CHAP. II. THE VILLAGE OF TAMATAVE. 33 



Madagascar had derived at least part of its present population, 

 promised me great facility in acquiring their language. This 

 promise, however, was not realised, for I found afterwards 

 that, though in many respects retaining the same simplicity 

 of structure and arrangement, it was in some instances more 

 defective, but in others, especially in the structure and appli- 

 cation of its verbs, far more extensive and complex, than the 

 Polynesian language. 



The village of Tamatave did not equal my expectations. 

 Almost the only good houses are those belonging to the 

 foreign residents and Hova officers. The dwellings of the 

 people are of an inferior kind, few of them new, and many 

 much dilapidated. We saw also but few people, and, on in- 

 quiring the cause, were told that though the population was 

 about 3000, most of the men had been removed to Hivondro, 

 a place about nine miles distant to the southward, where they 

 had been employed for some time past in erecting a fort or 

 stockade as a defence against the hostile visit which they 

 had been told might be expected from a large number of 

 English ships of war. 



As regards the mischief produced by unfounded reports, 

 the Malagasy are much to be pitied. Shut out from all in- 

 tercourse with the rest of the world, they are extremely liable 

 to be imposed upon by such reports, and to suffer severely in 

 consequence, as was the case in the present instance. So great 

 was their concern about the arrival of a hostile fleet of pro- 

 bably thirty ships, that a number of troops had been sent 

 from the capital on the occasion, and such was the haste with 

 which they had been sent, the fatigue of the service, the want 

 of proper supplies, and the effect of the climate, for it was in 

 the unhealthy season, that numbers of the men and, it was 

 said, one fourth of the officers had died. 



The Betsimasaraka, or people belonging to this part of the 



D 



