. Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan. his officers, while the French population were no whit behind them inthe unostentatious display of their kindness. These last evinced mostfriendly feelings and no small share of intelligence, and while both classeswere equally hospitable, the only difference was that the Englishman was,perhaps, a little the more stately, and the Frenchman a little the less ceremo-nious. Nothing could be kinder than the treatment of both. Port Louis, the capital of the island, is situated near its northwesternextremity, on a smal
. Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan. his officers, while the French population were no whit behind them inthe unostentatious display of their kindness. These last evinced mostfriendly feelings and no small share of intelligence, and while both classeswere equally hospitable, the only difference was that the Englishman was,perhaps, a little the more stately, and the Frenchman a little the less ceremo-nious. Nothing could be kinder than the treatment of both. Port Louis, the capital of the island, is situated near its northwesternextremity, on a small bay, which is but a narrow inlet of the sea, somewhatmore than a mile long, and about five hundred yards broad. At theextreme southwestern corner the town is built. The streets are straight,but not paved. The principal street runs parallel to the shore of the houses are chiefly of wood, and of but a single story. The populationis, perhaps, from twenty-five to thirty thousand, of which from four to fivethousand are white. The residue are for the most part blacks. Grand. lj|Hl||;!|i|!^.i!t- PAUL AND VIRGINIA. 135 Port, on the southeastern side of the island, is sufficiently capacious, and ismore convenient for shipping the sugar, of which large quantities are grownin the neighborhood; but apart from the intricacies of its entrance, it isopen to the southeast, from which quarter the hurricanes blow mostfuriously. It is not to be supposed that, among those who read at all, there aremany who are unacquainted with the beautiful story of Paul and Virginia,by Bernardin St. Pierre. The accomplished author was an officer of thegarrison of Mauritius in 1744, and at that time a melancholy catastrophe,which happened on one of the coral reefs surrounding the island, furnished abasis of facts on which he reared his interesting fiction. One is rather reluctant to destroy the illusion produced by the romanticnarrative of St. Pierre; but, in sober truth, he was indebted to his imagina-
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookpublisheretcetc, bookyear185
