256 VISITS TO MADAGASCAK. chaf. x. 



long as it was supposed he could hear. This, I was informed, 

 was in compliment to the visitor. 



Many of my former friends came to visit me in the course 

 of the day; and, among other indications of welcome, I 

 received a note from the governor, inviting me to a dinner to 

 be given on the same day to a foreigner about to proceed to 

 the capital. I was but ill prepared to appear at a public 

 dinner, and should have preferred being omitted in the number 

 of guests at this festive gathering; but as the governor seldom 

 invited the foreigners at the port to meet him, and I might 

 have been considered wanting in respect to the authorities of 

 the place had I declined, particularly as the invitation came 

 from two sources and was intended as a mark of respect, I 

 gratefully accepted it as such. 



The two officers sent to conduct me to the place, walked on 

 each side of me, one having a spear in his hand, the other a 

 naked sword. On arriving at the house of the chief judge, 

 where the company were assembled, the governor and other 

 chief officers gave me a very cordial welcome. Having 

 placed me next to himself at dinner, the governor, who had 

 been long a pupil of the missionaries and speaks English to- 

 lerably well, conversed in the most friendly manner during 

 the evening, and, when he proposed my health, wished me a 

 pleasant journey to the capital. I was somewhat surprised to 

 find my friend the harbour-master in the company, and to see 

 him whom I had visited and left ill in bed in the morning- 

 dancing with a Frenchman in the evening. 



It would have been deemed disrespectful for any one to de- 

 part before the health of the queen had been drunk by the 

 company ; but as soon as this had been done I took my leave 

 of the governor and his companions, and reached my residence 

 about nine o'clock. Here I found many of my former 

 friends, some of whom had come from a distance ; and with 

 them I remained in deeply interesting conversation until a 



