Adrien d'Épinay

At the beginning of the 19th century he helped found the Société royale des Arts et des Sciences de l'île Maurice, the Bank of Mauritius and the first 'independent' and daily newspaper in Mauritius, Le Cernéen, after the Portuguese name for the island, in which he published many virulently racist tracts against Blacks and people of colour.

[5] He also secured the right of colonists to serve on the Legislative Council, the abolition of monopoly, the establishing of a police force, the prosecution of abuse related to alcohol, and the lifting of censorship of the press.

His library of more than 3,000 volumes was bequeathed to the Collège Royal in Port Louis in 1839, and today forms part of the Bibliothèque Carnegie, but is threatened by inadequate preservation and restoration.

[6] The former house of d'Épinay became the home of politician and doctor Onésipho Beaugeard (1832-1898) and was also the birth place of poet Robert Edward Hart (1891-1954).

[7][8] In 1939 a statue of Adrien d'Epinay was erected at Jardin de la Compagnie in Port Louis to commemorate the centenary of his death.