2-2i VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. cuap. viii. 



in a chasm between two rocks, leaving her there to die ; and 

 when his fellow-servants had expostulated with him in vain, 

 they brought the poor woman away, and, at the time of our 

 visit, she was still living with her son and his wife on the farm. 

 The horse-sickness was at this time so severe in the neigh- 

 bourhood, that we left our horses at Orange Grove, and pro- 

 ceeded with oxen to Somerset, now a thriving village, but 

 formerly a government farm, for many years under the charge 

 of Mr. Hart, the father of our host at Orange Grrove. Here I 

 passed the Sunday with Mr. Grregrowsky, the missionary, and 

 his family ; and was pleased with the earnestness of some of 

 the people who applied for additional means for the education 

 of their children. Before leaving, I also visited the beautiful 

 and extensive farm of Grien Avon, about four miles from 

 Somerset, where I was hospitably entertained by Mr. Hart, 

 sen., and his daughter Mrs. Stretch. I felt great pleasure 

 in I) ing under the roof of this venerable patriarch, who had 

 been sixty years in the colony, and whose name I had long 

 held in high esteem on account of the kindness he had shown 

 to two justly valued friends — one of them Mr. Williams, the 

 devoted missionary to the Caffres, whom I had known in 

 England, and whose name, although he has been dead six and 

 thirty years, is still cherished with grateful affection by the 

 people amongst whom he laboured. The widow of this de- 

 voted man, suddenly and unexpectedly left alone with two 

 helpless infants, amongst what were then designated a savage 

 and murderous people, had herself to instruct them how to 

 make a rude coffin and to dig a solitary grave for the remains 

 of her departed husband ; and it was in this season of lone- 

 liness and trial, that she found a prompt and faithful friend 

 in Mr. Hart. Hearing of her calamity, he hastened to the 

 spot at the peril of his own life, endeavouring, with words of 

 kindness, to soothe her anguish, and finally conveying herself 

 and her children, with sympathy and tenderness, from the 



