The streets are laid out at rightangles, the principal of which lead from the Chaussee to the Champ de Mars, a plot of grassy land about half a mile square that intervenes between the town and the hills.

This is the promenade, the drive, the racecourse, and, in fact, the principal resort for the inhabitants.

It is skirted by houses and gardens and is a valuable acquisition to the town.

The Chaussee and other streets are well furnished with useful shops of which those of the Tinman, the Druggist, and the Conservateur et Patissier, are the most numerous.
The houses, generally of wood, are irregularly built, and far from being elegant in their appearance; those however that have been lately constructed by our countrymen have already given the place an appearance of solidity that it could not boast of before, and several substantial stone dwellings and stones have lately been erected.

The roads for seven or eight miles out of the town, leading to Pamplemousses, to Plains Wilhelms and to Moca districts, are very good and are kept in repair partly by Malabar convicts from India; but travelling beyond that distance is performed in palanquins which four bearers will carry, at a steady pace, at the rate of six miles per hour.
At the time of our visit there were few fruits ripe; but when we were about to sail the mango of delicious flavour began to be common; besides which there were coconuts, guavas, papaws, grapes, the letchy (or let-chis, a Chinese fruit) and some indifferent pineapples.