50 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
"CHAP. II. 
lofty mountains of varied form, conical or peaked with broad 
shoulders, on which the clouds often rested, rising above the 
wooded ravine, with the fertile or rocky hills and vales, and, 
nearer the sea, the neat white villas, generally embowered 
among trees, and the wide-spreading cane-fields in fresh and 
lively green, all combined to produce an amount of pleasure 
which, while we looked upon them, almost made us forget for 
the time the discomfort of our position. At length, after being 
tantalised till midnight, on the 1st of September we anchored 
near the bell buoy outside the harbour, and were towed into 
the inner harbour by a steam tug early on the following 
morning. We lost no time in proceeding to the shore and 
seeking our friends, grateful for the Divine protection and 
goodness we had experienced amid the perils of the deep, 
through which we had been so mercifully preserved. 
