134 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. v. 



and another vessel from the Cape, with horses on board, was 

 subject to the same restrictions. 



Under these circumstances I had little reason to expect 

 any change in the decision of the government, although I 

 had been exempt from all symptoms of the disease. I felt 

 that the chief object of my visit was deferred, if not alto- 

 gether frustrated, by these regulations. While, therefore, I 

 deeply regretted the extreme measures which the government 

 had been induced to take, it only remained for me, after 

 repeated conference with the officers of the place, to obtain 

 all the information within my reach during the rest of the 

 time that it would be safe, with regard to health, to remain 

 on the island. 



The natives still continued to resort to my residence in 

 considerable numbers. Frequently, as soon as the door was 

 opened after daybreak in the morning, three or four men 

 would be waiting for my coming out to them ; while others, 

 who came in the evening, generally remained nntil a late 

 hour of the night. Some came to see whatever might be 

 new ; others came to talk or hear ; more came to apply for 

 medicine ; and numbers to look at the books and pictures 

 that were generally lying on my table. An English work on 

 Madagascar excited much interest from the pictures it con- 

 tained of persons or places in their own country, especially 

 an oil-coloured portrait of the chief of an adjacent district, 

 who had been personally known to some of my visitors. To 

 these objects of curiosity a still greater attraction was added 

 in my photographic apparatus. When first opened at the 

 Custom-House it had excited considerable notice and some 

 inqviiry ; but when, after making the necessary arrangements 

 in my house, I fixed my camera on the stand, and then took 

 it out of doors for the purpose of adjusting the focus, &c., 

 the people on the premises at the time, and those who were 



