186 VISITS TO MADAGASCAE. chap, vii, 



soil, light, rich, and well watered. The low level flat on which 

 the settlement stands, the dampness of the ground, and the 

 abundance of water, though favourable to the growth of 

 garden and other produce, seemed likely to render Foule 

 Pointe less healthy than the comparatively diy situation of 

 Tamatave. The vegetation around the bay was extremely 

 luxuriant, and I do not remember ever having seen finer 

 cocoa-nut trees than those growing near the water on the 

 southern side. Some small tame animals with ringed tails, 

 like the racoon, and some black and white lemurs, were the 

 only animals of any considerable size which I saw here ; but 

 I noticed some large and very beautiful lizards, dark green 

 and yellow, of greater size and more plump than any I had 

 before seen either in Polynesia, Mauritius, or in Madagascar. 



On the forenoon of this day I met a chief from the capital, 

 who spoke French and a little English. He was a young 

 man of considerable intelligence, and when some of my 

 friends showed him the likenesses which had been taken at 

 Tamatave, he expressed a great desire to have his own. I 

 told him I had no proper materials, but would endeavour to 

 show him the process by which it was done. He repeated 

 his wish to have his likeness, and sent a slave for his lamba, 

 as he said he wished to be taken in the costume of his coun- 

 try. As soon, however, as the camera had been taken to the 

 appointed place, the sound of music — a drum and clarionet — 

 announced the approach of the governor, who passed by in 

 his palanquin, attended by one officer on horseback and a 

 number on foot, surrounded and followed by a sort of body 

 guard, wearing the native white salaka or cloth round the 

 loins, over which their cartouche-box was fastened by a black 

 belt, and each armed with a musket or spear. 



On my entering the house where the governor had alighted, 

 he very cordially welcomed me in English, which I supposed 

 he had learned while on board one of the English ships of 



