CIIAP. JI. 
ANNOYANCES ON BOARD SHIP. 
37 
making inquiries respecting several of the missionaries who 
had formerly resided in Madagascar, and telling me he had 
been the scholar of one of them, took my hand, and, pressing 
it between both his own, expressed in French his pleasure in 
seeing me, and uttered, in the most earnest and deliberate 
manner, his fervent desire that the blessing of Grod might 
rest upon me. After he had left us, I asked my host if he 
knew who or what he was. He said he did not, that he was 
from the interior, and had only recently come to Tamatave. 
When on shore, we were welcomed to the hospitality of 
M. Provint, a French merchant, and also visited M. De 
Lastelle, who came to Tamatave for a few days while we were 
there. The heavy rains, however, occasionally detained us on 
board our vessel whole days together; and then our imprison¬ 
ment was irksome in the extreme. Our cabin was small, not 
more than nine or ten feet long, seven feet wide, exclusive 
of our berths, each about eighteen inches more, and seven 
feet high, being half above and half below the deck. There 
was neither skylight nor window, but small apertures, with 
sliding covers on the sides, to admit air. All the light entered 
by the door, so that when it rained, and the slides were closed, 
and the door shut, we were in darkness and almost stifled. 
Our captain and mate were inveterate smokers, and the fumes 
of their tobacco, as they lay in their berths smoking, some¬ 
times before they rose in the morning and after they lay 
down at night, as well as at other times, were to Mr. Cameron 
and myself, who could neither of us smoke, unpleasant in the 
extreme. Our small cabin, eating-room, sitting-room, smoking- 
room, drinking-room for all, was anything but clean. There 
was a rickety table fixed in the middle, and on this 
tobacco was cut up for smoking and the ashes of the pipe 
knocked out; the wine, rum, coffee, or soup spilled on it; 
the melted wax also dropped upon it, in which the candle 
was fixed upright when a candle was needed; while the oil 
