HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
407 
inexpedient at that time to admit of any communication 
with the coast, except through the immediate organs of the 
new government. Mr. Bennet was, therefore, called upon 
to exercise no small degree of parience,—and for how long 
a period, it was impossible to calculate. 
It is stated by Mr. Bennet, in a letter to his friend 
Mr. Montgomery, that in the morning after the funeral of 
Radama, he received a message to this purport:— u I told you, 
that when the time came that you should go to Tamatave, I 
should inform you. I shall send seven hundred soldiers to 
Tamatave: they set out to-morrow, and they will guard 
you.” With great difficulty leave was obtained for Mr. 
Griffiths, one of the Missionaries, to accompany Mr. Ben¬ 
net to the coast, and then it was only on condition that he 
should leave his wife and children behind, and promise not 
to quit Madagascar. Mr. and Mrs. Cummings being also 
desirous of availing themselves of an opportunity of going 
to Mauritius, were permitted to leave the island, and the 
party accordingly set out for the coast at the time appointed 
by the queen. 
“ At Ambohitamango, about the middle of our journey,” 
says Mr. Bennet, “ we learned that Prince Rataffe and his 
wife, (the nearest in blood to the late king, the latter being 
Radama’s eldest sister, were in that village on their way to 
the metropolis, whither they had been summoned by the 
new government. We saw, at once, that they were c going 
into the tiger’s mouth.’ They came to dine with us, and food 
was indeed many hours before us, but none touched a morsel. 
The interview was painful, and attended with peril to all. 
They felt that their death-warrant was sealed; and when 
they heard that their hopeful but unfortunate son had been 
slain, to paint the agony expressed in their countenances, 
