The Portuguese, the discoverers of the island, called it Cerni; the Dutch who came afterward, “Mauritius,” after Prince Maurice of Holland; and the French, Isle of France. In the Champ de Mars, a fine open plain, where the regimental bands play, the troops drill, and the pretty Creole women take their evening drives and promenades, I noticed a very tasteful tomb of a French governor, Malartie, which was finished by the munificence of Sir William Gomm, an English governor. Four days after our arrival, being the anniversary of the birthday of the Father of our Country, our ship was appropriately dressed with our national ensign, and at mid-day we fired a salute of twenty-one guns, in which the English man-of-war, the “Styx,” which had reached port, would have joined us, but an order from the admiralty forbids the firing of salutes by their national vessels unless their battery reaches a certain number of guns. We reached Mauritius just in time to enjoy its pleasant fruits, consisting of the pine-apple, the banana, the plantain, the mangoe, and the alligator pear, which could be plentifully obtained from the fruit boats that flocked around the ship; and then, too, before breakfast, we drained the cocoa’s milky bowl. With a pleasant remembrance of the hospitalities received from the people of Mauritius, we left Port Louis for Point de Galle, on the 25th of February. We had a run before us of two thousand five hundred miles, and expected in the stormy ocean we had to traverse, to meet with rough weather on the passage, perhaps one of those dreaded typhoons; and that its approach might be indicated at the earliest possible moment, our barometer had been compared with the standard one in the observatory at Mauritius, whose able and persevering superintendent is devoting himself to the advance of meteorological information in that quarter of the globe, and the increase of nautical science, like our own Maury. His name is Bosquet, and, at the time of our visit, he was preparing a moveable index card, showing the various quadrants of a revolving gale or cyclone, which must prove of great benefit to the practical navigator in those seas. We had a smooth sea during the run, hot weather, and a light head wind. When General Pierce was taking the oath of office, on the 4th of March, our nine o’clock lights were extinguished. CHAPTER V. About nine o’clock of the night of the 10th of March, the lookout in the top sang out, “Light, ho!” which we knew must be on the island of Ceylon. The entrance to the harbor of Point de Galle, being quite narrow, we endeavored to get such soundings as would enable us to come to anchor until daybreak, but not succeeding in this, the ship’s head was put off shore, and we lay-to for the night.