48 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. ii. 



on the evening of the 8th of August, at a late hour, took leave 

 of our kind friends at the water's edge and proceeded to our 

 ship, grateful for the hospitality shown us by the foreign 

 traders, and for the good feeling and general kindness mani- 

 fested by the chiefs and people. 



Early on the following morning M. Duprat, a native of 

 Italy, who had been some years on the island, but had suf- 

 fered much from fever, from which he was not yet recovered, 

 came on board, and we soon afterwards made sail towards 

 Mauritius. Our voyage, owing to head winds, calms, the bad 

 condition of our rigging, and other causes not unattended 

 with danger, was unusually tedious, and from the incon- 

 veniences on board, and the conduct of the officers, it was 

 excessively painful. 



The sun's rays were generally too strong to allow us to 

 leave our little close cabin during the daytime, and when we 

 did so, as there was scarcely more than a few feet of clear 

 space on deck, exercise was impossible. The only season of 

 relief was the evening, and this pleasant time, unless pre- 

 vented by rain, I always spent on deck, watching the sea and 

 the stars ; or musing on the land I had recently left, with the 

 deeply interesting state of the people by which it was in- 

 habited ; or thinking of others more remote in my far distant 

 and happy home ; and occasionally listening to the mellow or 

 falsetto voices of one or two of the Malagasy sailors, who 

 sometimes beguiled the hours of the evening watch with their 

 simple native songs. 



Ever since we had expressed our apprehensions in conse- 

 quence of the large quantity of rum brought on board our 

 ship, our captain had not only seemed less anxious to make 

 our position comfortable, but had occasionally given us un- 

 necessary annoyance. One day the cabin boy told me he had 

 been ordered to pour a kettle of boiling water over some choice 

 plants which I had brought from Madagascar and was anxious 



