50 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. ii. 



lofty mountains of varied form, conical or peaked with broad 

 shoulders, on which the clouds often rested, rising above the 

 wooded ravine, with the fertile or rocky hills and vales, and, 

 nearer the sea, the neat white villas, generally embowered 

 among trees, and the wide-spreading cane-fields in fresh and 

 lively green, all combined to produce an amount of pleasure 

 which, while we looked upon them, almost made us forget for 

 a time the discomfort of our position. At length, after being 

 tantalised till midnight, on the 1st of September we anchored 

 near the bell buoy outside the harbour, and were towed into 

 the inner harbour by a steam tug early on the following 

 morning. We lost no time in proceeding to the shore and 

 seeking our friends, grateful for the Divine protection and 

 goodness we had experienced amid the perils of the deep, 

 through which we had been so mercifully preserved. 



