Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

42 AUSTEALASIA.Inhabitants.Like the Seyclielles and neighbouring insular groups, the Mascarenhas werecompletely uninhabited till the year 1616, when Pronis, governor of Fort Dauphinin Madagascar, transj)orted twelve mutineers to Reunion. But these, as well asa few French and Malagasy who established themselves at St. Paul in 1655, soondisappeared ; and the first permanent settlement, consisting of two Frenchmen and afew Negro slaves, was delayed to the year 1663.Living a free life in the midst ofabundance, with no enemies to fight or governors to oppress them, the little settlementprospered, villages were founded in the midst of plantations, and trade wasopened with the mother country. Then came the French East India Company,which monopolised the commerce ofBourbon (Reunion), while Cerne was seizedby the Dutch and by them renamed Mauritius in 1598.But the Dutch settlementhaving been abandoned, Mauritius was occupied by the French of Boui'bon in 1715.These early settlers, mostly from Normaudj', Brittanj^ and Sautonge, were theancestors of most of the white populations which now inhabit the Mascarenhas andSeychelles to the number of about eighty thousand.These islands of the Indian Ocean offer a remarkable instance oftropical landswhere the European race has succeeded in establishing itself, although laterintermixture makes it impossible now to determine the real proportion of whitesamongst the present miscellaneous elements. But the French Creole families areknown to be very fruitful, averaging about two hundred and fifty children to onethousand married women, or one-third more than in France.But the Europeans, including some English since the occupation of Mauritius,Rodrigues, and the Seychelles by Great Britain, constitute only a minority of thepresent population, which comprises the descendants of Malagasy, Kafir, and otherAfrican slaves emancipated by the French Republic. This measure, however, wassuccessfidly resisted by the planters, and the blacks did not acquire their independencetill about the middle of the present centmy. Although they are greatlyinferior in number to the rest of the inhabitants, their French Creole jargon hasbecome the common medium of intercourse for all—French, English, Chinese,Arabs, Malays, and Hindus.The abolition of slavery obliged the planters to introduce coolies from China,Malaysia, India, and especially Malabar, the term " Malabar " being now commonlyapplied to all the Hindus of whatever origin. Every precaution was taken toprotect the freedom of these coolies, but on most of the plantations the old treatmentof the Negro slaves continued to be appHed to the hirelings. The immigrationof the Indians, now more numerous in Mauritius than all the other elementscombined, has also been carried out in violation of the natural laws. Owing tothe scarcity of women but few families coidd be established, and polyandria becamethe rule on the plantations. The few children of these households were greatlyneglected, and the excessive infant mortality had to be compensated by continuousfresh importations from China and India. To the Chinese was due the introductionof leprosy, to the Hindus the so-called " Bombay fever," which in 1866-8