ion, and frequently turning them over to see the
expert way they would contract the elegant gill-branches, and reopen
them as soon as they had righted themselves." Such are some of the
animated charms of Paul and Virginia's island. Of Bernardin Saint
Pierre's romance as an illustration of the spot, Mr. Pike dryly
observes that writers when about to draw largely on their imaginations
should be careful to conceal the actual whereabouts of their stories:
we live in an age of exploration that is sure to "display their
ridiculous side when reduced to fact." There was, however, a
foundation in fact, quite enough for the purpose of a prose poem, in
the loves and deaths of Paul and Virginia: it is doubtless the island
scenes alone that Mr. Pike would satirize. The great shipwreck was in
1744, a year of famine, which the wise and prudent French
governor, the most able man who ever adorned the colony, M. Mahe de
Labourdonnais, was unable to avert. The ship St. Geran, sent with
provisions from France, was ignorantly driven on the reef shortly
before dawn, and all perished save nine souls. There were on board two
lovers, a Mademoiselle Mallet and Monsieur de Peramon, who were to
be united in marriage on arriving at the island, then called Isle de
France. The young man made a raft, and implored his mistress to remove
the heavier part of her garments and essay the passage. This the pure
young creature refused to do, with that exaggerated modesty which has
been called mawkishness in the story, but which in a real occurrence
looks very like heroism. Their bodies were soon washed ashore together
in the harbor, since called the Bay of Tombs. Two structures of
whitewashed brick under some beautiful palms and feathery bamboos, in
an inland garden called "Pamplemousses" (the Shaddocks), now cover the
remains of the ill-starred lovers. Mr. Pike appears to have visited
the site but once, when, as there had been heavy rains, he could not
reach the tombs. He is evidently more in his element when wading after
sea-urchins. His observations on such races as coolies, Chinese and
Malabar-men are all, however, to the purpose. The island is peopled
with these varieties, in addition to a mixed white population, the
Indians having been brought from Hindostan for the cane-fields since
the English occupation in 1810, and serving a good purpose. Their
manners illustrate the lower horrors of the Hindoo mythology, they
appearing to worship pretty exclusively