leave their houses to walk, and unless you become a visitor by calling in the evening, (which is the time for visiting,) you, perhaps, do not meet but once a year, that is during the Gaité. The young men of the island are now beginning to be well-behaved and respectable, but, unfortunately, their parents, who have the means, do not insist on their sons learning some profession, and consequently they are merely idlers, and, of course, frequently turn out mauvais sujets.

I am very happy amongst the natives, and am known by most of them, as I act according to the old proverb, When you are at Rome, to do as Rome does. From April to October we dine at six; remain at table till near eight; and when in Port Louis, those disposed go and take coffee with some one to whom they wish to pay a visit of ceremony. From October to April we dine at four; our horses are at the door to mount at six; ride for an hour, and then, if disposed, commence making calls. Your friends are generally found sitting outside their houses under a verandah, where you are offered a chair: soon after a glass of beer or a cup of coffee is presented to you; and after chatting some time, you take leave, and frequently make four or five visits of this sort during the evening.

In the country it is particularly dull; at Mahébourg our only amusement is our drill, boating, riding, and shooting; the latter is a very laborious one. The usual method is to rise at daylight, go about two miles with fifteen or twenty dogs, and five or six black fellows, which are sent into the sugar-cane, which is laid out in patches of twelve, sixteen, and twenty acres, with alleys cut for the purpose of carts bringing the crops off the ground. If the party is numerous, you are placed accordingly, and the dogs and blacks commence the search, and as soon as they "give tongue," you must be on the alert, and start for the place where you think the hare is likely to pass, and by chance may get a shot. There are also some partridges, but unless a good pointer is out, they are difficult to find. There is also deer shooting in the woods, but that I have not yet assisted in. The heat is too great to remain later than half-past eight or nine o'clock in the morning, by which time each sportsman is tired enough.

In some of my excursions I have visited the plantations, where at daybreak the ringing of a large bell, which continues for a quarter of an hour, summons the slaves to appear from their camp, which consists of 300 or 400 straw huts, where they have mats to sleep on.* They then answer to their names, and fall into their respective bands, and march off to their work under their respective commanders, of whom there is one for every squad of twenty negroes; a whip or stick is generally carried by each of them, not exactly for punishment, but as a sign of authority, and to be used only when discipline requires it, and under the eye of the White Overseer, who is always moving about from band to band to see that the work is done. About half-past seven, the bell again summons them to breakfast; at half-past eight, their meal of manives,† &c. beingfinished, the ringing commences, and

From the climate, cold, hunger, and want of bed-clothes, &c. are scarcely known here. The natives and inhabitants during the very hot weather, to a certain extent, sleep upon a mat spread on cane-bottomed sofas, placed in open verandahs.

+ Sometimes Indian corn, yams, sweet potatoes, with salt-beef, and beef occasionally, and on some estates, rice.

they return to their respective duties, and remain till mid-day. They are then recalled by the bell to dine, and repose about two hours, when they are again summoned to labour, which they continue till sunset. If the weather is very bad, they are employed under cover, making shingles to cover houses, manufacturing sugar-mats, and splitting the dried leaves of the screw pine (commonly called the vakoa), and polishing them by friction with a small stone. The females and their children work these into mats for drying the sugar upon, and also manufacture them into sacks for exporting sugar from Mauritius.

The most healthy, intelligent, and strong, are selected for the sugarmaking, and during that time they frequently work all night, and for their extra hours get paid by the planters; and if the mill is good and hands sufficient, they will have from nine to twelve boilings in the day, according to the quality of the cane juice; each boiling produces from 4 to 500cwt. and when cooled, it is put in the sun to dry, then beat with large sticks, and put into the sacks, and is ready for exportation; the conveyance, wharfage, &c. &c. makes each 100cwt. 17. 4s. which ought to be the price at the sugar-house to pay the planter for his

crops.

These are the most interesting particulars I have been able to collect, but I must claim indulgence for the rough and hasty style in which they are imparted.

Mahébourg, Mauritius, 10th Aug. 1830.

E. L.

NAUTICAL REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE

ADMIRAL SIR J. S. YORKE.

