MADAGASCAR. 
170 
the Mauritius; but unfortunately the settlers 
were murdered in cold blood by the ferocious 
Sakalavas, who were then even more warlike 
and savage than they are now. The harbours 
of Vohimare and Diego Saurez are the chief 
centres of a limited but active commerce with 
Mauritius, Reunion, and even more distant islands. 
The neighbourhood of these ports is quite un¬ 
inhabited, except by the members of a half-savage 
tribe, who spend their time in hunting the herds 
of wild cattle which roam at will over the grassy 
plains, and share the cool shade of the verdant 
banks of the innumerable streams which inter¬ 
sect the meadow-land with the crocodiles which 
abound. These men intercept, in a clever man¬ 
ner, the calves of the herds, and cut them off 
from the parent stock, and then drive them away 
to some secluded spot, where they are tamed, 
and at length placed with the domestic cattle. 
The harbour of Vohimare is a broad and noble 
expanse of water, running inland in a westerly 
direction, and, as is often the case on these 
coasts, shut off from the full sweep of the Indian 
Ocean by a sunken coral reef, which rolls back 
the enormous breakers which burst upon it, and 
affords a welcome and secure shelter to the vessels 
which frequent it. The passage, however, be¬ 
tween the reef and the mainland is very narrow, 
and great care has to be exercised in entering, 
