As far as I could see, all the guests seemed blessed with extraordinary powers as trenchermen, nor did they forget to do honor to the wines, and great was the number of toasts proposed.
Whenever the health of the commandant, of the second governor, or of an absent prince was proposed, one of the officers went to the door and shouted out to the soldiers in the yard the name of the person thus honored; thereupon the music struck up, and all the gentlemen drank the toast, standing.
The dinner lasted full four hours. It was nine o’clock at night when we quitted the table and betook ourselves to an adjoining room, where English beer was again offered to us. After this, to my great astonishment, two of the highest officers danced a kind of contre-danse; others followed their example and indulged in a polka. At first I considered this fancy for dancing to be a consequence of the Champagne they had imbibed; but Mr. Lambert enlightened my ignorance, and told me that these dances were part of the etiquette of the occasion. I thought it a strange custom, but was infinitely amused at the grotesque figures of the performers, and felt quite sorry that they did not continue the exercise longer. As a conclusion to the solemnity, the health of the queen was drunk in a liqueur flavored with aniseed, and to the accompaniment of the national hymn. After the royal toast nothing more may be proposed; to do so would be considered an offense against her royal majesty, who, like her deceased husband, exacts something very like worship from her people.
Accordingly we broke up. When, on my way out, I went for my parasol, which, on entering the room, I had deposited in a corner, I found it was gone—it had shared the unhappy fate of my watch.
Though theft is punished with great severity, frequently even with death, and though it is lawful to kill a thief caught in the fact without any explanation to the authorities, there is more thieving in Tamatavé than any where else. As I have already said, it is not at all unusual for officers and men of rank to take part in nocturnal burglaries. A few years ago a robbery of some magnitude was perpetrated in Tamatavé, and the majority of the stolen articles were discovered in an officer’s possession. The man who had been robbed did not receive back the chief part of his property; but he got some, with an injunction to say nothing about the robbery, unless he wished to expose himself to very disagreeable consequences; and so the affair ended.
It is seldom that any one gives information to the authorities of a theft. In small affairs it is not worth while, as the detection of the thief and restoration of the property scarcely ever follow; and in robberies of any magnitude, persons of high position are almost sure to be implicated, and it would be dangerous to proceed against these. That the soldiers are among the most confirmed thieves is not to be marveled at, considering their miserable position. The officer or employé certainly has only a very small salary, but, at any rate, he gets something. Besides, he is a merchant or a landed proprietor, has slaves who work for him, and even makes a profit out of the soldiers who serve under him; but the poor private generally receives nothing at all, and it is almost too much to expect that he should submit quietly to die of hunger.
On the 19th of May we at length set out on our journey to Tananariva, the capital of the island. Our party consisted of Mr. Marius, Mr. Lambert, and myself. Mr. Marius, a Frenchman by birth, had been living for twenty years in Madagascar. He accompanied Mr. Lambert on his journey from a feeling of friendship, and undertook the office of interpreter and the general direction of the journey, and his kind assistance was of the greatest value to us.
The whole previous day and half of the present one we had been fully employed wrapping up the chests and boxes containing presents for the queen and Prince Rakoto, and our own baggage, in great dry leaves, to protect them against the rain.
Mr. Lambert had bought the presents for the queen and her court with his own money, and not, as they asserted in the Mauritius, with funds from the French government. The presents consisted of full and very expensive toilets for the queen and some of the princesses, her relations, rich uniforms embroidered with gold for Prince Rakoto, and valuable art-objects of all kinds, including several musical clocks, barrel organs, and similar toys. On these presents Mr. Lambert had spent more than 200,000 francs. For the conveyance of these treasures to the capital more than four hundred persons were required, who received the same pay as the soldiers; that is to say, none at all, for service of this kind is compulsory. Along the whole route the convoy had been announced, and the poor bearers had to be at certain stations on the road at an appointed time.
The people, about two hundred in number, who were to carry us and our personal luggage, were paid by Mr. Lambert. The fee for a bearer from Tamatavé to Tananariva, a distance of two hundred and twenty miles, is only a dollar; and even provisions are not found by the hirer. Mr. Lambert promised them good food besides the dollar, whereupon they expressed their gratitude by loud shouts and rejoicings.