120 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. v. 



the neighbourhood, generally accompanied with friendly salu- 

 tations and expressions of welcome. 



As I had not yet received any answer to the letter sent 

 from Mauritius to the secretary of the government, I wrote 

 again informing the government of my having arrived on the 

 coast, and asking permission to proceed to the capital. A day 

 or two afterwards the answer arrived, and was to the effect 

 that as Mr. Cameron and I had applied together last year, we 

 must apply together now. I then wrote again stating that Mr. 

 Cameron having gone to the Cape, I could not confer with 

 him ; that if the queen wished him to come, I would write 

 and inform him of her majesty's wishes; but that as I was 

 there I again solicited permission to proceed, in the mean 

 time, to the capital. 



M. Provint, the friend who allowed me to occupy his 

 house, also kindly promised to send me a cook to prepare 

 such meals as I might take at home ; and soon after this pro- 

 posal had been made, a short, thick-set, woolly-headed youth 

 arrived, clothed in a sort of frock made of coarse rofia cloth. 

 He entered the room where I was sitting, telling me he had 

 been sent to be my cook, and exhibiting a large spoon and a 

 fork which he held in his hand, the emblems, I supposed, of 

 his profession, or the implements of his craft. He was gene- 

 rally sent to market to buy 'what was wanted, and proved 

 tolerably well acquainted with the modes of dressing the dif- 

 ferent kinds of food to be obtained in the place. I took my 

 morning meal every day in the house in which I resided, and 

 this generally consisted of rice with hashed or stewed beef, 

 with the addition of eggs and tea, for which I obtained fresh 

 milk every morning, part of which was always reserved for 

 tea in the evening. 



These were the only meals I took at home, as the same 

 kind friend who had sent me the cook invited me to his table, 

 where I usually shared his hospitality at dinner. My walks 



