34 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR 
CHAP. II. 
country, a hardy, robust, and somewhat athletic people, were 
the only labourers we saw, and many of them were slaves. 
The Hovas, their conquerors and masters, showed all the 
activity, enterprise, intelligence, and acquisitiveness belonging 
to their race, and everywhere exercised the prerogatives of 
victors; but, excepting when employed in government work, 
the labour of the servile classes did not seem to be excessive 
or severe, and scarcity of food, we were told, was not often 
experienced in this part of the country. Yet I was astonished 
at the small number of children, for there seemed to be 
scarcely any large families, few with more than two or three 
children, and many who were childless. 
The dress of the people in general did not indicate a state 
of prosperity. The cessation of commercial intercourse with 
Mauritius and Eeunion was probably felt more severely by 
the people at Tamatave than by those of any other part of 
the island, and may have produced the paucity of articles of 
European clothing in this, the principal seaport, so apparent 
amongst all classes at the period of our visit. We found the 
people generally good-natured, and anxious to hear about 
the countries we had come from, as well as to talk of their 
own; willing at the same time to oblige us so far as the re¬ 
gulations enforced by the government in respect to Europeans 
would allow, and apparently glad that, in reference to our 
visit, the strict prohibition of communication had been some¬ 
what relaxed. 
I had taken out with me a number of copies of the Illus¬ 
trated London News , some exhibiting our sovereign, Queen 
Victoria, as appearing on public occasions, and those exhibit¬ 
ing the funeral of the late Duke of Wellington. Mr. Cameron 
one day took several of these on shore, with which the people 
were greatly delighted, and some of the highest officers re¬ 
quested permission to keep them until the following day. No 
picture amongst those taken on shore seemed to attract greater 
