But “the art of our necessity is strange;” and although the _chateaux en Espagne_, reared upon the pleasure and satisfaction we were to receive in looking up the lions of the city, and its neighborhood, had vanished like the beautiful clouds of the tropical sunset, and in the fearful summer heat, (the mercury ranging at 90° and upwards,) we were about to meet a dreadful pestilence, no one seemed panic-stricken, and very little was said on the subject. It was, however, interesting to notice the similar effect this entire change in our prospects had upon all on board,--each one seeming more inclined to commune with his own thoughts than to communicate them to others. At this time the words of Isaiah came very forcibly to mind: “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength”; and none seemed to doubt, that, to be fortified with the Christian’s hope and trust in such an emergency, was of infinitely more value than a display of senseless bravado, or yielding, on the other hand, to a weak and unmanly fear. We learned afterwards that the pilot had somewhat exaggerated the extent of the disease, not being in the most “melting mood” imaginable in consequence of the rapidity of our movements, which prevented his boarding us in time to place us in quarantine. For many weeks previous, all vessels from the Cape of Good Hope had been compelled to pass this ordeal, on account of the prevalence of the small-pox at the latter port during the autumn. No one was permitted to go on shore until the port physician had visited the ship, and satisfied himself as to our general good health. We were already somewhat reassured of the safety of our position, and Captain Briggs, after visiting the city, returned with an account so different from the pilot’s statement, that we were satisfied the disease had more of the endemic than epidemic character, and was confined, as near as we could learn, to a locality on Grand River, two miles from Port Louis. In 1854 the cholera raged fearfully in the city of Port Louis, and the most stringent measures were now being taken to prevent a similar calamity. It had been brought to the port by a vessel from Calcutta; and the ship which we spoke at the entrance of the harbor was also from that city, being loaded with India Coolies, among whom the cholera had appeared while on the passage. On her arrival, of course, the vessel was promptly quarantined. The island of Mauritius was discovered in the sixteenth century by Pedro Mascarenhas, a Portuguese, by whom it was called _Ilha do Cerno_; but Van Neck, a Dutch navigator, who touched at the island in 1598, finding it still uninhabited, called it Mauritius, in honor of Maurice, the Prince of Orange. It was, however, abandoned by the Dutch, and we were told by a citizen of Port Louis, that the story in regard to their having been driven out of the island on account of the great multitude of rats that infested it, was universally received as an historical fact.