The last-named mountain recalls the memory of the daring Hollander who first reached its summit, long regarded as impracticable.  He succeeded in what seemed a hopeless effort by shooting an arrow, to which a strong cord was attached, over the top.  The arrow fell on the other side of the mountain, at a point which could be attained without much difficulty.  A stout rope was then fastened to the cord, drawn over the mountain, and secured on both sides; and Peter Botte hauled himself up by it to the topmost crest, and thus immortalized his name.  The ascent has since been accomplished by English travellers.

A trip was also undertaken to the Trou de Cerf, or “Stag’s Hole,” a crater of perfectly regular formation, brimful of bloom and foliage.  As no sign or mark betrays its whereabouts, the traveller is seized with astonishment on suddenly reaching its brink.  His astonishment soon wears off, and he feels an intense delight in contemplating the view before him.  It comprises three-fourths of the island:  majestic mountains clothed in virgin forests almost to their very crests; wide-spreading plains, green with the leafiness of the sugar-cane plantations; cool verdurous valleys, where the drowsy shadows softly rest; and beyond and around the blue sea with a fringe of snow-white foam marking the indentations of the coast.

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On the 25th of April 1857 Madame Pfeiffer sailed for Madagascar, and after a six-days’ voyage reached the harbour of Tamatave.

Madagascar, the reader may be reminded, is, next to Borneo, the largest island in the world.  It is separated from the African mainland by the Mozambique Channel, only seventy-five miles wide.  It stretches from lat. 12 to 25 degrees S., and long. 40 to 48 degrees E. Its area is about ten thousand geographical square miles.

[The Traveller’s Tree:  page189.jpg]

Madagascar contains forests of immense extent, far-reaching plains and valleys, rivers, lakes, and great chains of mountains, which raise their summits to an elevation of ten or twelve thousand feet.  The climate is tropical, the vegetation remarkable for abundance and variety.  The chief products are gums and odoriferous balsams, sugar, tobacco, maize, indigo, silk, spices.  The woods yield many valuable kinds of timber, and almost every fruit of the Torrid Zone, besides the curious and useful Traveller’s Tree.  Palms are found in dense and beautiful groves; and among them is the exquisite water-palm, or lattice leaf-plant.  In the animal kingdom Madagascar possesses some remarkable forms; as, for instance, the makis, or half-ape, and the black parrot.  The population consists of four distinct races:  the Kaffirs, who inhabit the south; the Negroes, who dwell in the west; the Arabs in the east; and in the interior the Malays, among whom the Hovas are the most numerous and the most civilized.

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