218 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. viii. 



gagements of the day by a devotional meeting at the 

 missionary's house, where we were joined by two or three 

 English friends from the neighbourhood. The last day was 

 spent in public deliberations with the people, who expressed 

 themselves deeply sensible of their obligations to the Christians 

 in England for the religious instruction they had long been 

 receiving, and they engaged for the future to provide these 

 advantages for themselves. They also exj)ressed their hopes 

 of being able, at no distant period, to assist the society in its 

 widely-extended operations. We had hoped to have extended 

 our journey to Gfriqua town, and I had previously "written to 

 INIr. Moffat, and other missionaries, to meet us there ; but the 

 difficulty of obtaining horses, on account of the sickness and 

 the state of the Vaal river beyond Philippolis, which had not 

 been passable for some time, deprived us of the pleasure of 

 meeting these friends, and obliged us to turn our steps back 

 towards the colony. 



Late in the evening we took leave of the hospitable 

 missionary and his family, and, after receiving many ex- 

 j)ressions of good-will from the people of the place, proceeded 

 in a waggon drawn by six horses, which they kindly lent us, 

 towards the Orange Kiver, where we arrived soon after mid- 

 night. 



Early the next morning we recrossed the river without 

 difficulty, and found the encampment we had left five days 

 before, broken up and dispersed. As soon as our horses were 

 harnessed we commenced our journey southward; but, although 

 we stopped at two houses on the road, we obtained no forage 

 until near sunset, when we reached a place called Driefontayn. 

 Here, our cattle were not only well cared for, but, by the 

 hospitality of the good people, we ourselves were provided 

 with a good supper and comfortable bed. In the room in 

 which we sat I noticed a Dutch translation of one of our most 

 useful little books, " The Sinner's Friend," lying on the table 



