Page:History of the French in India.djvu/131

 THE ISLES OF FRANCE AND BOURBON. 109 craft,* on board of which were many female prisoners. By degrees too they were joined by deserters from East Indian ships which touched there. These were for the most part attracted by the easy life which the fertility of the soil enabled its inhabitants to enjoy. The pros- perity of the island increased in a greater degree than could be imagined, if the elements of which its so- ciety was formed were alone considered. Houses were erected, small trading vessels were built, many of them for piratical purposes, slaves were purchased, and articles fit for export were cultivated. So glowing indeed were the accounts of this prosperity taken home to France, by ships which touched at the island, that towards the close of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century, the French Company put in their claim to its possession, and sent thither five or six families and a Governor.^ The Governor was well received at first, but the descendants of the pirates and deserters soon found him an inconvenient incumbrance. They accordingly seized and imprisoned him, and kept him in a dungeon till he died. Their rebellion had no other result. A new Governor was sent with orders to punish the ringleaders, and to erect a fort for his pro- tection — orders which he is stated to have carried out effectually. In 1717, the population of the island was computed at two thousand nine hundred free men, and eleven hun- dred slaves. In the following year an event occurred •It is stated that amongst other additions from various sources, the early inhabitants of Bourbon "re- ceived an increase by some English pirates, who came along with Avery, England, Condon, and Pattison, who, after acquiring considerable riches in the Red Sea and coasts of Arabia and Persia, quittin? their way of life, settled on the island, and had a pardon from the King of France. Some of them were alive in 1763, and their descendants are numerous on the island." — Dalrymple's Oriental Repertory, vol ii. t It would appear, however, from the Calendrier des Isles de France et de Bourbon that the inhabitants had had a regular succession of governors of their own since the formation of the settlement. Thus, it is recorded that "in 1675, Pere Hiacinthe, Ca- puchin, arrived there in the quality of Cure', and took upon himself the right of Governor."