CHAP. II. APPEARANCE OF TA MAT AVE. 21 



were spent, who, after committing to the deep his eldest child, 

 died during a voyage from Madagascar to INIauritius in the 

 miserable hold of a bullock .ship, stretched on a mattress 

 spread upon bags of rice, and separated only by bags of rice 

 from the cattle in the hold ; and although the circumstances 

 in which our last hours may be passed are of little conse- 

 quence in comparison with the results to which they tend, 

 I certainly felt at the time that I should not like to pass my 

 last night in such a cabin, or to die under such circumstances. 



At midnight our course was changed, and we steered again 

 towards the shore with the wind slightly favourable. By 

 eight o'clock the land was visible, notwithstanding clouds 

 and rain. At noon we were near enough to see the hollow 

 of the line of coast on which Tamatave is situated, and to dis- 

 tinguish the white native flag floating over the battery ; and 

 about one o'clock on the 18th we cast anchor at a short dis- 

 tance within the reefs and about a mile and a half from the 

 village, grateful for that Divine protection through which we 

 had reached in safety our destined port. 



The anchorage at Tamatave is little more than a roadstead, 

 protected by reefs, but exposed to the winds from the east 

 and the north. There is considerable space mthin the reefs, 

 and the holding ground is good. The village of Tamatave 

 seemed to be built upon a point of land stretching into the 

 sea towards the south, which we afterwards found to be not 

 more than three or four hundred yards wide, its surface di- 

 versified by sand-hills thro\vn up by the wind or sea to the 

 height of fifteen or twenty feet above the ordinary level of 

 water. This low shore appeared generally covered mtli brush- 

 wood, rushes, or grass, and the several species of pandanus near 

 the beach towards the north, with a few tall cocoa palms grow- 

 ing to the south of the anchorage, gave quite a tropical character 

 to its vegetation, though much less rich and luxuriant than the 

 verdant and beautiful bays among the South Sea Islands. The 



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