860 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. XIII. 
an hour left the houses* and followed the road across the low 
flat ground covered with rice-fields. 
The people as we passed along came to the road side to ! 
salute the prince. Every person in the road moved to the 
side as the prince approached* and the people in the fields or 
enclosures hastened to the road as he passed. All saluted 
him with* “May you live, sovereign or master,” and the 
homage seemed to he very cordially rendered. I inferred 
somewhat of the habits of the prince from a conversation 
among the officers* who observed that he had since the morn¬ 
ing personally visited between twenty and thirty houses* for 
the purpose of advising and directing the people, listening to 
their requests or composing differences* &c.* and I did not 
wonder at his being so popular amongst them. 
At length we reached a bridge called Ambaniala* stretching 
across a considerable stream. The bridge consisted of a 
number of slabs of primitive rock* eight or ten feet long and 
four or five feet wide* laid horizontally on piles of stones. 
Continuing our way partly along the border of the stream, 
we passed through several villages and came to another bridge* 
Ilavatehezana* literally long bridge . I was astonished at the 
structure, rude as it was* when informed that it was all 
entirely native workmanship. The bridge* a series of arches 
of different sizes, stretched across the river Andranomiery, a 
shallow but smooth and flowing stream, forty yards across 
The arches* eleven in number* were some of them fifteen feet 
in the centre of the arch above the water. Others were 
narrower and lower. On alighting from the palanquins, the 
prince offered me his arm, and we walked together to the 
bridge, which was about five feet wide on the top, and used 
only by foot-passengers. 
The prince and two of his aides-de-camp spoke English 
so as to make themselves generally understood. From them 
I learned that the bridge was entirely planned and built 
