191 
CHAPTER X. 
NEW GROUND. 
Until very recent times all that has been written 
or told concerning Madagascar has had reference 
almost entirely to the Hovas and the Betsimi- 
saraka, and to the province of Imerina, and the 
east coast of the island. Some knowledge, far 
too meagre to satisfy scientific minds, has been 
gained of the north-west, it is true; but south¬ 
western Madagascar, the country of the Bara, 
the Tanala, and a part of the district peopled by 
the Betsil^o, has so far been to Europeans a 
mysterious and dark region, which no traveller 
had ventured to explore, and whose secrets had 
yet to be brought out into the light of day. 
The turn of the south has come at length, how¬ 
ever, and through the energy and perseverance 
of my old friend and fellow-voyager in past days, 
the Eev. W. Deans Cowan, F.R.G.S., the rich 
treasures which it has long kept securely hidden 
from the naturalist and the man of science are 
