For the coloured population, the rate of wages is a great deal too high; the consequence is that the majority spend their abundance in drink, and, when under the influence of this, much mischief, and crimes of a minor description, are committed. The Government of the island is, in a great measure, answerable for this, for the number of small drinking places which they license throughout the island. Every plantation has the curse of one or more small drinking place, just beyond the limits of the grounds, where the labourers betake themselves at any hour, and absent themselves from their work for any time they please.
For this conduct, on the part of the labourer, the employer has little or no redress; as, if he punishes the coolie, he loses his services while imprisoned, and the period of engagement is progressing, just as if he were engaged in the field instead of the prison.
If those labourers who are committed to prison were usefully employed in improving the roads, which in general are bad, a wholesome dread of prison discipline would be instilled, which, in a short time, would have a beneficial effect on the labouring community.
The great obstacle to the suppression of these small drinking shops is the large revenue which their licences bring in to the Government. This is one of the causes of the revenue so far exceeding the expenditure; and this unhealthy state of prosperity, based on the immorality and demoralization of the masses, must, sooner or later, bring a destructive change, leading to the most serious results.
The Indian population, already overpaid and demoralized by the excessive use of intoxicating liquors, if thrown out of employment by two successive years of failure of the sugar-cane—the staple product of the island—and the consequent ruin of many of the planters, deprived of the means of living, and excited by the intoxicating drinks which have now become habitual to them, would commit the most frightful excesses, and incalculable injury might be inflicted on the interests of the colony ere the Executive could be sufficiently strengthened to check these excesses.
From its position in the Indian Ocean, this island should always have a reserve of at least 10,000 men, who would be acclimatized for our eastern possessions, and form a force at all times available for service, from Bombay to our furthest eastern possession, while its proximity to the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, and Aden, would afford our garrisons in those parts ready aid, in case of a sudden outbreak among the natives of Africa or Arabia.
At the neighbouring French island of Réunion, formerly called Bourbon, there is always a large force, evidently with the view of being useful in those seas in the case of any sudden emergency. This force consists of five regiments, each 800 strong, and a municipal force of about 1,600 men, making in all about 6,000 men, within one night’s steaming distance of this little gem of the Indian Ocean; while the island of Mauritius has been left without more than four small companies of one regiment to protect it.
I know from the best authority that, when the Indian mutiny broke out, the kind-hearted and polite Governor of Réunion, evidently desirous to carry out the entente cordiale existing between the two nations to its fullest extent, offered to garrison the Isle of France, or, as we call it, Mauritius, with French troops; but with many thanks his generous offer was politely declined, although, I believe, we had not 400 fighting men on the island—while there were nearly 6,000 Frenchmen longing for a glorious coup d’état, within ten or twelve hours steaming distance from our “key to India.”
The island of Mauritius presents the most diversified and beautiful scenery throughout, being everywhere in a high state of cultivation. From the moment of its being seen from the deck of a ship on the Indian Ocean, until it fades away in the distance, it presents one continued view of rich vegetation. Many of the planters’ seats are luxurious abodes; and all those having English for their owners, or residents, may be known by that air of comfort which accompanies an English home in every quarter of the globe.
The principal city is Port Louis, which is beautifully situated in the centre of a snug harbour, having in its rear an amphitheatre of hills, which inclose a space where the races and reviews take place. The town is a mixture of houses built in the English and French styles, and, being situated principally on a steep incline, might, if properly drained, be one of the healthiest spots in the world; but, in consequence of the neglect of this necessary precaution in that climate, the inhabitants suffer greatly when cholera invades the island, in spite of the admirable quarantine regulations established there. There are two cathedrals and two bishops, for the Protestant and Roman Catholic religions. Dr. Ryan, the Lord Bishop of Mauritius, is indefatigable in “all good works,” and already his labours have produced their good fruits, by the awakening of the Protestant community to what may, from all statements, be really called “a new life.”