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344 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. CHAP. XIII. officers were invited to come in. Three intelligent-looking young men, dressed in European style, entered, and address ing me in tolerable English, said they had been sent by the queen to bid me welcome to Madagascar, and to conduct me into the capital. I thanked them, and told them I was glad to hear them speak English so well. They said they knew a little, but very much wished to learn more. Leaving the house, these officers conducted me down the steep hill on which it was situated; and, on reaching the level ground below, I found two palanquins, each resembling an arm-chair, with poles attached to the sides. A purple cloak, lined with velvet, was hung over the back of one which had been sent by the prince; the other had been sent by a friend. The officers directed me to the former; and, as soon as I was seated, they mounted their horses, and, accompanied by their own attendants, led the way. My own empty palanquin and packages, following in the rear, made quite a long procession. Among the companions of my journey was an officer, at tended by a slave carrying, in a neatly made wicker cage, a pair of perfectly white guinea-fowls as a great rarity, and a present from the chief of a distant province to the prince. The morning was fine, and we had several good views of the “ city of a thousand towns,” for such is the import of the name of the capital of Madagascar, as we approached from the east. Antananarivo stands on a long oval- shaped hill, a mile and a half or more in length, rising four or five hundred feet higher than the surrounding country, and being seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. Near the centre, and on the highest part of the hill, or, as the natives express it, on the tampombohitra (crown of the town), stands the palace, the largest and loftiest building in the place. It is about sixty feet high; the walls are surrounded by double verandahs one above the other; the roof is lofty and steep, with attic win dows at three different elevations. On the centre of the top
