186 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. VII. 
soil, light, rich, and well watered. The low level flat on which 
the settlement stands, the dampness of the ground, and the 
abundance of water, though favourable to the growth of 
garden and other produce, seemed likely to render Foule 
Pointe less healthy than the comparatively dry situation of 
Tamatave. The vegetation around the bay was extremely 
luxuriant, and I do not remember ever having seen finer 
cocoa-nut trees than those growing near the water on the 
southern side. Some small tame animals with ringed tails, 
like the racoon, and some black and white lemurs, were the 
only animals of any considerable size which I saw here ; but 
I noticed some large and very beautiful lizards, dark green 
and yellow, of greater size and more plump than any I had 
before seen either in Polynesia, Mauritius, or in Madagascar. 
On the forenoon of this day I met a chief from the capital, 
who spoke French and a little English. He was a young 
man of considerable intelligence, and when some of my 
friends showed him the likenesses which had been taken at 
Tamatave, he expressed a great desire to have his own. I 
told him I had no proper materials, but would endeavour to 
show him the process by which it was done. He repeated 
his wish to have his likeness, and sent a slave for his lamba, 
as he said he wished to be taken in the costume of his coun¬ 
try. As soon, however, as the camera had been taken to the 
appointed place, the sound of music—a drum and clarionet— 
announced the approach of the governor, who passed by in 
his palanquin, attended by one officer on horseback and a 
number on foot, surrounded and followed by a sort of body 
guard, wearing the native white salaka or cloth round the 
loins, over which their cartouche-box was fastened by a black 
belt, and each armed with a musket or spear. 
On my entering the house where the governor had alighted, 
he very cordially welcomed me in English, which I supposed 
he had learned while on board one of the English ships of 
