192 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR chap. vir. 



As we approached the shore the summits of the Peter Both, 

 the Ponce, and other mountains which I had photographed 

 more than once, looked very familiar. On the 30th of Sep- 

 tember we entered the harbour of Port Louis, having been 

 favoured with a smooth, pleasant, and unusually quick passage. 

 One of the native teachers came on board our vessel, and on 

 the beach I was cordially welcomed by M. Le Brun,who kindly 

 invited me to his house. Here, while renewing my inter- 

 course with his family, I was deeply affected by the mournful 

 accounts I received of the fearful devastations of the cholera, 

 from which the island was even then scarcely free. During 

 the day I called on some of my remaining friends, several of 

 whom I found ill, not having recovered from the anxiety and 

 depression they had suffered during the prevalence of the 

 disease, and some of them had themselves been more or less 

 affected. I felt an indescribable sadness as I went from one 

 house to another. The place seemed no longer the same, 

 death had made so many fearful chasms. My meeting with 

 the survivors of some of my most valued friends, Mr. Kelsey's 

 family in particular, was to me peculiarly sorrowful, especially 

 the meeting with his daughter, who had always been a member 

 of the happy family circle to which I had so often been ad- 

 mitted. 



During my short stay in Mauritius several opportunities 

 occurred for receiving communications from Madagascar, but 

 no tidings arrived of any change in the views of the govern- 

 ment or the progress of public events in that country. In 

 the month of November, having received letters from England 

 which rendered it desirable to direct my course to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, I immediately prepared for departure, and on the 

 20th of December sailed from Port Louis in the " Annie," 

 a small brig of about one hundred and twenty tons' burden, 

 bound for Table Bay, which I reached in safety two and 

 twenty days after leaving Mauritius. 



