Although we were twenty-four hours off the Luavo mouths of the Zambesi, we could not obtain any response to the guns which we fired, to make known the presence of the “Lyra” to the “Hermes,” which we had heard was anchored off one of the mouths; and although greatly disappointed in not meeting with the expedition, we were compelled to hurry on to Natal.
There we learned that there was no hope of overtaking the mail to the Cape of Good Hope, and, after landing the faithful Rosa (who was there among many friends), the survivors of the “Herald,” whom I had brought with me from Mozambique, and the slaves from the captured dhow, with a Lieutenant in charge of them, to the Mixed Commission Court at Cape Town, we proceeded to Port Louis, Mauritius, where I immediately forwarded a telegram, through Her Majesty’s Consul-general in Egypt, apprising the Government of my arrival at Mauritius, and desire to proceed to England, as soon as sufficiently recovered, for the journey home.
CHAPTER V.
Mauritius—The Introduction of Labour from India—Machinery and Guano—Population—Revenue Exceeds the Expenditure Considerably—Immigration Crimps—Coloured Ball—The Key to India—The Governor of Réunion offers to Garrison “the Isle of France”—Port Louis—Two Bishops—Bad Hôtels—“Dieu et Mon Droit”—“Trumpeters before Travellers”—“There, you Poor Devil!”—The Colonel’s Wedding-day—British Barque “Sutton” Opens a New Description of Slave-Trade—The Gallant Affair of the “Sarah Sands.”
The history of the Island of Mauritius, or—as the French will insist upon calling it—the Isle of France, is too well known to be even briefly alluded to here. But as this island, from its position in the Indian Ocean, has been hitherto looked upon as the key, or stepping-stone, to our possessions in the East, a short statement of its present state may not be unacceptable to the general reader; more especially as this island, together with that of Barbadoes, are the two great striking examples of the success of the British emancipation of the slaves, when followed up by an adequate supply of free labour.
The cessation of the apprenticeship of the former slaves took place in April, 1839; but as the abolition of slavery had been proclaimed four years previous, and many of the apprentices obtained by purchase, or otherwise, their complete liberty, the colonists began to replace them by the introduction of natives from India. The Government offered no obstacle to this introduction of labourers; there was no restriction as to the number to be carried in each vessel, and from 1834 to 1838, 24,566 of the natives of India were introduced into the island of Mauritius.
These labourers engaged to work at field labour for a term of five years, at the rate of five rupees per month; and a certain amount, it appears, was retained out of their wages to provide a passage back to India, if they wished, at the expiration of their engagement.
From the facility with which labour was obtained from India, the newly-emancipated labourers were entirely neglected; and if the Government had not checked this supply of labour, the wise and beneficent intentions of the British Legislature, in responding to the call of the nation, and emancipating the slaves throughout our colonies, would here have been entirely frustrated, and the godlike boon of liberty would only have been the precursor to a miserable death by famine.