Volltext Seite (XML)
276 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. CHAP. XI. creased by the wives and relations of the soldiers, bearers, and others who accompanied our party from Tamafave. A leg and part of the rump, and the tongue, were appropriated to myself and my immediate attendants. A steak of this, a fish from the adjacent lake, with rice and vegetables, and a cup of tea, supplied me with an acceptable supper. After dusk, and during the greater part of the evening, the chopping of fuel, and blazing of fires, each surrounded by per haps half-a-dozen cooks, some boiling rice, others broiling, baking, or roasting their meat in one direction, the laughter and mirth of those who were sitting on the ground at their evening meal as seen in other directions, presented an aspect of social life that can be but rarely witnessed; and it attracted my attention the more forcibly from this being the first time I had found myself surrounded by so numerous a company under similar circumstances. We were stirring by daylight the next morning. The men went forward with the packages; my attendant prepared a cup of tea, which I took with a biscuit before leaving my lodgings. One of my bearers was missing, but Sodra, a fine strong tall young man, who had, in a manner somewhat re markable, voluntarily attached himself to me ever since my arrival, had followed me from Tamatave, and now readily completed their number. After arranging with the aide-de- camp of the prince about the forwarding of letters, I took leave of the friends who intended to return to Tamatave. About eight o’clock we embarked in canoes upon the Hivon- dro, a broad river, said to be greatly infested with crocodiles. After proceeding by water two or three miles, we landed, and travelled about ten miles, reaching the small village of Am- balatambaca at eleven o’clock. The rain had fallen heavily during great part of the way, but the rofia cloth forming the cover of my palanquin, thick ening with the wet, had kept the inside perfectly dry. On the way I saw some splendid angrsecums. The finest plants