f natural reason.[9] The prohibition
of slavery was rendered null and void by the planters of Mauritius and
the members of local government, all of whom were slaveholders and
opposed to any change. The only effect of the prohibition was to
alienate the affections of the colonists from the mother-country, and
to lead them to rejoice when Napoleon assumed the consular power and
annulled the ordinance prohibiting slavery after the capture of the
island by the British. The importation of slaves was prohibited under
severe penalties.

As the execution of this law was vested in the local authorities, who
had a direct personal interest in the continuance of this traffic,
slaves were still imported in sufficient numbers to satisfy the wants
of the planters.[10] It is true that trading in slaves was declared to
be felony, that the two harbors of Port Louis and Matubourg were
closed against their entrance, that a slave registry was opened in
1815, and that credulous Governors wrote to the home authorities that
the Mauritians, far from wishing to renew this nefarious traffic, were
filled with indignation at the remembrance of its horrors. All this
may be true, but the slave trade was as brisk as ever, and the island
swarmed with Negroes whose peculiar appearance and ignorance of the
Creole language proved them to be of recent introduction.

No law can be executed unless it be in accordance with public opinion,
and the feelings of the white Mauritians were altogether in favor of
slavery. The illicit introduction of slaves was a felony by law, and
yet, notwithstanding the notorious violations of this law, no one was
ever convicted. The prisoner might have turned on the judge and proved
his complicity in the crime. The only convictions that were obtained
were in the case of offenders that were sent to England for trial.
This statement will excite no astonishment on the part of those who
are acquainted with the manner in which justice is still administered
in Mauritius. The slave registry was opened in 1815, but the entries
were so falsified that instead of checking slavery it threw its mantle
of protection upon it.[11] Slaves were not introduced publicly at the
two chief ports of the island from Africa, but the Seychelles Islands
lay at a convenient distance, and slaves registered at the Seychelles
were admitted into Mauritius without any questions being asked. The
coral reef that surrounds the island could easily be passed and the