It was Christmas Day, and the heat very oppressive,--the mercury rising to ninety-six degrees and upwards in the shade; but we did not set forth on our excursion until late in the afternoon, when the fierceness of the sun’s rays was upon the wane, and the air somewhat tempered by the evening breeze from the ocean. Leaving the ship and landing at the wharf, we encountered a group made up of nearly every nation of the East, from the jet-black African to the light Arab, who, squatting on the ground, were intently engaged in gambling with cowries; and passing on, we walked through the arched gateway, already mentioned, to the Place d’Armes, where the gentlemen of our party, after some chaffering with a group of voluble drivers, and owners of open barouche-like carriages, succeeded in obtaining two vehicles, and we drove off. The streets of Port Louis, and the roads leading from it, are macadamized in the best manner, and the gutters, as well as the sidewalks in the town, are paved with stone. Many parts of it are ornamented with shade-trees, and an ample supply of excellent water is brought from the mountains, over deep gorges, in aqueducts built of stone masonry. One, in particular, near which we passed, was constructed in the Romanesque style, and had a very antique and imposing appearance. The drive was delightful, the road being lined on either side with hedges of the aloe and cactus, interspersed with various other tropical shrubs, flowers, and trees. The curiously tasselled flowers of the aloe, borne upon a foot-stalk fifteen or twenty feet in height, was a particularly attractive object; and along the road were seen extensive sugar-plantations bordered with hedge-rows, together with the houses of the planters, and the thatched cottages of the Coolies. The palings enclosing the yards of private residences were in many instances hidden by a species of convolvulus,--a creeper more beautiful in flower and verdure than any of our Western varieties,--and some were surrounded with hedges of exquisite flowers, while within were beautiful little parterres filled with many kinds of flowering shrubs and plants.