Mauritius, or ISLE OF FRANCE, an island in the Indian Ocean, belonging to Great Britain since 1810, and situated 550 miles E. of Madagascar. It is of volcanic origin and elliptical in shape. A girdle of reefs, broken only by passages opposite the mouths of the small streams, renders it somewhat difficult of approach. The contour rises rapidly into a tableland, that shoots up into ridges 500 to 2700 feet in height. Of individual peaks, Pouce (2650 feet) resembles the human thumb, Pieter Botte (2676), a sharp cone, supports a gigantic crag on its summit, and Rivière Noire (2711) is the culminating point of the island. Lavas and basalts abound, and volcanic lakes, as Grand Bassin, are not uncommon. During the French occupation (1715-1810) Mauritius, or, as they called it, Isle of France, was well wooded. Its picturesque beauty forms the appropriate background of Bernardin St Pierre's idyl, Paul and Virginie, and is well described in Besant and Rice's novel, My Little Girl. But during the 19th century the forests were cut down to make room for sugar-cane plantations. Consequently but little of the native flora remains. Most of that which now flourishes has been introduced. The more conspicuous trees and plants are the ebony-tree, cocoa-nut and other palms, bamboo, benzoin, ironwood, aloe, traveller's tree, and numerous tropical fruits, besides food plants, such as sugar, vanilla, coffee, cocoa, maize, rice, yams, manioc, &c. The existing fauna consists almost entirely of imported domestic animals. The extinct fauna embraced the interesting Dodo (q.v.), the rail called Aphanapteryx, and a short-winged heron. Fossil tortoises of great size have been discovered. The birds resemble those of Madagascar; and the neighbouring seas swarm with fish. Owing to the deforesting of the island the rainfall is uncertain. Though pleasant enough in the cool months, the climate is very hot during the rainy season (December to April or May), and terrific cyclones are common, though less common, it is believed, since the woods have been felled. At Port Louis the annual mean is 78° F.; but at Curepipe (pop. 7880), on the central plain of the uplands (1800 feet), the thermometer is generally 7° or 8° less, and the climate resembles that of the south of France. In 1854 the cholera carried off 17,000 people, and thirteen years later 30,000 perished of a malignant fever. The upper classes, very intelligent, cultured, and well educated, are mostly descended from the old French colonists, except that the government officials, with a few others, are English. There is a large number of half-castes, and a considerable body of Negroes, Malagasy, Sinhalese, Malays, Chinese, &c. But the greater part of the population consists of Indian coolies, who work the sugar-fields. Pop. (1881) 359,874; (1891) 372,664, of whom 254,465 were Hindus. The people of European origin are mostly Roman Catholics (108,000); there are 8000 Protestants. The chief towns are Port Louis (q.v.), the capital, on the north-west coast, partly ruined by the destructive cyclone of April 1892; Curepipe, to which the government and merchants of the capital retire in the hot season; and Mahébourg (4490) on the south coast. This last town is connected by rail with both the preceding; the line then sweeps round northwards to the mouth of Grand River on the east coast. These, with a couple of branch-lines in the south, make a total of 92 miles. The one great crop of the island is sugar, which is exported to the value of £1,867,600 on an average every year. Rum also is exported to the annual value of £18,000, cocoa-nut oil to £5430, vanilla £14,340, whilst the export of aloe fibres (known in commerce as Mauritius hemp) has risen to £30,000 in some years. The total exports vary in value from £1,800,000 to £3,000,000, and the total imports from £1,500,000 to £2,000,000. Sugar, drugs, caoutchouc, &c., are exported to Great Britain to the annual value of £282,780 in return for cotton and iron goods, coals, machinery, and clothing, to the annual value of £290,225. The crown colony of Mauritius, with its dependencies the Seychelles Islands, Rodriguez, Diego Garcia, and several minor islands, is administered by a governor, aided by an executive council. There is also a Council of Government, consisting of the governor and twenty-seven members, of whom ten are elected (since the amended constitution of 1885 came into force), nine are appointed by the crown, and eight are ex officio. There is a military force of about 600 men and a police force of 700. Besides 144 primary schools, there is the Royal College (188 pupils in 1888), with a couple of preparatory schools attached. There is a Roman Catholic bishop of Port Louis, and a Protestant bishop of Mauritius. The island was discovered by Mascarenhas (whence it and the neighbouring islands are called the Mascarenes) in 1507; at that time it was uninhabited. The Portuguese having abandoned it after ninety years' possession, it was seized by the Dutch in 1598, who named it after their Prince Maurice (q.v.); but they in their turn abandoned it in 1710. It was the French governor Malé de Labourdonnais (1735-46) who introduced the sugar-cane, and laid the foundation of its prosperity as a colony, during the French occupation. Theodore Hook was treasurer in 1812-18.
See works by Grant (1801), Flemyng (1862), Ryan (1864), Boyle (1867), J. G. Baker (1877), and G. Clark (1881).