90 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR 
CHAP. IV. 
were regaled with a sort of sweetened drink, or syrup, and we 
returned to M. Cheron’s, where a company of between twenty 
and thirty sat down to what was designated a dejeuner , but 
in reality a substantial dinner, under the broad verandah out¬ 
side the house. 
M. Cheron is a person of colour, and a man of great force 
of character, as well as industry and intelligence; a respectable 
and prosperous planter, owning more than one estate, and 
employing 356 Indian labourers. He is a member of the 
church under the pastoral care of M. Le Brun, in Port Louis, 
and a zealous and efficient coadjutor in the promotion of 
measures for the instruction and spiritual benefit of the people 
in the district in which he resides, and where he is held in 
high and deserved estimation. 
Towards evening I walked with M. Cheron over part of 
his plantation, admiring the view of rich and varied land¬ 
scape of cane-fields and mountains, which successive elevations 
afforded; and almost astonished at the size attained by the 
canes, which in some places were twelve or fifteen feet high. 
Soon after nine the next morning I joined the family 
assembly in the great house. It was quite a patriarchal 
gathering. Besides M. and Mme. Cheron, and their oldest 
son and daughter in the prime of youthful life, the father 
and mother of the former Mme. Cheron, and one of her sisters, 
were permanent members of the household. Then there was 
another sister, a widow, and several daughters, besides others 
more or less related to the hospitable host. All appeared to 
constitute one harmonious family. The breakfast-table was 
spread at one end of a large verandah, perhaps eight feet 
wide, and extending the whole length of the house. The 
viands were abundant, rice being the substitute for bread, and, 
as a guest, I was provided with tea. 
In the forenoon I accompanied M. Cheron to his sugar- 
works, where the new processes of preparing the sugar by 
