23 



slung on board by tackles from the yard-arm. From the shout- 

 ing and cries of the native drovers, the struggles of the oxen, 

 and their starting back from the water, it was often a very 

 exciting scene. A number of these bullockers were always 

 passing between the eastern ports of Madagascar and the 

 islands of Mauritius and Reunion, and kept the markets of these 

 places supplied with beef at moderate rates. The vessels 

 generally ceased running for about four months in the early 

 part of the year, when hurricanes are prevalent in the Indian 

 Ocean ; and it may easily be supposed that the passenger 

 accommodation on board these ships was not of the first order. 

 However, compared with the discomforts and, often, the danger 

 and long delays endured by some, I had not much to complain 

 of in my first voyage to Madagascar. It had, at least, the 

 negative merit of not lasting long, and I had not then the 

 presence of nearly three hundred oxen as fellow-passengers 

 for about a fortnight, as on my voyage homewards, when I had 

 also a severe attack of malarial fever. 



The native houses of Tamatave, like those of the other coast 

 villages, were of very slight construction, being formed of a 

 framework of wood and bamboo, filled in with leaves of the 

 pandanus and the traveller's tree. In a few of these some 

 attempts at neatness were observable, the walls being lined with 

 coarse cloth made of the fibre of ro/ia-palm leaves, and the floor 

 covered with well-made mats of papyrus. But the general 

 aspect of the native quarter of the town was filthy and repulsive ; 

 heaps of putrefying refuse exhaled odours which warned one to 

 get away as soon as possible. In almost every other house a 

 large rum-barrel, ready tapped, showed what an unrestricted 

 trade was doing to demoralise the people. 



I could not help noticing the strange articles of food exposed 

 for sale in the little market of the Betsimisaraka quarter. Great 

 heaps of brown locusts seemed anything but inviting, nor were 

 the numbers of minute fresh-water shrimps much more tempting 

 in appearance. With these, however, were plentiful supplies of 

 manioc-root, rice of several kinds, potatoes and many other 

 vegetables, the brilliant scarlet pods of different spices, and 

 many varieties of fruit pine-apples, bananas, melons, peaches, 

 citrons and oranges. Beef was cheap as well as good, and there 

 was a lean kind of mutton, but it was much like goat-flesh. 



