16 
pasturage, enamelled with flowers of every variety, 
and of the most splendid colours. It is navigable for 
more than twenty leagues for the piroguas of the 
natives; but, what is very remarkable, it entirely 
disappears in the sand, about four miles from its 
mouth. Like all the rivers in Madagascar, it is 
infested with monstrous crocodiles, which renders it 
dangerous to travel along its banks. Rochon relates 
that he saw an ox dragged away and devoured by one 
of those formidable animals. 
Ghalemboule is the next province. Its coast is 
belted with a forest of lofty trees, two leagues in 
width, which runs along its whole extent. The bay 
of Ghalemboule is very extensive, having a good 
roadstead behind the rocks; but these, and the 
violence of the waves, render it dangerous. The 
village of St. Matthew, called by the natives Ratsi- 
malone, lies on the coast. The soil of Ghalemboule is 
rich, and frequent rains preserve the verdure from 
being parched up. The meadows produce plentiful 
pasturage, though they have fewer cattle than some 
other provinces The mountains are peculiarly fruit¬ 
ful, and yield in abundance all the necessaries of life, 
common to other parts of the island. The inhabi¬ 
tants of this and the last-mentioned province, as well 
as those of St. Mary Isle, (called in the language of 
the country, Nossy Hibrahim), and the bay of 
Antongil, call themselves Zafe-Hibrahim, or descen¬ 
dants of Abraham, of which we shall speak in another 
part of this work. 
