134 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAK. 
CHAP. V. 
Under these circumstances I had little reason to expect 
any change in the decision of the government, although I 
had been exempt from all symptoms of the disease. I felt 
that the chief object of my visit was deferred, if not alto¬ 
gether frustrated, by these regulations. While, therefore, I 
deeply regretted the extreme measures which the government 
had been induced to take, it only remained for me, after 
repeated conference with the officers of the place, to obtain 
all the information within my reach during the rest of the 
time that it would be safe, with regard to health, to remain 
on the island. 
The natives still continued to resort to my residence in 
considerable numbers. Frequently, as soon as the door was 
opened after daybreak in the morning, three or four men 
would be waiting for my coming out to them; while others,, 
who came in the evening, generally remained until a late 
hour of the night. Some came to see whatever might be 
new; others came to talk or hear; more came to apply for 
medicine; and numbers to look at the books and pictures 
that were generally lying on my table. An English work on 
Madagascar excited much interest from the pictures it con¬ 
tained of persons or places in their own country, especially 
an oil-coloured portrait of the chief of an adjacent district, 
who had been personally known to some of my visitors. To 
these objects of curiosity a still greater attraction was added 
in my photographic apparatus. When first opened at the 
Custom-House it had excited considerable notice and some 
inquiry; but when, after making the necessary arrangements 
in my house, I fixed my camera on the stand, and then took 
it out of doors for the purpose of adjusting it correctly, 
the people on the premises at the time, and those who were 
passing by, gathered round in a state of considerable excite¬ 
ment and expectation. 
When I had adjusted the focus, I told them that the in- 
