Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Announcements, ^c. 117 



and I think he will be as good as his word; but he does not 

 know much about it. I have furnished him with the necessary 

 materiel, and I hope he will be able to hire a man who can skin, 

 and whose expenses I have agreed to pay. It would have been 

 useless to have taken down a negro from this place, as they 

 might probably keep him, which would be a bore. Altogether 



it is not without risk ; and it is quite on the cards that he (S ) 



may not be allowed to go up the country, or if he is, that he may 

 be detained some time : the Queen is very anxious to have some 

 white blood introduced among her subjects; and Englishmen 

 are liable to be kept for that purpose. There is a brig-of-war 

 just starting to visit some of the 'Dependencies^ of this place. 

 There is a man going with her whom I hope to induce to make 

 some skins ; but it is very doubtful if he will. He can skin very 

 well, but does it more for the sake of what is commonly called 

 'keeping curiosities ' than anything else : it is a great pity one 

 cannot get people to think as oneself does on this subject. I 

 have heard nothing from the Seychelles, but I still expect to get 

 a few things thence.'^ 



" Oct. 22, 1860. 

 " S — — has returned from Madagascar : he was not able to 

 get to the capital. They wrote to him from there that it was 

 the same as Tamatave, and, therefore, if he had seen Tamatave 

 he had seen the capital. The Queen also was the same as the 

 governor of Tamatave ; if therefore he had seen the governor 

 of Tamatave, he had seen the Queen of Madagascar. He was 

 three weeks at Tamatave, but was never allowed to go further 

 than ten miles into the interior : the country was most rich in 

 everything, and he was delighted with it. He only brought 

 back two birds and the head of another: one, a Coua or Centrapus : 

 the second, a Porphyrio — the same as the skin I sent from here : 



the head, I expect, is that of Scopus umhretta ; and S tells me 



it is tolerably common, and goes by the name of ' Faisan.^ He 

 found a man at Tamatave, a half-Hova, who was educated in 

 France, and who is willing to undertake a large expedition into 

 the interior in search of specimens of natural history. His 

 pretensions, however, are large, as he declares that he should 

 require .^2000 to do it well, and this to be paid beforehaud. 



