EN - Magazine (Online Magazine) - Flipbook - Page 11
Their names are
Charles, Robert
& Paul...
Text: Jean-Pierre Lenoir
...And all three shared a deep
affection for the far South of our
island, which is why they lived
there and became celebrated for
their great contributions to the
country.
One of them, Charles Telfair
(1777- 1833), was a botanist and
natural historian. Irish by birth,
nothing, other than fate, could
have suggested he would end
up living in Mauritius. His life
here was so intense and rich in
achievements that he made a
point of dying here in his beloved
Bel Ombre! The second, Paul-Jean
Toulet (1867- 1920), was born in
Pau to Mauritian parents but the
island, “a garden which some god
perhaps had placed amidst the
ocean”, made a deep impression
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9
on him. He lived here for three
years although worn down by
alcohol and opium. The third,
Robert Edouard Hart (18911941), was born in Mauritius, in
Tranquebar, and lived in his small
coral-stone house in Gris Gris
until his death in 1941.
They all left an indelible imprint
on the region but were very
different characters. After all,
while Telfair was a surgeon and a
planter, Toulet was a writer and
Hart a major poet. If we let our
imagination run loose, we can
dream up an evening when the
three men meet up together.
The setting might be at Charles
Telfair’s home in Bel Ombre,
between the hillsides and the sea.
What might have happened?
