CHAP. xiii. OFFICIAL VISIT FROM THE PALACE. 355 



capital, had desired me to tell the queen and government of 

 Madagascar, that all reports of hostile intentions on the part 

 of the English were untrue ; that the English government 

 never had entertained such intentions, and had no such inten- 

 tions now ; that they desired the prosperity of Madagascar, 

 and to be friendly with the queen and the government, hut 

 had no claim or wish to interfere with the government or 

 internal affairs of the country. That at the time of my de- 

 parture, the Earl of Clarendon had been sent by her majesty, 

 the Queen of England, to Paris, to assist, with the ministers 

 of France and other countries, in arranging for the peace of 

 Europe after the war wdth Kussia ; but that he had directed a 

 letter to be Amtten to me authorising the statements I had 

 made. I then produced and read the letter on the subject, 

 which I had received a few days previous to my departure 

 from England. I also delivered a letter from His Excellency 

 the Grovernor of Mauritius for the queen, and said I had some 

 presents for her majesty, which I should be happy to deliver 

 as soon as the remainder of my packages should arrive. The 

 chiefs all expressed themselves greatly pleased with the 

 friendly, straightforward, and disinterested statements of the 

 letter which I had read ; and after further conversation on 

 different subjects, they rose to return. The rustling of the 

 stiff silk lambas, and the jingling of the large loose gold 

 bracelets on the wrists of some of the chiefs as they shook 

 hands with me on leaving, produced a somewhat novel 

 effect. 



During my former visit to Tamatave, I had had much in- 

 timate, pleasant, and affectionate intercourse with an intelli- 

 gent chief, a native of the capital, but at that time a sort of 

 agent for the prince. Few were the days in which he did 

 not visit me ; and it was not until I was in the canoe, which 

 was to take me to the ship, that we parted. He had been, 

 shortly afterwards, attacked with the fever, and had died a 



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