The island, like Mauritius, is composed principally of very high land, some points being elevated many thousand feet above the level of the sea. A volcano, for the name of which I am at a loss, towers far above all. It being a moonlight night when we passed, we saw but little of its eruption, which is continual--lighting up the surface of the ocean for miles. This island has since been made the French Naval Depot for the Indian Ocean. There is no good harbor on this island, which, together with the fact of there being no resident American consul, is the reason for the rarity of whaleships visiting it. The three islands, Bourbon, Mauritius, and Rodrique, were first taken possession of by the French, and for many years were known as the French East India Islands. During the wars between France and Great Britain, Mauritius was the naval depot for the former power, from which her cruisers were fitted out for the annoyance of the East India commerce of the enemy; but during the time of Napoleon, (when England’s operations were restricted to the ocean,) as an offset to the conqueror’s successes on land, the wooden walls of Old England were busily employed in making captures of the various colonial possessions of France, both in the East and West Indies. Many of these, subsequent to the negotiations for peace, were restored. But Mauritius was too important a place to let slip, after being once occupied; wherefore a British regiment became part of its population, and the meteor-flag of England waved over its battlements. This group is often called the Mascarenha Isles. On Sunday (October the 31st) we spoke the ship Brewster, of Mattapoissett. A few days before, she had a man killed by a sperm whale: the officer in command of the boat having been foolhardy enough to run on the fish whilst in his flurry, his amidship oar’s man was instantly swept from time into eternity by a stroke of its flukes; but, fortunately, no others of the crew were injured. October the 25th we sighted the southern part of the Island of Madagascar, which was to be our cruising-ground for the next two months. It is anything but a comfortable latitude to make a prolonged stay in; for, on an average, once every twenty-four hours, violent rain-storms of from one to four hours’ duration thoroughly drench the crew and vessel. These squalls are attended with any quantity of thunder and lightning, which adds very much to the disagreeableness of their visitations. This ground is the point to which we endeavored to beat up three years ago, with the intention of whaling, before visiting New Holland. It bears a good reputation as to the presence of whales; but the fish are noted for their fighting on being struck, so that it is no easy matter to make a capture, after once striking. Whether we should have been any the more successful had we visited and cruised on this ground in the earlier portion of our voyage, deponent, from his ignorance, saith not.