22 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. ii. 



appearance of some of the skulls of the English and French 

 killed in the attack on this place in 1845, and fixed on high 

 poles not far from the place where we had anchored, produced 

 a singular and not very pleasant sensation, as for the first time 

 I gazed on this revolting spectacle. 



Shortly after we had anchored, a large clumsy single canoe, 

 destitute of outriggers and paddled by a number of men, came 

 alongside, when a middle-aged man, followed by three or four 

 others, mounted the ship's side, and came into the cabin. 

 They had neither shoes nor stockings, but wore white shirts 

 under a cloth bound round their loins, with a large white 

 scarf, the native lamba, hanging in ample and graceful folds 

 over their shoulders, and broad-brimmed hats of neatly plaited 

 grass or fine rushes. As soon as they had entered, the chief 

 of the party, who we understood was the harbour master or 

 captain of the port, inquired in a very official manner, 

 speaking imperfect English, the name of the ship, of the 

 captain, mate, passengers, and crew, with the object of our 

 visit, &c. The answers to all these questions were written 

 down by one of his attendants, and he was explicitly in- 

 formed that the vessel was not sent on a trading voyage, but 

 simply to convey the letter of the merchants of Mauritius to 

 the queen, and to wait her majesty's reply. He said, if it 

 was only a letter, that had been sent before, and the queen 

 had returned her answer to the effect that no trade could be 

 allowed until the money required as compensation for the in- 

 sult and the wrong perpetrated in the attack on the country 

 in 1845 had been paid. He asked if it was right to go to a 

 country and shoot down the people because we did not like 

 their laws ? He soon informed us also that he had been a 

 member of the embassy sent to Europe in 1837 ; that he had 

 visited France and England, and knew that whoever went to 

 reside in either of these countries must be subject to the laws 

 of the country so long as they remained there ; that the laws of 



