(Footnote.  In the month of January, 1824 this unfortunate island was again visited and laid waste by a tremendous hurricane that did very considerable damage, and has in a great measure destroyed the prosperous state which the island was beginning to arrive at from the previous long absence of this dreadful visitation.)

The town of Port Louis which is at the north-west, or leeward, side of the island, is built at the extremity of an amphitheatre of low land, backed in by a high and precipitous range, upon which Peter Botte and the Pouce are conspicuous features.  The streets are laid out at rightangles, the principal of which lead from the Chaussee to the Champ de Mars, a plot of grassy land about half a mile square that intervenes between the town and the hills.  This is the promenade, the drive, the racecourse, and, in fact, the principal resort for the inhabitants.  It is skirted by houses and gardens and is a valuable acquisition to the town.  The Chaussee and other streets are well furnished with useful shops of which those of the Tinman, the Druggist, and the Conservateur et Patissier, are the most numerous.

The houses, generally of wood, are irregularly built, and far from being elegant in their appearance; those however that have been lately constructed by our countrymen have already given the place an appearance of solidity that it could not boast of before, and several substantial stone dwellings and stones have lately been erected.  The roads for seven or eight miles out of the town, leading to Pamplemousses, to Plains Wilhelms and to Moca districts, are very good and are kept in repair partly by Malabar convicts from India; but travelling beyond that distance is performed in palanquins which four bearers will carry, at a steady pace, at the rate of six miles per hour.

At the time of our visit there were few fruits ripe; but when we were about to sail the mango of delicious flavour began to be common; besides which there were coconuts, guavas, papaws, grapes, the letchy (or let-chis, a Chinese fruit) and some indifferent pineapples.  The ship’s company were supplied daily with fresh beef and vegetables.  The latter were procured in abundance at the bazaar and were exceedingly fine, particularly carrots and cabbages of an unusually large size and fine flavour.  Bullocks are imported into the island from Madagascar, in which trade there are two vessels constantly engaged during the fine season.

Horses are very scarce; they are imported from the Cape of Good Hope and fetch a high price:  a cargo of a hundred and seventy-seven mules arrived from Buenos Ayres while we were at Port Louis, which, on being sold by auction, averaged each one hundred and eighty dollars.  To encourage the importation of these useful animals a premium of five dollars is offered by the government for every mule that is brought alive to the island.

The circulating medium was principally of paper but bore a very great depreciation; the premium upon bills of exchange upon Europe, at the time of our departure, was as much as 66 to 76 per cent, and upon silver coin there was a depreciation of 45 per cent.