eligious instruction of the slaves, the recognition of the
sanctity of the Sabbath, toleration in worship, the right of the slave
to contract marriage, and prohibition of the separation of husband
from wife or the mother from her children. Slaves were made competent
to acquire stock and movable or immovable property. They were given
power to dispose of property by will. Punishments were diminished and
the way to elevation to civil power was opened.[15]

The end of this ordeal finally came. The British Emancipation Act was
passed in 1833. From 1834 the traffic in human flesh ceased. In 1839
all slaves in Mauritius six years old and upwards became apprentice
laborers and remained so until 1841 as regarded field laborers, and
until 1839 for those unattached. There were then in the island 39,464
men and boys and 25,856 women and girls, in all 65,320. Knowing that
the change in the status of so many inhabitants might interfere with
the labor supply, the planters prepared for this contingency by
importing coolies from Ceylon and India. By 1838 they had brought in
24,566 such natives, but because they had managed the importation so
badly that many evils resulted therefrom, it was stopped by public
protest. When the apprentices were freed in 1839, however, there
followed such a scarcity of labor that the immigration of the
Cingalese and Hindoos was reopened. So many have since then made their
way to the island that they now constitute a substantial element of
the colony. So much race admixture has followed, on the other hand,
that observers sometimes refer to the Mauritians as creoles and
coolies.

A. F. FOKEER

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For the leading facts of the life and history of Mauritius see the
following: Charles Pridham's _England's Colonial Empire_ (London,
1846); _Le Premier Etablissment des Neerlandais a Maurice_; _A
Transport Voyage to the Mauritius and Back_; Baron Grant, _History of
Mauritius or the Isle of France and the Neighboring Islands_; Jacques
Henri Bernardin de St. Pierre, _A Voyage to the Island of Mauritius,
the Isle of Bourbon, the Cape of Good Hope, etc._ (London, 1775); Le
Baron d'Unienville, _Statistique de l'ile de France et ses
Dependances_ (Paris, 1838); M. J. Milbert, _Voyage pittoresque de
l'ile de France a Cap de Bonne Esperance et a l'ile de Teneriffe_
(Paris, 1812); Adrien d'Epinay, _Renseignements pour servir a
l'histoire de l'ile de France jusqu'a l'a