246 
MADAGASCAR 
market-place of Andohalo, across which ever 
and anon throughout the day may be seen little 
companies of bearers swiftly hurrying with their 
master or employer, who is leisurely seated in his 
ftlanjana on his way to or returning from an 
audience at the rova , or court. At the bottom 
of the hill upon which the city is built lies Imaha- 
masina, where all great state ceremonials are 
carried out, and where the coronation rites of the 
successive sovereigns of the island are completed 
in the presence of the assembled multitudes of 
the people. At various times in the history of 
Madagascar both these places have witnessed 
some strange and painful scenes, and have often 
echoed with the cries of terror-stricken crowds, as 
well as with the plaudits of rejoicing and peaceful 
assemblies. But few of those who met at Ando¬ 
halo on the morning of the 22d of November 
1883 will ever forget the circumstances of bright 
and happy augury which surrounded the corona¬ 
tion of her Majesty Banavalona III., the reigning 
sovereign of the island and people of Madagascar. 
The actual assumption of power had already 
taken place immediately on the decease of the 
late much-lamented and most beloved and ami¬ 
able Queen. The circumstances of the country 
and Government, and the fact that the Malagasy 
were at war with a foreign enemy who had 
landed upon their soil, and were at the moment 
