236 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. IX. 
gratified with the encouraging circumstances under which, 
assisted efficiently by his son Frederick, he had resumed his 
labours among the Caffres. A considerable number had 
gathered around him, and the circular huts clustered together 
on the upper side of the slope formed quite a Caffre village. 
About two hundred acres of land were irrigated and under 
culture, and from some parts of this maize and Caffre corn 
had already been gathered, while in others the crops were 
still standing. Another portion of land of equal extent 
admitted of culture so soon as the people should be able to 
lead out the water of the river. We held in the evening a 
deeply interesting meeting with the chiefs and principal men 
of two Fingoe villages, one of them twenty miles distant, 
who had come to ask for a missionary. 
Early the next morning we attended a religious service of 
the people, and after breakfast visited the school, in which, 
out of eighty-two scholars on the books, seventy-two were 
present. The first class read, with considerable ease, a 
chapter from the English Testament. They also recited 
portions of the Scriptures, and answered questions in arith¬ 
metic in English with readiness and accuracy. We then 
spent some time in conversation with the Fingoe chiefs and 
people, and in the afternoon resumed our journey. Our kind 
friends furnished us with a team of oxen to relieve our own, 
and to expedite our way to the next station; but soon after 
we had passed Fort White the night became so dark that 
our guide declared he could not see his way, and the road 
was so bad in consequence of the number of deep circular 
holes that we were obliged to halt until daybreak in the 
midst of a damp, boggy flat, tying our oxen to the wheels of 
our waggon to prevent their being lost. 
Starting at daybreak we reached, in two or three hours, 
Pirie, a Scottish missionary station; but as Mr. Ross, the 
missionary, had gone from home that morning, we continued 
