When in 1691 Leguat sighted the island of Rodriguez his eyes fell on mountains “richly spread with great and tall trees,” over which flowed streams with hanks “adorned with forests,” and altogether the scene was such as to call forth from him the designations of “a lovely isle,” “an earthly paradise,” “a little Eden.” He speaks of it thus (New Voyage to the East Indies, p. 248) :─“ ’Tis, as I have hinted, composed of lovely hills, covered all with fine trees, whose perpetual verdure is “entirely charming;” and “between these great and tall trees one may walk at “ease and find such refreshing coolness in their shade at noon, so sweet, so healthy, “that ’twould give life to those that are dying. Their spreading and tufty tops, “which are almost all of an equal height, joyn together like so many canopys “and umbrellos, and jointly make a ceiling of an eternal verdure, supported by “natural pillars which raise and nourish them.”Such is his picture of the aspect of the vegetation of Rodriguez. Is such its character now ? No. The great and tall trees have now almost entirely disappeared, the eternally verdant canopy formed by their houghs no longer exists, and the little Eden ”is now a dry and com paratively barren spot, clothed with a vegetation mainly of social weeds, and destitute of any forest growffh save in unfrequented and more inaccessible parts in the recesses of the valleys; and, we may ask, what has wrought this change ? We find in the history of the vegetation of Rodriguez a case similar to that of St. Helena. The same causes which destroyed the peculiar and most interesting Elora of that fertile island have operated, and I regret to say still operate, in Rodriguez, and have effectually changed the face of the island.