THE MAURITIUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 630, 16 August 1851, Page 3

THE MAURITIUS.

[From the Sydney Morning Herald}. The Mauritian journals to the sth of April, just received by us, contain one matter of peculiar interest. A long continued and extensive system of poisoning by the Indian confectioners had

been discovered, and had, naturally, caused considerable excitement. One hundred and forty-one cases, ranging over several years, bad been traced by the police to these people. The poisonous substance generally used* by them is the Datura Stramonium, or thorn apple, a plant which grows in nearly every district of the island. The squatting Indians, who keep huts on the road side, and who hold licenses to vend pastry and sweetmeats, mix this apple either in their cakes, or in rice or manioc ; aud those who partake of it soon become insensible, so prompt is the poisou in its operation. The victims have generally been Indian labourers proceeding to Port Louis from the rural districts to purchase supplies. Waylaid by the poisoners, they are induced to partake of enticing pastry or confections, and, soon stupified, they are easily robbed. This effected, they are conveyed some distance from the hut, and left either to die or to be picked up by casual passers-by. If succour be given soon the case seldom terminates fatally, but the memory of the victims has become paralysed, and . no account-can be given of the'place where the poison was given or the person who gave it; and although the system has been discovered, and licenses taken from the Indians, in no case has sufficient evidence been obtained to bring the poisoner to justice.