ble advancement in
civilisation and notions of comfort, as it was admirably adapted to the
climate.

Captain Frankland's object in coming to Madagascar was to open up a
commercial intercourse with the people, and to advance this object he
had resolved to visit the capital. He had been supplied with several
letters of introduction to facilitate this object. This brought us in
contact with a number of people. One of our first visitors was a
fine-looking man, an officer of government. He wore a gold-lace cloth
cap, a shirt with an elaborately worked collar and cuffs, and over it a
lamba, the native scarf or plaid, the centre of which consisted of broad
stripes of yellow, pink, scarlet, and purple, with the border of open
work of yellow and scarlet lace. He had, however, neither shoes nor
stockings. He was accompanied by two men bearing swords, the badges of
his office. One of our visitors took snuff (a usual custom), by jerking
it from a richly ornamented tube of cane which his servant handed to
him, on to his tongue, when he swallowed it!

Tamatave, where we landed, is a large village, but the houses, or rather
huts, have generally a dilapidated appearance. There are a few good
houses, belonging to foreigners and to the government officers. We were
amused by seeing slaves filling thick bamboos six or seven feet long
with water from a well. The water is pulled up in a cow horn instead of
a bucket, while the bamboo takes the place of a pitcher. We visited the
market. The vendors sat in the centre, or at the side of platforms made
of sand or mud, on which the articles were piled up. We found rice,
maize, millet, mandioc, plantains, oranges, pine-apples, and many other
fruits. All sorts of poultry were to be seen, and the butchers had
their meat arranged before them cut up into pieces on broad plantain
leaves. The women were dressed very much in articles of European
manufacture; their hair, which is jet black, was arranged frequently in
light curls or knots, which has a far from picturesque effect.

Nothing is more wonderful in Madagascar than the great strides education
has made. Thirty years ago the language was unwritten. Only one
person, who had been educated in the Mauritius, could write, and that
was in a foreign language. Now, all the government officers can write,
and all the business is transacted by writing, while all classes are
greedy for instruction; indeed, we had great reason to believe that