252 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. CHAP. X. CHAP. X. Overland Route to Pointe de Galle— Detention in Ceylon. — Voyage to Mauritius. — Arrival in Madagascar. — Signs of increasing Traffic at Tama- tave. — First Night on Shore. — General Fondness of the People for Music. — Introduction of the Violin.—Dinner with the Governor.—Deaths of former Friends.—Applications for Medicine. —Presents from the Princes.— Visit from the Governor and Suite. — Astonishment excited by the Electric Telegraph. — The Queen’s Preference for running Messengers rather than the Wires..— Native Work in Iron. — Iron Smelting. — Native Smiths Message of Condolence from the Queen to a bereaved Family at Tamatave. Mode of estimating the Worth of the Deceased. — Homage to the Dead. — Scenes of Riot and Drunkenness. — The Governor’s Dinner to the Officers from the Capital. — Bearers engaged for the Journey. — The Government Sempstresses. Before leaving the Cape of Good Hope, in 1855, I had re ceived a letter from the Malagasy government, conveying to Mr. Cameron and myself permission to proceed to the capi tal ; and before the close of the year a second letter to the same effect reached me in London. Mr. Cameron, then residing at the Cape, had expressed his willingness to accom pany me; and as the permission, forwarded in this instance without solicitation on our part, might be regarded almost as an invitation, I did not feel it right to refuse to undertake another visit to the country. For this purpose, I embarked in one of the Peninsula and Oriental Company’s steamers at Southampton, on the 20th of March, 1856. We touched at Gibraltar and Malta, landed at Alexandria, and pursued the now often-traversed over land route to Suez. Here we embarked again on hoard the “ Nubia,” sailed down the Red Sea to Aden, and then, crossing