Letters , Extracts from Correspondence } Announcements , fyc. 117 
and I think he will be as good as his word ; but he does not 
know much about it. I have furnished him with the necessary 
materiel , and I hope he will be able to hire a man who can skin, 
and whose expenses I have agreed to pay. It would have been 
useless to have taken down a negro from this place, as they 
might probably keep him, which would be a bore. Altogether 
it is not without risk; and it is quite on the cards that he (S-) 
may not be allowed to go up the country, or if he is, that he may 
be detained some time: the Queen is very anxious to have some 
white blood introduced among her subjects; and Englishmen 
are liable to be kept for that purpose. There is a brig-of-war 
just starting to visit some of the ‘ Dependencies 3 of this place. 
There is a man going with her whom I hope to induce to make 
some skins ; but it is very doubtful if he will. He can skin very 
well, but does it more for the sake of what is commonly called 
f keeping curiosities 9 than anything else: it is a great pity one 
cannot get people to think as oneself does on this subject. I 
have heard nothing from the Seychelles, but I still expect to get 
a few things thence.” 
“Oct. 22, 1860. 
“ S——■ has returned from Madagascar : he was not able to 
get to the capital. They wrote to him from there that it was 
the same as Tamatave, and, therefore, if he had seen Tamatave 
he had seen the capital. The Queen also was the same as the 
governor of Tamatave; if therefore he had seen the governor 
of Tamatave, he had seen the Queen of Madagascar. He was 
three weeks at Tamatave, but was never allowed to go further 
than ten miles into the interior: the country was most rich in 
everything, and he was delighted with it. He only brought 
back two birds and the head of another: one, a Coua or Centropus: 
the second, a Porphyrio —the same as the skin I sent from here : 
the head, I expect, is that of Scopus umbretta • and S-tells me 
it is tolerably common, and goes by the name of f Faisan/ He 
found a man at Tamatave, a half-Hova, who was educated in 
France, and who is willing to undertake a large expedition into 
the interior in search of specimens of natural history. His 
pretensions, however, are large, as he declares that he should 
require ^2000 to do it well, and this to be paid beforehand. 
