34 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. it. 



country, a hardy, robust, and somewhat athletic people, were 

 the only labourers we saw, and many of them were slaves. 

 The Hovas, their conquerors and masters, showed all the 

 activity, enterprise, intelligence, and acquisitiveness belonging 

 to their race, and everywhere exercised the prerogatives of 

 victors ; but, excepting when employed in government work, 

 the labour of the servile classes did not seem to be excessive 

 or severe, and scarcity of food, we were told, was not often 

 experienced in this part of the country. Yet I was astonished 

 at the small number of children, for there seemed to be 

 scarcely any large families, few with more than two or three 

 children, and many who were childless. 



The dress of the people in general did not indicate a state 

 of prosperity. The cessation of commercial intercourse with 

 Mauritius and Bourbon was probably felt more severely by 

 the people at Tamatave than by those of any other part of 

 the island, and may have produced the paucity of articles of 

 European clothing in this, the principal seaport, so apparent 

 amongst all classes at the period of our visit. We found the 

 people generally good-natured, and very anxious to hear about 

 the countries we had come from, as well as to talk about their 

 own ; willing at the same time to oblige us so far as the re- 

 gulations enforced by the government in respect to Europeans 

 would allow, and apparently glad that, in reference to our 

 visit, the strict prohibition of communication had been some- 

 what relaxed. 



I had taken out with me a number of copies of the Illus- 

 trated London Neivs, some exhibiting our sovereign. Queen 

 Victoria, as appearing on public occasions, and those exhibit- 

 ing the funeral of the late Duke of Wellington. Mr. Cameron 

 one day took several of these on shore, with which the people 

 were greatly delighted, and some of the highest officers re- 

 quested permission to keep them until the following day. No 

 picture amongst those taken on shore seemed to attract greater 



