58 
MADAGASCAR. 
political life will make itself felt more and more 
as time passes, there can be no doubt. It is 
aggressive, patient, and sagacious, and already 
possesses wealth and influence, and under these 
conditions must soon possess a voice in local and 
domestic matters, which will be certain to be 
listened to with attention and respect. More 
than one of these people have already returned 
to their native country, carrying with them 
money, new ideas, some education, and a know¬ 
ledge of other lands, and of people more ad¬ 
vanced than themselves ; and in this—at present 
slender—current of emigration from Malagasy 
shores, we see the first signs of that condition of 
things, upon which we have already touched in 
these pages, when Madagascar will become the 
centre from which a well-organised system of 
commerce, a higher stage of civilisation, and a 
more extended wave of enlightenment and know¬ 
ledge, shall flow over the whole of the African 
continent. 
