22 
The vicinity of the marshes, also, is unhealthy, 
owing to the exhalations which arise from them; 
and their effects are greatly promoted by the culti¬ 
vation of the red rice, which growing only upon 
wet lands, the natives use artificial means to pre¬ 
pare the plantations, and leave the waters to evaporate 
spontaneously. 
The south-east and south-west winds prevail from 
March to the middle or end of September; after 
which, the north-east, north, north-west, and west, 
continue to blow. Storms and hurricanes are un¬ 
known at Madagascar; and, were the cultivation of 
the land on a more regular and extended scale, the 
draining of the marshes*', and the clearing of the 
forests in the vicinity of the towns, to take place, the 
principal causes of disease would be removed, and 
the natives at least, whose constitutions are adapted 
to the climate, would in a great measure be relieved 
from a scourge which annually carries off great num¬ 
bers of them. 
* That the marshes contribute in a large proportion to the se¬ 
verity of the attack, was proved to a demonstration by Benyowsky, 
during his Governor-generalship, at the Bay of Antongil. On 
his first arrival, his men and himself were almost instantly seized 
with the fever in the most violent manner: great numbers died, 
and amongst them his only son; himself and his wife narrowly 
escaping with their lives. But after the marshes round Louis - 
bourg were drained, and the ground cultivated, the new-comers 
withstood the action of the climate seventeen months, and then 
had slight attacks, unaccompanied by those dreadful ravings 
and convulsions which were experienced in the first instance ; 
and the mortality was greatly abated. 
