mountain with three tops, called “Les Trois Mammelles.” Very near these summits there opens a deep caldron, two of whose sides have almost completely fallen in, while the remaining two rise high and steep. Besides these mountains there are the “Corps de Garde du Port Louis de Mocca;” “Le Pouce,” with its narrow top rising suddenly up out of a little mountain plateau, like a thumb or finger; and the marvelous “Peter Booth.” This mountain takes its name from the first man who ascended to its summit, which was long regarded as inaccessible. Peter Booth managed to do this by shooting an arrow, with a strong twine thereto attached, over the summit. Luckily, the arrow fell upon an accessible spot on the other side of the mountain. To this twine a strong rope was fastened, which was thus drawn over the mountain-top and secured on both sides; and Peter Booth hauled himself up by it, and attained at once the summit and the honor of immortalizing his name. The last of the mountains seen from this point is the “Nouvelle Découverte.”
The mountains of this island are remarkable for their manifold and beautiful shapes. Some are in the form of broad perpendicular walls; others rise like pyramids; some are covered to their summits with rich forests, while others are only covered to half their height, and their high rocky points rise abruptly, smooth and bald, from amid the green sea of leaves. Beautiful valleys and deep gorges lie between, and above appears a cloudless sky. I could scarcely tear myself away from the charming picture, and the longer I gazed upon it, the greater the beauties I discovered.
Our next, and, unfortunately, our last excursion was to the “Trou du Cerf,” or “Stag’s Hole,” a crater of perfectly regular form, filled with rich vegetation. This crater produces a very startling effect, for nothing betrays its existence till the visitor stands upon its very brink. Though the sides are steep enough, a path leads down to the centre, which is filled with water during the rainy season.
From the edge of the crater the visitor has a striking view over three fourths of the island. Before him rise majestic mountains with their luxuriant virgin forests, from which the steep, smooth mountain-tops come peering forth; wide-spreading plains, rich with sugar-cane plantations, bright with green foliage all the year round; and the azure sea, whose foaming waves fringe the coast with a margin of white foam--a wondrous landscape, wanting only a few rivers to make its beauty perfect.
The island does not suffer from want of water, but is too small to possess a real river; this, however, has not prevented the inhabitants from dignifying some of the larger streamlets with that title.
I left the Moon family with the greatest regret. It was through their friendship that I was enabled to visit any points of interest in the Mauritius: in the last few days of my stay I saw more than in the four long months I had previously spent in the island.
In most houses, especially in those of the Creoles, people made all kinds of protestations, and promised all manner of things; but the promises remained unperformed. Not the smallest service was rendered, not one of those attentions offered which are much more gratifying to a stranger than the board and lodging which every one can procure by paying for them. Still less did any among them think of making excursions to the more beautiful points. The people themselves have no idea that the beauties of Nature are pleasant things to see, and wonder that strangers should expose themselves to the slightest fatigue merely to see a waterfall, a mountain, or a fine view.
The men are solely and exclusively engaged in the business of acquiring wealth as quickly as possible: sugar is a sort of golden calf to them, and whatever has no reference to sugar is to them worthless. The women are not much better. They have too little education, and too much of the indolence so frequently found in hot countries to take an interest in any serious subject. With the exception of the care of their own valuable selves, the only thing that can rouse them into life is the agreeable occupation of inventing or disseminating slanderous gossip; and I have even found gentlemen who, in this charitable and exciting amusement, would for a few moments forget the claims of sugar. I did not escape the common fate. The amiable inhabitants, male and female, of Port Louis, have absolutely done me the honor to represent me as a _poisoner_; they absolutely asserted that I had been hired by the English government to poison Mr. Lambert!
That gentleman had brought from Paris some very valuable presents for the Queen of Madagascar, and had been so wanting in proper consideration for the feelings of people generally as to neglect to tell every one what the object of these presents really was. Of course, said Mauritian good-nature, it must be some secret political movement of the French cabinet, which the English government had found out, and had commissioned me accordingly to put this dangerous man out of the way.
