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34 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. CHAP. IJ. country, a hardy, robust, and somewhat athletic people, were the only labourers we saw, and many of them were slaves. The Hovas, their conquerors and masters, showed all the activity, enterprise, intelligence, and acquisitiveness belonging to their race, and everywhere exercised the prerogatives of victors; but, excepting when employed in government work, the labour of the servile classes did not seem to be excessive or severe, and scarcity of food, we were told, was not often experienced in this part of the country. Yet I was astonished at the small number of children, for there seemed to be scarcely any large families, few with more than two or three children, and many who were childless. The dress of the people in general did not indicate a state of prosperity. The cessation of commercial intercourse with Mauritius and Bourbon was probably felt more severely by the people at Tamatave than by those of any other part of the island, and may have produced the paucity of articles of European clothing in this, the principal seaport, so apparent amongst all classes at the period of our visit. We found the people generally good-natured, and very anxious to hear about the countries we had come from, as well as to talk about their own; willing at the same time to oblige us so far as the re gulations enforced by the government in respect to Europeans would allow, and apparently glad that, in reference to our visit, the strict prohibition of communication had been some what relaxed. I had taken out with me a number of copies of the Illus trated London News, some exhibiting our sovereign, Queen Victoria, as appearing on public occasions, and those exhibit ing the funeral of the late Duke of Wellington. Mr. Cameron one day took several of these on shore, with which the people were greatly delighted, and some of the highest officers re quested permission to keep them until the following day. No picture amongst those taken on shore seemed to attract greater