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180

The Seychelles Islands

On account of a cocoa nut
^coco de mer
peculiar to those islands
and a specimen of the leaf insect found there which I
have a short description of them may not be uninteresting.

These Islands form a cluster of some 20 or thirty lying
in the Indian Ocean. To the north and east of Madagascar
in South Latitude about 5° [?] Longitude 54° [?] East. Many
of them small but there are some good harbours among
them. Some of their hills range as high as four or five
hundred feet.

The inhabitants, seven or eight thousand, among
which are a good many white, grow rice, the sugar-cane
tobacco and coffee, cocoa nuts are also abundant.
The climate is reported healthy. Alligators are found there
and much caution is requisite in bathing. The French
once had a colony on one of the islands but they
were all ceded to the English in 1815.

The double cocoa-nut called the "Seychelles
cocoa-nut" is found on these Islands. The nut was
first found washed up on the shores of Islands far
distant from the Seychelles, and their place of growth
long unknown, until found growing in the valleys and
ravines by a young French officer.

Some medicinal properties attributed to it are
considered doubtful, but it is a most useful tree
to the natives. The substantial portion of the primitive
hut is built of it, and its foliage serves for thatch
and for making [hats?] baskets [etc?] whilst the shells
are converted into cups and vessels for holding
liquids [etc?] the specimen that I have is of two nuts
joined together but it is not unusual to find three
joined together in the same way and very often four.

The "Leaf Insect" Phyllium Siccifolium found in many