Stupid as this fiction was, it obtained credence among the Creoles, and even among the French, and prevented me from undertaking an interesting little journey. Before setting out on his journey to Madagascar, Mr. Lambert went to Zanzibar and Mozambique, commissioned by the French government to hire negroes and bring them to the Ile de Bourbon. This is a new kind of mitigated slave-trade, discovered by France and countenanced by England. The negro is only in servitude for five years, and receives two dollars per month from his master, besides board and lodging. After five years he has leave to continue toiling, or he may die of hunger if he does not choose to work. He may buy himself this privilege earlier for fifty dollars (between seven and eight pounds), and may even return to his own country if he has money enough to take him home.
Mr. Lambert, knowing my fondness for traveling, and my eagerness to avail myself of every opportunity of seeing new lands, offered to take me with him. The French agent heard of this, and immediately went to Mr. Lambert to request him not to take me, alleging that I was employed as a spy by the English government. Whence this hatred of Creoles and French toward me, poor insignificant being that I was? The only reason I can suggest is that I associated almost exclusively with English families. But it was surely not my fault that English families sought me out, and always treated me with great kindness when I accepted their invitations? Why did not the French do likewise? All the favors and all the kindness I received came from English people: among the French residents, only Mr. Lambert and Mr. Genève showed me hearty friendship. The rest, like the Creoles, contented themselves with empty promises. I must confess that I contracted such a dislike to the French population of this part of the world, that I could not make up my mind to visit the neighboring island of Bourbon, gladly as I would, under other circumstances, have done so.
I am glad indeed that, when the desire to travel awoke so strongly in me fourteen years ago, I did not begin with the Mauritius. My zeal would soon have grown cold. Well--perhaps my readers would have been saved many a wearisome hour.
But then, on the other hand, I should not have visited Russia, and learned the notable fact that, in this much-abused despotic empire, there are many institutions more liberal in character than those of a colony of England, the country especially proud of its progress.
And yet it is so--notably as regards the passport system. If a traveler wishes to leave St. Petersburg, or any of the great towns in Russia, to start on a journey, he has to give notice of his intention a week before he departs. The traveler’s name is published three times in the newspaper, so that, if he has debts, his creditors may take the requisite steps. Here, on this vast and extensive island, a week is considered far too short a notice. Three weeks are required, or, as in Russia, a surety must be provided.
I was so little prepared to find such an old-world regulation in force in an English colony, that I did not take any trouble about my passport. A few days before my departure, however, I asked the French consul for his _visa_, more, as I thought, as an attention than from necessity.
By chance, I heard at dinner the same day that this was not enough, and that the permission of the police to depart was also necessary. I was dining at Mr. O----’s, a partner of Mr. Lambert; and as several gentlemen were present, I asked if any of them would have the kindness to go through what appeared to me a mere formality on my behalf, and be bail for me. To my great astonishment, the gallant, refined Frenchmen exhausted themselves in empty excuses; not one would do me the service I required. Next morning I went to Mr. Kerr, an Englishman, and in a few hours I had my passport.
To my sorrow, I must confess that at last I was treated with lack of courtesy by an Englishman, and that Englishman was the governor.
When I first arrived in the Mauritius, this gentleman had received me very courteously; he even asked me to his country house, and had, unasked, offered me a letter to the Queen of Madagascar. On my going to him, a short time before my departure, for the promised letter, he likewise put me off with an excuse. I was going to visit the Queen of Madagascar in company with Mr. Lambert, and he pronounced my companion to be politically a dangerous man. Verily great honor was mine in the Mauritius; the French took me for an English spy, and the English governor for a spy of the French government!
After all these pleasant experiences, no one will wonder when I say that I looked forward with longing expectation to the moment when I might leave this little island, with its still more little-minded inhabitants. I will try to keep no other remembrance of it than the memory of its natural beauty, and of the friendship and kindness I received from the good people whose names I have mentioned, and from some others. I have not had an opportunity of naming them all; for others, Messrs. Fernyhough, Beke, Gonnet, etc., rendered me many a good service. To one and all I return my heartiest thanks.
##