In 1721 the French took possession of the island, and much of its present prosperity is due to the ability, and good management of its French Governor, the celebrated M. de la Bourdonnais. It was afterwards, however, taken by the English in 1810,--to whom it was definitively ceded by the peace of 1814. The island is said now to contain 350,000 inhabitants, of which number only ten or twelve thousand are Europeans. The country is very mountainous, and the soil is of a reddish cast; but the land is generally fertile, well-watered, and rich in tropical productions,--the trees, fruits, and plants common to the Eastern tropics growing here in great perfection. Notwithstanding the island produces excellent coffee and spices, sugar is cultivated to the exclusion of almost every other staple commodity,--three hundred millions of pounds being exported annually, most of which goes to France. The black-wood, or ebony, grown on the island is said to be the most solid, close, and shining of any in the world, and if all of it is like that which was brought on board our vessel, it has a well deserved reputation. Very little corn, or grain of any kind, is raised; most articles of provision, and other supplies, being imported from the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, India, and Bourbon. The extensive grazing lands of Madagascar produce fine cattle; and from that island, where, Camoëns says,-- “The lowing herds adorn the vales of green,”-- the Mauritians are supplied with beef. African slavery, which formerly existed here, was abolished more than twenty years ago; but some of the most remarkable and attractive natural points of scenery on the island are said to be connected with the injustice and misery experienced by that unfortunate race, who, although guilty of a blacker skin than the races of Asia, are now daring to look up and claim an equal brotherhood with the family of man. On becoming freemen, they stood comparatively little chance of bettering their condition, or of remaining as they were. It is said that, amid the toil and moil of the more privileged and advanced Asiatic races with whom they came in competition,--none of whom were under the unrelenting ban of prejudice that everywhere meets the African,--these poor people have mostly passed away. It is, however, acknowledged that some who are left have succeeded in making themselves comfortable homes, and in gathering together some wealth; and those who have attained such positions of comfort, and respectability, have done so in the face of difficulties, which, to have been overcome by one of our own race, would have caused him to be regarded as an indomitable, and very clever Saxon.