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extent, the peculiar customs of its numerous population, the 
mode of its government, &c. bnt principally by the relations 
which the British Government keeps up there, with a view 
to civilize the people, and to impart to them an acquaintance 
with European arts and sciences. i 
Having been deputed by his Excellency Sir R. Townshend 
Farquhar, Bart. Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the 
island of Mauritius and its dependencies, to accompany James 
Hastie, Esq. the general agent in Madagascar, to Emerina, 
there to explore, in our capacity of naturalists, this. vast, and 
hitherto almost unknown country, and to contribute, by our 
discoveries, to the progress of the sciences, and of botany in 
particular, we here offer some sketches of our observations, 
made from the period of our arrival in Madagascar, in May, 
1822, to the time of our departure. 
I shall not dwell long on the provinces of Béhdzimicharac 
and Béhtanihména, which have been made known by the 
repeated visits of merchants, both because I did little more 
than pass through them, and because the fever which attacked 
me at the beginning of my tour in the interior, made me un- 
able to remark anything of importance. I shall, therefore, 
confine myself to what I observed in the province of Emerina, 
though there, also, I shall be obliged to repeat many things 
written some time ago by the able pen of Mr. Hastie. 
services have been rendered to science by the researches of the intelligent and 
indefatigable Naturalists, Messrs. Hilsenberg and Bojer. The journal of their 
residence at Emerina, the most extensive and most important province of Ma- 
dagascar, has been kindly communicated to me by my invaluable friend Mr. 
Telfair, with permission to publish such portions of it as I might think suited 
to the pages of the Botanical Miscellany. 1f I have, in making this selection, 
not confined myself to those portions of the Journal which were strictly botani- 
cal, I shall have, I trust, the approbation of my readers, on account of the 
highly curious details of the manners and customs that are given of a people 
little visited by Europeans, and only partially described by a few recent travel- 
lers. Mr. Hilsenberg has since died, during the voyage of Captain Owen, who 
surveyed the East Coast of Africa, in H. M. S. Leven, while M. Bojer, now 
Professor of Botany at the Royal College in the Mauritius, prosecutes there his 
favourite studies with unabated zeal.—Ep. —— 
