Mauritius

mau-rish'i-us, an island in the Indian Ocean 500 miles east of Madagascar. It was named in 1598 by a Dutch captain in honor of Prince Maurice. Since 1810 it has belonged to England. Area, 705 square miles. Population, including French settlers, negroes, and coolies, 378,000; or 526 to the square mile. It is practically one immense aloe, sugar-cane, cotton, and indigo plantation. Some $15,000,000 worth of sugar is exported yearly. The planters and merchants are wealthy. They have nine daily papers, two railroads, telephones, telegraph lines, and markets supplied from all quarters of the globe. Fruits and cocoanuts are abundant. The dodo, a clumsy bird, once lived here but is now extinct, as is also a huge land tortoise. Monkeys, deer, and hares have been introduced. A fruit-eating bat is the only native mammal on the island. See Dodo