128 
MADAGASCAR. 
and our bearers as well as ourselves enjoyed the 
rest and refreshment tendered us by the poor 
people of Amoromanga. 
After another progress of a day, a halt is 
made at Ankerimadlnaka, just beyond the lofty 
peak of Angavo, to enable all to prepare them¬ 
selves for a formal entrance into the chief city 
of the Hova kingdom. There were unmistak¬ 
able signs on all sides that we were in its 
vicinity, in the appearance of greater neatness 
and care about the houses and dress of the 
people; and we could not refrain from bearing 
testimony to the change for the better which 
was visible in the language and manners of the 
natives, as well as in their material surroundings, 
even within a few years. There is, however, 
with all this progress, a supercilious air prevail¬ 
ing amongst the younger and more educated 
class of the community, which we found after¬ 
wards at the capital as painful and annoying as 
it was general. The self-conceit and even fop¬ 
pishness of some of the native teachers and 
preachers we noticed ; and the obviously mercan¬ 
tile spirit with which they entered into the work 
of evangelising their fellow-countrymen, as well 
as their eagerness to grasp the temporal advan¬ 
tages, whilst being sadly slow to accept the self- 
denial which the new system of faith and morals 
offered for their acceptance, is a trait of Hova 
