Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/643

Rh R E R O E 619 Along the north and west coast there are on the reef a number of islands of volcanic origin ; those on the south- east are all of coralline limestone or sand. There are only two passages through the reef available for large vessels, these leading respectively to Port Mathurin and to Port South -East. Rodriguez is comparatively arid; and the streams are as short-lived for the most part as they are beautiful. The climate is like that of Mauritius, but more subject to hurricanes during the north-west monsoon (November to April). About 1845 the population of Rodriguez was about 250 persons. The original nucleus consisted of slaves from Mauritius, and recruits arrived from Madagascar and the African continent. By 1871 they had increased to 1108 and by 1881 to 1436. The island is governed by a civil commissioner, who is also a police magistrate. Capitalists from Mauritius are beginning to pay attention to the natural advantages of the island. A carriage road has been constructed from Mathurin to Gabriel, the only other village, where the Roman Catholic priests have their chapel and residence. When originally discovered and down into the 17th century Rodriguez was clothed with fine timber trees ; but goats, cattle, and bush-fires have combined to destroy the great bulk of the old vegetation, and the indigenous plants have in many cases been ousted by intrusive foreigners. When the island was in French possession many settlers cultivated large estates, and fortunes were realized ; but with the liberation of the slaves the area of cultiva- tion decreased, and it is now of very limited extent. The staple crop is the sweet potato ; and manioc, maize, millet, and rice grow well, but are not much cultivated. Wheat is seldom seen, mainly because of the parakeets and the Java sparrows. Beans (Plutseolus lunaluf), lentils, gram (Cicer arietinum),dholl (Cajanus indicus), and ground-nuts are all grown to a certain extent in spite of the ravages of the rats (Balfour). Mangoes, bananas, gtiavas, pine-apples, custard- apples, and especially oranges, citrons, and limes, are the fruits that nourish best. Of the timber trees the most common are Elseoden- dron orientale, much used in carpentry and for pirogues, and Latania Verschaffclti (Leguat's plantane). At least two species of screw- pine (Pandanus heterocarpus, Balf. fil. aj>d P. tenuifolius) occur freely throughout the island. The total number of known species, according to Professor I. B. Balfour, is 470, belonging to 85 families and 293 genera ; and of these 297 are phanerogamous and 173 cryptogamous. The families represented by the greatest number of species are Graminess (21 indigenous, 6 introduced), Leguminosse (14 ind., 15 intr.), Convolvulacese (11 ind., 4 intr.), Malvaceae (9 ind.), Rubiaccas (8 ind.), Cyperocese, (8 ind.), Euphorbiaccse (8 ind.), Liliacese. (6 ind. ), Composites, (5 ind., 6 intr. ). Mathurina pcnduliftora ( Tur- ncracesz} is interesting, as its nearest congener is in Central America, and the family has not hitherto been found in the Mascarenes. Of 33 species of mosses 17 are peculiar. Variability of species and heterophylly are characteristic of the flora to quite an unusual degree. To the naturalist Rodriguez is as interesting as it is to the botanist. At present the only indigenous mammal is a species of fruit-eating bat (Pteropus rodericensis), and the introduced species are such familiar creatures as the pig, rabbit, rat, mouse, &c. ; but down to a recent period the island was the home of a very large land-tortoise ( Testudo Vosmaeri or rodericensis), and its limestone caves have yielded a large number of skeletons of the dodo-like solitaire (Pezophaps solitarius), which still built its mound-like nest in the island in the close of the 17th century, but is now extinct (see vol. iii. p. 732). Of indigenous birds 13 species have been registered. The guinea-fowl (introduced) has become exceedingly abundant, partly owing to a protective game-law ; and a francolin (F. ponticerianus), popularly a "partridge," is also common. The marine fish-fauna does not differ from that of Mauritius, and the freshwater species, with the exception of Mugil rodericensis and Myxiis csecuticus, are common to all the Mascarenes. Thirty-five species of crustaceans are known. The insects (probably very im- perfectly registered) comprise 60 species of Coleoptera, 15 Hyme.no- ptera, 21 Lepidoptera, 15 Orthoptera, and 20 Hemiptera. Forty- nine species of coral have been collected, showing a close affinity to those of Mauritius, Madagascar, and the Seychelles. Rodriguez or Diego Ruy's Island was discovered by the Portu- guese in 1645. In 1690 Duquesne prevailed on the Dutch