Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-07-06
lsuHOs Iss MAUAGAsCAR.
SOmcifilU. oi Interest About n Little
KNOWN. Country,

Somcthing OF Interest About II Little
known Country.
A correspondent of the London Sfuud
ard i'll a recent letter describes journey
of 100 miles, made hv himself, from Tam
tava, ON the eastern coast, to Antanann-
rivo, the capital of Madagascar He
travelled at i.la! IN n philanzan-the pal.
anquin Of Madagascar is Il chair
placed on two long poles, and carried by
eight men. The sixty miles run along
the coast he says, was through ali ex-
tremely pretty country. "On our right
stretched II fine undulating country the
sw2rd under foot seeming as carefully
tended and rs soft as gcntleman's lawn.
Clumps of spreading trees, grassy slopes,
and peeps Of quiet lagoon waters gleam-
ing amid the foliage, gave the landscape
the appearance of huge park, across
which our porters raced merrly. At
night the ilting fretlies came out in
their thousands and sparkled amid the
leaves, while the crickets and the beetles
kept up the ceaseless and almost deafen-
ing hum peculiar to the tropical night
everywhere. Our halting- place was the
small village of Panarani, long line of
huts, with bamboo walls, bamboo floors,
and palm-leaf roofs, inhabited chiefly by
fowls, feas and mosquitoes. Every hut
had its rum cask on tap, and was filled
with packs of salted hides, which Mala-
gassy porters were carrying from the
capital to Tamatava. The trade is rapid
ly increasing. 1t already amounts to
1000 hides annually, and throughout
our journey we constantly met long lines
of heavily laden bearers. The villagers
on the road made good thing Of the
traffic, ant hence the numerous rum casks.
......, We completed the 60 miles along
fh.,, ST t,tt.. Il
Mt Andeyoranto, next to Tumatava, the
most populOus town in this section of
Madagascar. and more than rivalling that
commercial centre in the number of its
rum casks and i'll the drunkenness of its
inhabitants. 1t was Sunday evening
when we arrived, and the singing from
the two or three chapels mingled with
the drunken brawling in the mere huts
Among the traders here / found an Af-
CHAN from Cabul. Mussulman from Hy-
lerabad, in the neccan, and Parsee
from bombay, who We're each of them
glad to receive some account of their ma
tive cities. Indian traders are becoming
as ubiquitous over East Africa as are
Jews in Europe"
The second section of the Journey was
trip III canoes of about - miles up Ia
goons and rivers The philnnzan men
the mon he says "There were bass
singers and seconds, while the melodies
we're often sweet and strangely plaintivt.
Indeed, We fancicd VIC could trace in this
MaiaGassy music indications of the higher
civilization OF which the people are capa-
BILE. Our Indian fellow subjects have
learned from us to make speeches as long
and as drcnry as those Of any member of
Parliament. They are merchants, they
arc lawyers, they are baronets, and they
take degrees at college. But not the most
learned graduate among them has mas
tered II single Western ditty or melody,
They cannot appreciate OF understand
Western music. There the line between
Eastern and Western civilization is drawn.
But whistle TO any Malagassy bearer an
air from Patience, or any other favorite
opeIa and he will speedily render him
self nuisance, like any London street
boy, to all within hearing. AS we pad
died onward the country on either bank
seemed yeritable planters paradise
But tall grasses, palms, reeds, and luxu-
RANT Jungle cover the sugar and tobacco
fields of the future. Everything grows
here. A vine twig stuck i'll the sand near
Tamatava bore fruit in month or two,
and now yields two crops per annum.
The journey was then made over a
mountainous region. and the correspond
ent speaks as follows of the Maagassy
roads "a Malagassy path goes very
straight 1t despises easy inclines and
revels in precipices Ant-like, the Mala,
gassy goes over everything in front of him.
He prefers, ii anything the highest point
in any range of hills thar may have to be
crossed, and deviating neither to the right
nor to the left, goes straight over it, nc
Iaatter how steep the slope may be. Oui
daily toll for nearly Il week was the con
tinual ascent and descent of rocky ridges
covered with forests on the tops, which
running in seeming endless succession
due north and SOUTH and at right angler
to the path, render penetration to the in
terror Of Madagascar from the east coas
so difficult. No sooner was one ridg,
surmounted than another would presen
itself and 30 close were they that ston
might easily be thrown from the top o
one to the other; yet gorge about 100
feet deep always lay between, and dowr
into that gorge would the bearers plunge
only that the same toilsome labor of as
cent might be commenced again. Sittin
in philanzan during such n journey
no very pleasant experience. A solemn
and oppressive silence prevailed every
where. There is no life i'll the woods 9
Madagascar, and throughout our journe
single black parrot, aud melanchol
orow.or two We're the only birds we saw.
He goes on to say that at one village {
which halt was made convoy of go,
ernment gunpowder was being passed
for better security, from the coast to I'll
capital, and the kegs "were changed frol
one set OF men to the other amid muc
palaver, and two buliocks were slaughte
ed and eaten to celebrate the event-aft'
which tine entire village got drunk"
OF the plateau of Imerina, the home
the Hovas, the ruling race of Madaga
car, the correspondent says: "Arour
us we're numerous villages clustering {
the hill slopes. There were no tree
only rolling veldt, like that peculiar
South Africa. But the villages were II
mere collections of bamboo-built hut
ouch as those TO which we had hither
been accustomed in Madagascar. strol
and substantially built houses of brit
they were, not lacking in pretensions
architectural design, and superior
comfort and appearance to those whi
IN ny a village in Britain and Ireland G.
boast of. And here, too, the townshi