Tamatave, Madagascar, Aug. 5, 1900.

Dear Friend Cooper: I have your favor June 14th last, in which
you say you would like to have a line from me, that you "may
let the friends over here know what you are doing." Well, here
it is, line upon line, if not precept, etc. I am "still doing
business at the same old stand," and doubt if I have anything
to say regarding this "far-away post" that would particularly
interest your readers, engrossed as I perceive they are in
domestic phases and in the alignment of our recent
acquisitions.

Regarding the physical development or moral progress of
Madagascar, as you know it is now a French province, with a
Governor General and staff, all appointees from France. The
Government is doing considerable to open up the country by
means of telegraphs, railroads, turnpikes and canals. At Paris
they recently voted sixty millions francs (12 million dollars)
for a railroad from here to Tananarivo, the capital, 200 miles
from here, over a mountainous and broken country. The capital
is situated on a plateau 5,000 feet above sea level, with a
climate cool and bracing. Here at Tamatave a fireplace or
heating stove in a house are unknown appendages. The Hovas for
a long period were the rulers previous to the conquest and
occupation by the French, who by diplomacy--"force and iron
will"--the means usually adopted by the strong when a coveted
prize looms in the distance, added an immense territory to
their colonial possessions. But perhaps in the interest of
civilization the change is not to be deplored. The Hovas were a
superior class of Madagascan people the rulers being men of
education and ability, but not equal in quality or quantity to
cope with the energy, wealth and military prowess of a power
like France.

The mental and physical conditions of the great bulk of the
natives were not, and are not, inviting; they were held by a
mild system of slavery, a system that in substance still exists
under French rule as to forced labor on public works. The
severity of tasks and bad rum are said by a friendly society at
Paris in its protest "to be fast decimating their number." The
French Government, however, are establishing an extension of
schools for the natives, where industrial training will be the