Govern- ment to send a body of French refugees to the Island of Bourbon, at that time, he believed, abandoned by the French authorities. As the refugees, however, found the French in possession they pro- ceeded to Rodriguez, and there eight of their number were landed on 30th April 1691 with a promise that they should be visited by their compatriots within two years. The two years were spent without misadventure, but, instead of waiting for the arrival of their friends, the seven colonists (for one had meanwhile died) rashly left the island on 8th May 1693 and made their way to Mauritius, where they were treated with great cruelty by the governor. The account of the enterprise left us by Francis Leguat Voyages et A ventures (London, 1708), or, as it is called in the English trans- lation, A New Voyage to the East Indies (London, 1708) is a most garrulous and amusing narrative, and was for a long time almost the only source of information about Rodriguez. His description of the solitaire is of course unique. See Charles Grant, Hist, of Mauritius and {he Neighbouring Islands, 1801 ; Higgin, in Jour. R. G. Soc. , London, 1 849 ; the Reports of the results of the Transit of Venus Expedition, 1874-75, published as an extra volume of The Philosophical Transactions (clxviii.), London 1879 (Botany, by I. B. Balfour ; Petrology, by N. S. Maskelyne, &c.) ; Behm, in Petermann's Miltheilungen, 1880 ; Colonial Office List, 1884, 1885. ROE. See DEER, vol. vii. p. 24. ROE or Row, SIR THOMAS (1568?-1644), an eminent political agent of the reigns of James I. and Charles I., was born in 1568 (?) at Low Ley ton near Wanstead in Essex (being a grandson of Sir Thomas Roe, a well-known lord mayor of London). He was entered as a commoner at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1593, but shortly after- wards he left the university and, having read for the bar, became esquire of the body to Queen Elizabeth. From James I. he received the honour of knighthood in 1604, and in 1609 he was sent by Prince Henry on a mission to the West Indies, during which he visited Guiana and the river Amazons. As member of parliament in 1614 he supported the principles of Sandys and Whitelocke. His permanent reputation was mainly secured by the success which attended his embassy in 1615-18 to the court at Agra of the Great Mogul (Jahangir, son of Akbar), whose importance had been made known by Sir John Hawkins, the principal object of the mission being to obtain the protection of an English factory at Surat. Sir Thomas Roe's Journal, reprinted in a more or less complete shape in the collections of Purchas, Pinkerton, and Kerr, forms one of the leading authorities for the reign of Jahangir. Appointed ambassador to the Porte in 1621, he filled this difficult position under Osman, Mustapha, and Amurat ; and after his return from the East he continued to be em- ployed on various political missions to Poland, Denmark, and other European courts, till in 1641 he was sent by Charles I. to the diet of Ratisbon. Roe died in 1644. The Society for the Encouragement of Learning proposed to pub- lish a whole series of Roe's papers, but owing to lack of funds only one of the five volumes, edited by Samuel Richardson, ever saw the light The Negotiations of Sir Thomas Hoe in his Embassy to the Ottoman Porte, 1621-1628^ (London, 1740). In regard to his minor publications and manuscript remains see Wood's Athenae Oxonienses ; Allibone's Dictionary of British. . . Authors; and Notes and Queries, vii., viii., ix., and xi. (2d ser.). ROEBLING, JOHN AUGUSTUS (1806-1869), civil en- gineer, was born at Miihlhausen, Prussia, 6th June 1806. Soon after his graduation from the polytechnic school at Berlin he removed to the United States, and in 1831 entered on the practice of his profession in western Penn- sylvania. He established at Pittsburgh a manufactory of wire rope, and in May 1845 completed his first important structure, the suspended aqueduct of the Pennsylvania Canal across the Monongahela river. This was followed by the Monongahela suspension bridge at Pittsburgh and several suspended aqueducts on the Delaware and Hudson Canal. Removing his wire manufactory to Trenton, New Jersey, he began, in 1851, the erection at Niagara Falls of a long span wire suspension bridge with double roadway, for railway and carriage use (see BRIDGE, vol. iv. pp. 338-339), which was completed in 1855. Owing to the novelty of its design, the most eminent engineers, including Stevenson, regarded this bridge as foredoomed to failure ; but, with its complete success, demonstrated by long use, the number of suspension bridges rapidly multiplied, the use of wire-ropes instead of chain-cables becoming all but universal. The completion, in 1867, of the still more