132 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
Although the general aspect of the country is described 
by Le Sage as beautiful and luxuriant in the extreme, yet 
famine and misery presented themselves at every view 
amongst a people who were contented to suffer the same 
privations year by year, rather than provide, by their own 
industry, for the wants of the future. 
As he advanced into the interior of the country, the 
people, unaccustomed to the sight of white men, flocked 
around them with eager curiosity; but, in other respects, 
their behaviour was inoffensive, and even obliging, and the 
chiefs through whose districts he passed, treated him with 
respectful attention. Nothing, however, which they had 
to offer in the way of kindness or civility, could, in any 
degree, compensate for the dangers and hardships to which 
he was exposed, and which increased considerably as he 
advanced; and as the numbers who would otherwise have 
conveyed provisions and other necessaries for his use by the 
way, were thinned off by sickness and death, some wholly 
unable to encounter farther fatigue, and others left behind 
to linger out their few remaining days under the distressing 
fever incident to the country at that season. Before the 
party were cheered by the advance of Radama’s messengers 
to meet them, their path had become almost impracticable, 
the level parts of it lying through undulated rice-grounds, 
where no solid footing was to be found, the higher over 
mountains whose sides were so precipitous, that in ascending 
they could only support themselves by clinging to the roots 
of the trees. At this time the rain was falling in such tor¬ 
rents, that, to use the words of Le Sage, it seemed as if 
the cataracts of heaven were opened upon them. It was 
with the greatest difficulty they kept their footing; the 
streams and rivers flowing from the hills with such rapidity, 
as to compel them to slide down many of the declivities. 
