The sloping plain of the
Pamplemousses, interspersed with houses, and coloured by the large
fields of sugar-cane of a bright green, composed the foreground.
The brilliancy of the green was the more remarkable because it is a
colour which generally is conspicuous only from a very short
distance. Towards the centre of the island groups of wooded
mountains rose out of this highly cultivated plain; their summits,
as so commonly happens with ancient volcanic rocks, being jagged
into the sharpest points. Masses of white clouds were collected
around these pinnacles, as if for the sake of pleasing the
stranger's eye. The whole island, with its sloping border and
central mountains, was adorned with an air of perfect elegance: the
scenery, if I may use such an expression, appeared to the sight
harmonious.
I spent the greater part of the next day in walking about the town
and visiting different people. The town is of considerable size,
and is said to contain 20,000 inhabitants; the streets are very
clean and regular. Although the island has been so many years under
the English government, the general character of the place is quite
French: Englishmen speak to their servants in French, and the shops
are all French; indeed I should think that Calais or Boulogne was
much more Anglified.
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