2G2 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. ciiAr. x. by working the handles of the instrument signified, according to their number and direction, the letters of the alphabet, and thus spelt the words of the message that was sent, and also caused the needles at the other extremity of the wire to make the same deflections, signifying the same letters, whereby the observer there could read the message as plainly and nearly as quickly as a written communication. They seemed to comprehend and rejoice in the perception of the simple mode of representing letters by motions of the needles; but what the power was which travelled so instanta neously and imperceptibly along the wire, moving the needles so accurately at the distant end, they could neither compre hend nor imagine. I could only tell them that it was a force or power very widely diffused, and performing an important part in the operations of nature, which was called electricity ; but what that electricity really was the wisest men amongst us did not know, though they were able by means of its power to perform things truly wonderful. It was not the blank unques tioning wonder of stolid ignorance, satisfied that the facts were something beyond immediate comprehension, and there fore probably supernatural, which they manifested, but the surprise and intense interest of thinking men who seemed to feel that they had acquired a new mental treasure, though they yet only half understood the wonders before them. The mystery of the telegraph seemed greatly increased when they were informed that the fluid would ignite gun powder, and that a cannon could be fired off by a person many miles distant by means of a wire extending from the galvanic battery to the powder in the touch-hole of the gun. On my arrival subsequently at the capital, I heard that a Frenchman residing there had, a short time before, received a set of telegraphic apparatus, and, after exhibiting it on a small scale, had offered to establish telegraphic communication between Tamatave and the capital, and then present the