pparently to the superstition of the black, and the policy and disgust
of the white visitants to these excavations.

The stone here is mostly of an iron-grey colour, heavy, and porous; and
there were marks upon the sides of the middle cavern which might have
arisen either from a sulphureous substance yielded by the stone when in a
state of ignition, or from an impregnated water draining through the roof
during a succession of time; upon the whole, though it seemed probable
that these caverns owe their origin to the same cause as the
subterraneous canal at Menil, the marks of fire in them were neither
distinct nor unequivocal. The position of these long, winding
excavations, in a country nearly level and of small elevation, appeared
to be the most extraordinary circumstance attending them; but in this
island they are commonly so situate, particularly that remarkable one, of
which a detailed account is given in Grant's _History of Mauritius_ from
M. de St. Pierre.

Quitting Le Tamarin with M. Curtat, I went to the town of Port Louis, to
take up my residence for a few days with my friend Pitot, the
captain-general having granted a permission to that effect. One of the
objects for which I had asked the permission, was to obtain a further one
to visit La Poudre d'Or and Flacq, on the north-east side of the island;
but my application was refused after two or three days consideration, and
accompanied with an order to return immediately to Wilhems Plains. It
appeared that general De Caen had received a letter of reproach from
governor King of Port Jackson, inclosing, it was said, a copy of that I
had written to the governor in August 1804, wherein my reception and
treatment at Mauritius were described in colours not calculated to
gratify the general's feelings; it was even considered, and perhaps was
in him, a great act of forbearance that he did not order me to be closely
confined in the tower.

During this short residence in town, the attentions of my friend Pitot,
of captain Bergeret, and several other French inhabitants were such as
bespoke a desire to indemnify me for the ill treatment of their governor,
whose conduct seemed to be generally disapproved; my acquaintance with
major Dunienville of La Savanne was renewed, as also with M. Boand, the
good Swiss, whose anxiety to serve me when a prisoner in the Cafe
Marengo, had not lost any thing of its ardour. At the Garden Prison,
which I could not refrain from visiting, the