576 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. XI. 
creased by the wives and relations of the soldiers, bearers, and 
others who accompanied our party from Tamatave. A leg 
and part of the rump, and the tongue, were appropriated to 
myself and my immediate attendants. A steak of this, a fish 
from the adjacent lake, with rice and vegetables, and a cup 
of tea, supplied me with an acceptable supper. 
After dusk, and during the greater part of the evening, the 
chopping of fuel, and blazing of fires, each surrounded by per¬ 
haps half-a-dozen cooks, some boiling rice, others broiling, 
baking, or roasting their meat in one direction, the laughter 
and mirth of those who were sitting on the ground at their 
evening meal as seen in other directions, presented an aspect; 
of social life that can be but rarely witnessed; and it attracted 
my attention the more forcibly from this being the first time 
I had found myself surrounded by so numerous a company 
under similar circumstances. 
We were stirring by daylight the next morning. The men 
went forward with the packages; my attendant prepared a 
cup of tea, which I took with a biscuit before leaving my 
lodgings. One of my bearers was missing, but Sodra , a fine 
strong tall young man, who had, in a manner somewhat re¬ 
markable, voluntarily attached himself to me ever since my 
arrival, had followed me from Tamatave, and now readily 
completed their number. After arranging with the aide-de- 
camp of the prince about the forwarding of letters, I took 
leave of the friends who intended to return to Tamatave. 
About eight o’clock we embarked in canoes upon the Hivon- 
dro, a broad river, said to be greatly infested with crocodiles. 
After proceeding by water two or three miles, we landed, and 
travelled about ten miles, reaching the small village of Am- 
balatambaca at eleven o’clock. 
The rain had fallen heavity during great part of the way, 
but the rofia cloth forming the cover of my palanquin, thick-, 
ening with the wet, had kept the inside perfectly dry. On 
the way I saw some splendid angraecums. The finest plants 
