312 VISITS TO MADAGASCAE. cn.\p. xii. 



probably the proprietor of the village below, had selected for 

 his last resting-place. The Hova chiefs manifest considerable 

 solicitude about their graves ; and I was told that one of the 

 chief officers who died lately at the capital, requested of his 

 sons, shortly before his death, that after his interment they 

 would occasionally remove the large stone slab that would 

 form the door of his sepulchre, and let the sun shine in upon 

 him. 



During the morning I walked a considerable distance, 

 though the ground was wet, and much of our way through 

 the forest which covered the summit of the hill. Once or 

 twice in the intervals of open country, when the horizon was 

 clear, we again obtained a view of the distant ocean. The 

 view from one of these summits was extensive, varied, and 

 exceedingly beautiful ; but, at the same time, deeply affecting, 

 from the mournful associations with the past with which it 

 was connected. To the west, or before us as we were as- 

 cending, were the lofty wooded ridges which we yet had to 

 climb, and beyond the summits of these mountains the borders 

 of Imerina. To the east was the wooded and partly cultivated 

 valley immediately below us ; and, stretching to the north and 

 the south, and on the opposite sides of this valley, the de- 

 scending ridges of the mountain ranges over which we had 

 passed, diversified with rock, and herbage, and forest ; while 

 beyond these, in the far distance, swept the dim, dark, but yet 

 well-defined line of the wide waters of the ocean. This spot, 

 surrounded as it is by scenes of vastness, grandeur, and beauty, 

 is called "The Weeping-place of the Hovas;" a name of 

 just and mournful import, connected with the miseries of the 

 slave trade, which, by virtue of a treaty between this country 

 and England, was abolished in the year 1817. It has been 

 calculated that, previous to this period, between three and 

 four thousand unhappy beings were exported annually as 

 slaves. G-reat numbers of these came from the capital, where 



