People walking in a street of Port Louis, Mauritius. Wood engraving after H.G. Robley, 1881.

"Our engraving, which represents an ordinary street scene, is from a sketch by Major H.G. Robley, of the Sutherland and Argyll Highlanders, who writes as follows: 'Nearly every corner house is the shop of the patient, irrepressible heathen Chinee, who never smiles, doing a trade in almost everything, particularly that of selling cheap and poisonous liquors. ...'" The shop on the left sells coffins. A man wearing a cast-off uniform of the British army is talking to a policeman. The next shop, "Mr Ah Sin Brothers Consolidated retailer of colonial produce", sells liquor. "In the centre is a néné or nurse, who is taking a couple of snuff-and-butter coloured children to mass." An open drain runs down one side of the street. On the right is a poster: "Opera. La dame blanche. Le God Save. Emos Bazire. Le maire". 'La dame blanche' was an opéra comique by François-Adrien Boieldieu with book by Eugène Scribe, first performed in 1825