A CANOE VOYAGE. 
107 
the past, and their known disregard for human 
life. Then perhaps, by way of contrast, we 
notice the placid features and genial bearing of 
an Indian or Parsee merchant, who looks the 
very personification of confidence and repose. 
These men are British subjects from Bombay, 
Madras, or Mauritius, and are generally respected 
and trusted by the native population, on account 
of their natural ability as men of business, and 
their benignity to those whom they employ. As 
we get further south, we notice amongst the 
passers-by a wilder look, and marks of a decided 
downward progress or falling off in civilisation. 
The grotesque appearance and the almost incom¬ 
prehensible dialect of some of the people who 
return our greetings, mark our approach to the 
borders of a less known and less cultivated class, 
the Antimora, already referred to. 
The dreaded Malagasy fever is supposed to be 
most fatal in its effects along this coast. Beauti¬ 
ful as the lakes and river deltas appear to the 
eye, they are the real sources of danger, and a 
swift death to the unwary and the fresh comer. 
This fever, about which so much has been said, 
is little understood, and consequently persons 
land in the country entirely ignorant of its 
peculiar character, and of the proper means to 
employ to check its ravages and to neutralise its 
effects. That it is one of the worst and most 
