120 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAE. 
CHAP. T. 
the neighbourhood, generally accompanied with friendly salu¬ 
tations and expressions of welcome. 
As I had not yet received any answer to the letter sent 
from Mauritius to the secretary of the government, I wrote 
again informing the government of my having arrived on the 
coast, and asking permission to proceed to the capital. A day 
or two afterwards the answer arrived, and was to the effect 
that as Mr. Cameron and I had applied together last year, we 
must apply together now. I then wrote again stating that Mr. 
Cameron having gone to the Cape, I could not confer with 
him; that if the queen wished him to come, I would write 
and inform him of her majesty’s wishes; hut that as I was 
there I again solicited permission to proceed, in the mean 
time, to the capital. 
M. Provint, the friend who allowed me to occupy his 
house, also kindly promised to send me a cook to prepare 
such meals as I might take at home; and soon after this pro¬ 
posal had been made, a short, thick-set, woolly-headed youth 
arrived, clothed in a sort of frock made of coarse rofia cloth. 
He entered the room where I was sitting, telling me he had 
been sent to be my cook, and exhibiting a large spoon and a 
fork which he held in his hand, the emblems, I supposed, of 
his profession, or the implements of his craft. He was gene¬ 
rally sent to market to buy what was wanted, and proved 
tolerably well acquainted with the modes of dressing the dif¬ 
ferent kinds of food to be obtained in the place. I took my 
morning meal every day in the house in which I resided, and 
this generally consisted of rice with hashed or stewed beef, 
with the addition of eggs and tea, for which I obtained fresh 
milk every morning, part of which was always reserved for 
tea in the evening. 
These were the only meals I took at home, as the same 
kind friend who had sent me the cook invited me to his table, 
where I usually shared his hospitality at dinner. My walks 
