cuAP. II. ANNOYANCES ON BOAKD SHIP. 37 



making inquiries respecting several of the missionaries who 

 had formerly resided in Madagascar, and telling me he had 

 been the scholar of one of them, took my hand, and, pressing 

 it between both his own, expressed in French his pleasure in 

 seeing me, and uttered, in the most earnest and deliberate 

 manner, his fervent desire that the blessing of God might 

 rest upon me. After he had left us, I asked my host if he 

 knew who or luhat he was. He said he did not, that he was 

 from the interior, and had only recently come to Tamatave. 



Wlien on shore, we were welcomed to the hospitality of 

 M. Provint, a French merchant, and also visited M. De 

 Lastelle, who came to Tamatave for a few days while we were 

 there. The heavy rains, however, occasionally detained us on 

 board our vessel whole days together ; and then our imprison- 

 ment was irksome in the extreme. Our cabin was small, not 

 more than nine or ten feet long, seven feet wide, exclusive 

 of our berths, each about eighteen inches more, and seven 

 feet high, being half above and half below the deck. There 

 was neither skylight nor window, but small apertures, with 

 sliding covers on the sides, to admit air. All the light entered 

 by the door, so that when it rained, and the slides were closed, 

 and the door shut, we were in darkness and almost stifled. 

 Our captain and mate were inveterate smokers, and the fumes 

 of their tobacco, as they lay in their berths smoking, some- 

 times before they rose in the morning and after they lay 

 down at night, as well as at other times, were to Mr. Cameron 

 and myself, who could neither of us smoke, unpleasant in the 

 extreme. Our small cabin, eating-room, sitting-room, smoking- 

 room, drinking-room for all, was anything but clean. There 

 was a rickety table fixed in the middle, and on this 

 tobacco was cut up for smoking and the ashes of the pipe 

 knocked out; the wine, rum, coffee, or soup spilled on it; 

 the melted wax also dropped upon it, in which the candle 

 was fixed upright when a candle was needed ; while the oil 



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