Mr.
Thom will testify.

I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the latter gentleman in
Port Louis. What he considered to be the grand sources of rotatory
storms--winds charged with opposite kinds of electricity and blowing in
opposite directions--appeared to account satisfactorily for the
occurrence of hurricanes in the Pacific, where there are no continents or
chains of mountains to produce them and guide their courses.

As so much has been already written about this interesting island, the
Mauritius, and as, moreover, space forbids, I do not here make use of the
mass of information with which Mr. Thom has kindly furnished me,
respecting its history and resources, and the subject of Coolie labour;
but on some future occasion I may be able to lay it before the public.

During my stay at Port Louis I received much hospitality, particularly
from the family of Colonel Staveley, Commander of the Forces, which I
take this opportunity of acknowledging.

We sailed from the Mauritius on the 10th of June, and on the following
day passed about 20 miles south-east of the Island of Bourbon. It
resembles a large cone emerging from the water; and its features are
strikingly different from those of the Mauritius; the outline is not
softened by luxuriant vegetation, but is sudden and steep and massive.

MADAGASCAR.

Southerly and westerly winds brought us in sight of Madagascar on the
16th, and on the same evening, aided by a southerly current of 2 knots an
hour, we were just able to weather its South-East extreme. The features
of this great island that were presented to our view approached the
Alpine, and from a passing glimpse of the small hills near the shore, it
appeared to be a fertile country. This portion of the globe is one of
great interest to the world at large, especially when we know that, if
considered as a naval or military station, it is scarcely equalled by any
in the Indian Ocean; besides having a soil of the best description, and
abounding also in mineral wealth, with timber fit for any purposes, and
thousands of cattle running wild in its valleys. On the afternoon of the
27th we were within seven or eight miles of the land, near the great Fish
River, on the south-eastern coast of Africa, having apparently got within
the eddy of the westerly current, which sweeps round that part of the
coast at the distance of thirty miles with a velocity of from two to five
miles an hour, which we entirely lost after