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VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. CHAP. II. dropping from a dirty lamp suspended from the top rendered it quite filthy, and it was never washed except by the rain beating in at the door. Our quarters had never been very comfortable; but after we had been in harbour for some time, our captain went to an island near the reef and brought away a number of demijohns of rum, which had been buried in the sand there some time before by a smuggling vessel from Mauritius; and after this, sometimes our officers drank very freely and got to fight ing on the deck. Eaw rum was sometimes given to the men in a large basin, after which, the yelling, quarrelling, and tumult that followed, made us really apprehensive for our safety in harbour, to say nothing of the prospect of our voyage back to Mauritius. I used to think that a voyage in a steamer like the “ Indiana ” would, from the many comforts it afforded, tend to spoil a missionary going to an uncivilised country; but a voyage in such a vessel as the “ Gregorio ” would most effectually counteract any such tendency. We certainly saw human nature under a phase somewhat new to ourselves, and probably different from most of its ordinary manifestations. Its development here was sometimes varied by our steward or cabin servant, who was quite an original—a native of Mau ritius, twenty-five or thirty years of age, healthy, strong, and good-looking. He had been servant to some English officers, of whose integrity and character he appeared to have formed a high estimate. He professed to be a Protestant, and was, in his way, at times very devout,—reading, and sometimes praying audibly, or silently, in one corner of our little dirty cabin, before stretching himself on the floor and folding his little dog Beauty in his arms as a means of composing himself to sleep. His knowledge of languages, besides his native Creole, consisted in a little English, which he was frequently using, a little Bengalee, and a little Malagasy. He was very fond