The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-22
TAMATAvE TO ANrANANAK1vo.
Notes Of a Journey to the Capital City of
Madagascar.

Notes Of a Journey to the Capital City of
Madagascar.
Correspondence London Standard.
l left Tamatave in the afternoon and
Started on the first stage of my journey to
the capital with a following which, 10 those
unaecustomed to Madagascar travel, might
seem imposing. For a long Journey each
philanzan-the p~alanquin of Madagascar
takes eight men. The philnnzan is a chair
placed on two long poles, and at first sight
seems a lazy and effeminate mode of con-
veyance, but this feeling soon wears away
and the new conner learns without difficulty
to sit luxuriously back while his bearers
pant and perspire underneath as they hurry
him on their shoulders over the heavy sand.
The sixty miles run along the coast took
us through an extremely pretty country. On
our left extended 1900 miles of unbroken
ocean, the surf of which Numbered in on the
beach in great, curling rollers. On our right
stretched a fine undulating country, the sward
under foot seeming as carefully tended and
as soft as that of a lawn. Clumps of spread
ing trees, grassy slopes and peeps of quiet la
goon waters cleaning amid the foliage gave
the landscape the appearance of a huge park,
across which our porters raced merrily. But
toward evening, when overtaken by darkness,
our way laid through a dense jungle, they
had to proceed more warily; while we in the
philanzans kept a sharp ookout overhead for
the long branches which threatened now and
then to retain us in their grasp. And as the
darkness grew intense the fitting fre-Aies
came out in their thousands and sparkled
amid the leaves, while the crickets and the
beetles kept up that ceaseless and almost
deafening hum peculiar to the tropical night
everywhere.
We completed the sixty miles along the
coast in two days, finding ourselves at Ande-
vorante, next to Tamatave the most pop
ulous town in this section of Madagascar.
and more than rivaling that commercial CEN
ter in tn e number of its run casks and in
the drunkenness of its inhabitants.
We began the second section of our jour
ney by a trip in canoes of about fifteen miles
up the lagoons and rivers, which brought us
TO the beginning of the mountains. Our
philanzan men padded the canoes, which
were of the good old-fashioned savage type
long trees followed and burned out-with
paddles like children's wooden sand spades.
which were dug into the water alongside in
unison and to the time of a song. Al with
Indian boatmen, a couple of lines would be
given by the leading singer, and then all
the crews Joined in the chorus. And very
pretty choruses they were.
The lagoon up which we padded seemed
like an arm of the sea. 1t was a mile broad
and several miles long. But the water was
fresh. These lagoons are formed by the nu-
merous rivers being blocked by the sandy
bars at their embouchures. The water then
spreads along the coast in a long lake, vary
ing in breadth from a few yards to several
miles. But a few short canals have to be
cut. and a few channels ~deepened, and east
ern Madagascar will then possess in these la
goons one of the finest waterways in the
world, navigable for river steamers for sew
erai hundred miles, while every ten OF twenty
miles q navigable river gives access to the dis
tricts beyond. As we padded onward the
country on either bank seemed a veritable
planters paradise. But tall grasses, palms,
reeds and luxuriant jungle cover the sugar
hacco fields of the future. Everything
here. A vine twig stuck in the sand
lmatave bore fruit in a month or two,
Nv yields two crops per annum.
e party arrived at the capital on a Sum
morning, The people were clustering
-ong the footpaths on their way to churcn
or sitting in the grass outside waiting for the
service to begin, as they do in villages at
home. The women, who appeared to be in
the majority, wore white cotton gowns,
often neatly embroidered and white or black
and white striped lambas thrown gracefully
over their shoulders. The men were clad
also in c~ottoD-white cotton pantaloons, cot
ton lambas and straw hats, with broad black
SILK band. In the morning sur the play of
colors over the landscape was peculiarly
lovely. 1t was difficult to imagine that this
peaceful country, with its pretty cottages, its
innumerable chapels, whose bells were then
calling the people to worship, and its troops
Of white-robed men and women answering
she summons, was the barbarons Madagascar
81 twenty years ago. These reflections were