FEW who have served with the late Sir Joseph Yorke, or who have known him in private society, can reflect upon his untimely death, without a more than ordinary degree of sorrow, or can recall his character and nature to the mind, without pride and satisfaction.

A man, however, must have a seaman's feelings fully to appreciate the peculiar characteristics of this officer, and he must have a knowledge of the "old school;" for in the navy, as in civil life, the advance of refinement has had its invariable effect of approximating manners and assimilating conduct, and even dispositions to one uniform pattern, or standard. And yet it was difficult to be in the company of Sir Joseph Yorke, without being instantly struck with his appearance, and impressed with a feeling that you were talking to one "not of common mould." Sir Joseph, in allusion to his legs, used humorously to say, that, "take him half-way up a hatchway, he was a passable fellow." There was something modest even in this "half-way," for few men possessed more the ensemble of a fine figure. His height, and full and capacious chest, his heroic head and a profusion of black curling hair; an eye remarkably large, penetrating and brilliant, although unsteadily rapid or transitory in its expression, made this officer, when I first served under him," one of the finest young captains in the navy." The eye and forehead, to common observers, are the features of expression; but artists read the passions and character in the chin and strong lines of the muscles about the mouth, and in this instance they were full and energetic beyond what I ever witnessed, except in Lord Byron.

man

My esteemed commander was well read as a gentleman and as of business; that is to say, he was well acquainted with modern history, with all works of taste and amusement, and with whatever publications related to the current business of life in its profoundest sense; but I do not suppose that he had ever troubled "black letter" much, and yet I was often startled at the manner in which he would pour forth, ore rotundo, some of the racy humour and quaint drollery of our old authors, which so irresistibly stamp the character and nature of old English, before it was Latinised, Gallicised, Italianised, and every thing else but Anglicised. To hear Sir Joseph address a ship's company was a rich treat. He identified himself with the prejudices, interests and feelings, and even failings of the foremast-men, adopted even their slang, and whilst under a voluble torrent of rich, broad, and full humour, he insidiously poured forth such stimulants to a love of the service, to a sense of discipline, and to a zeal for Old England, that one of his harangues had as fine a moral effect upon a ship's company, as the songs of Dibdin. I recollect very many instances

of this.

Sir Joseph took the command of the Ca in 1801, from an Irish captain, whose officers, petty and quarter-deck, were all Irish; and who had succeeded to an officer of all men in the service the most known for keeping a ship's company in a state of "the most admired disorder." I recollect when this Anglo predecessor of this AngloIrish captain would not permit a pretty large body of French prisoners to be confined in the hold or placed under a sentry. One day, after a

long chase of a French line-of-battle ship, during which the prisoners were allowed to look out of the port-holes, and even from the chains, at the chase, the drum beat to quarters. On clearing the ship for action it was found, that every breeching of the main-deck guns was cut through, and several of the lanyards of the main and mizzen shrouds were cut even to a few yarns with sharp knives. To this anti-disciplinarian succeeded a captain of a real Irish character, such a one as Miss Edgeworth herself would have liked to have drawn; and many of the old jokes told about "Tommy Pakenham's boys," "the flogging of the pigs" on the quarter-deck, "the starboard-watch bating the larboard," and the captain "bating both with a big shillalah”until, like Newfoundland dogs, they became dangerous to their master, were realized among this wild crew.

means

Sir Joseph did not make himself popular by bringing with him myself and other officers, who were " mere English." Probably, no other man in the service could have reduced such a ship's company to so perfect a state of discipline, and in so short a period, albeit the " and appliances" savoured of the old-school. The vices to be cured were drunkenness, riots and fighting, a most lubberly performance of every duty, an insolence to the quarter-deck, and, lastly, a vile habit in relation to the hammocks, or to avoiding the trouble of visiting the head at night. These offences were never spared, but punishment was accompanied by such salutary addresses to the ship's company, that they contained not only the code raisonné, which must ever govern such a community, but it was illustrated and rationalized to the men in a manner so admirably adapted to a sailor's habits and notions, that the effect was incredible. A sort of nautical patriotism was infused into the crew, and for this object no means were spared. When desertion became even alarming, Sir Joseph, (no chaplain being on board,) performed the sabbath-church service, and taking his text-" Shall such a man as I flee"-he gave a practical sermon, full of sound common sense, upon the vice of desertion and on the duty of serving the country-" and fools that came to laugh, remained to pray."

