22 
MADAGASCAR. 
made his last voyage soon after this. The ship 
he commanded was more nnseaworthy than usual, 
and the tempest proved too much for her, and the 
good, genial, old sailor went down to a sailor s 
grave coffined in his ship. 
We reached the outer bar of the port of 
Tamatave in the evening of September 19; and 
although it was very dark and there were no 
harbour - lights, our commander, out of sheer 
kindness, that we might have a good and 
quiet night’s rest inside the bar, ran us in and 
over the bar, entering by rule of thumb—a feat 
about which the old sea-dog boasted afterwards, 
but for which, I have reason to know, he was 
severely reprimanded by the owners of the ship 
and cargo on board. The next morning: we rose 
with the sun, and saw, for the first time, the town 
of Tamatave at our feet, and, stretching away in 
the distance, the hills and mountains of the 
country we had travelled so far to see, and about 
which we had read and heard so much that was 
remarkable and interesting. We saw by the 
inscription of the flag of the Hova fort that the 
wise and tender-hearted Queen Nanavalona II. 
still lived and ruled. We were thankful for this, 
as otherwise we knew that the purpose of our 
journey would have been in a great measure 
defeated. 
One of our first visitors on board was the 
