312 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. XII. 
probably the proprietor of the village below, had selected for 
his last resting-place. The Hova chiefs manifest considerable 
solicitude about their graves; and I was told that one of the 
chief officers who died lately at the capital, requested of his 
sons, shortly before his death, that after his interment they 
would occasionally remove the large stone slab that would 
form the door of his sepulchre, and let the sun shine in upon 
him. 
During the morning I walked a considerable distance, 
though the ground was wet, and much of our way through 
the forest which covered the summit of the hill. Once or 
twice in the intervals of open country, when the horizon was 
clear, we again obtained a view of the distant ocean. The 
view from one of these summits was extensive, varied, and 
exceedingly beautiful; but, at the same time, deeply affecting, 
from the mournful associations with the past with which it 
was connected. 4 To the west, or before us as we were as¬ 
cending, were the lofty wooded ridges which we yet had to 
climb, and beyond the summits of these mountains the borders 
of Imerina. To the east was the wooded and partly cultivated 
valley immediately below us ; and, stretching to the north and 
the south, and on the opposite sides of this valley, the de¬ 
scending ridges of the mountain ranges over which we had 
passed, diversified with rock, and herbage, and forest; while 
beyond these, in the far distance, swept the dim, dark, but yet 
well-defined line of the wide waters of the ocean. This spot, 
surrounded as it is by scenes of vastness, grandeur, and beauty, 
is called “ The Weeping-place of the Hovas;” a name of 
just and mournful import, connected with the miseries of the 
slave trade, which, by virtue of a treaty between this country 
and England, was abolished in the year 1817. It has been 
calculated that, previous to this period, between three and 
four thousand unhappy beings were exported annually as 
slaves. Great numbers of these came from the capital, where 
