HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
209 
encouraged by the reception we had met with at Hivon- 
drona.” 
Mr. Bragg having promised to build the Missionaries a 
house, they proceeded to Mananarezo, where he imme¬ 
diately commenced collecting materials. By the 8th of 
September it was finished, and the school opened with six 
children. More were afterwards added, and applications 
from the parents of others declined for the present, the 
attempt being intended merely as an experiment. The 
parents of the scholars expressed themselves much gratified 
by what they saw and heard, and were especially delighted 
with the singing. The Missionaries were equally pleased 
with the capacity, the docility, and the proficiency of their 
pupils. If the reports they had heard reiterated, as to the 
deficiency of native talent, ever produced suspicion in their 
minds, they had now seen enough to banish every appre¬ 
hension on the subject, and to excite their pity for those 
whose prejudices were so groundless and injurious. 
The object of their preliminary visit to the island being 
thus accomplished, Messrs. Jones and Bevan set sail for 
the Mauritius, taking with them specimens of the writing 
of their scholars, and leaving their youthful charge under 
the promised superintendence of Mr. Bragg, who, however, 
dismissed them immediately after the Missionaries had 
embarked. 
They reached Port Louis the 9th of October, 1818, 
having employed the time during the voyage in the study 
of the Malagasy language, in committing sentences to 
memory, and in making the best possible use of the speci¬ 
mens of the language they had been able to collect on the 
coast, and in forming some rules for the use of the characters 
by which the sounds of the language might be most dis¬ 
tinctly expressed. 
ii. p 