It is extremely useful, not only to the service, but to nature and life in all their duties and relations, to show the horrible effects produced by adopting a principle that bodily pain or corporal punishment are the sole means of coercing human beings to proper conduct. This product of the" wisdom of our ancestors" was the very essence of all things, the primum mobile of all good and in all things, when Yorke was brought up in the Rodney school, or in "the good old times." Let us be warned by its effects upon one of the finest spirits and most excellent hearts that nature ever made.

When I entered the service, the discipline was truly horrible, and the individual instances of severity are, in modern times, appalling to reflect upon.

Whenever the hands were turned up, as a matter of course, the shrill pipe was immediately heard, a boatswain's mate flew to each ladder, armed with his stick or bull's and with which he slashed the ascending crew indiscriminately, often with a fiendish malice, or a yet more fiendish wantonness. The plea was "to punish the last lubber," as if in a multitude, a last was not an abstract necessity independent of slowness or quickness. Not only was every boatswain'smate intrusted with the discretion of this horrible punishment; but

every midshipman or mate of a watch had the privilege of" starting” men. Of the withering induence in the service of such a system, I have been the frequent witness, but it is unnecessary to picture forth details of practices now happily extinct in the profession.

Yorke was always beloved by his crew. His men saw in him the ready skilful sailor, the daring intrepid officer, his broad humour delighted them, and the kindness of his heart was inexhaustible. He possessed the mastery of mind which excites awe, respect and love. His crew, in the Stag, joined the mutiny of 1797. Yorke addressed them with great spirit. The men declared their devotion to him as an officer, and even intreated that he would continue in command of the ship, but a sine quá non with the crew was, that the lieutenant should be sent on shore as a tyrant. Yorke would listen to no compromise unbecoming his rank as a commander, and the result was, that the obnoxious lieutenant was dismissed by the crew, and Yorke voluntarily left them, amidst their expressions of love and esteem.

At a subsequent period, in the — line-of-battle ship, a very alarming disposition prevailed among a great part of the ship's company, and the old mutineer's toast of "a dark night, a sharp knife, and a bloody blanket," had been revived among the men.

About six bells of the first watch, the lieutenant flew into the cabin and announced to Yorke, that the men had formed two lines on the main-deck, that some of them were even brandishing their knives as ready for action. Yorke, with the natural intrepidity of his character, flew to the scene of danger, and I never shall forget his large figure boldly and rapidly advancing, and seen only dimly by the two or three lanterns that were burning. Coming totally unarmed to the head of this double line of ruffians, he uttered, with his sonorous full voice, a few of his usually imperative and almost wild sentences, and instantly knocked two men down on the right and left with his doubled fists. Seizing the two next, (men of very large stature,) he drove their, as he called them, “lubberly heads" together with a force that rolled them stunned and stupified on the deck. He then collared two others, and passed them aft to the officers, who by this time were assembling with side-arms, and having thus secured about a dozen, he walked fearlessly through the long line of the remainder, abusing them with every epithet, and ending his abuse by exclaiming" Have you the impudence to suppose that I would hang such a lubberly set of as you are? No, by I will flog every ringleader like not put the fleet to the disgrace of a Court Martial to try such a set of The men were awed by the mastery of his manner, and in two or three cases, where one the bravest of the brave," showed a desire to impede his steps, he knocked him down, and in one or two instances kicked him soundly as he lay on the deck. Thus did he pass forward between the line of sanguinary lawless ruffians, and by dint of his physical powers, his presence of mind and dauntless intrepidity, he quelled, at the expense of a few dozen at the gangway, a mutiny which might have occasioned many executions and floggings round the fleet. The mutiny existed only among a large body of Irish pressed men; and several of the old seamen, when they saw the success of suppressing it, enjoyed most heartily the humorous heroism of the Captain. This humour, of which no idea could be conveyed, except by a knowledge of the individual, never forsook him.

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