THE VAZÌMBA
[25] The Vazìmba, the supposed earliest inhabitants of the interior, are said to have not known the use of iron, but to have had spears made of the hard, wiry bark of the Anìvona palm, and to have employed arrow-heads made of burnt clay. No flint weapons have yet been discovered in Madagascar.
CHAPTER XVIII
SOUTHWARDS TO BÉTSILÉO AND THE SOUTH-EAST COAST
A FEW years ago I was invited by the Friends’ Foreign Missionary Association to accompany one of their missionaries, Mr Louis Street, on a journey to some of the southern portions of Madagascar. The object of this journey was twofold: firstly, to visit the scattered Christian congregations connected with the London Missionary Society, and to preach to and teach the people; and secondly, to gain some more accurate information as to the geography and physical features of the south-eastern provinces, and the dialects and customs of the different tribes inhabiting those parts of the great island. At that period (in the seventies) Madagascar was still unmapped and only very partially explored. A very large proportion of the country was still a terra incognita; so that missionary journeys away from the neighbourhood of the capital had all the charm of novelty and exploration. Its physical geography, its geology, and its botany and natural history were all practically unknown; so I looked forward with intense interest to seeing new provinces and new people; nor was I disappointed in this expectation.
Like all journeys in Madagascar until about twelve years ago, this one was made by the native conveyance, the filanjàna or light palanquin (see [Chapters II.] and [III.]), and also, as will be seen, by frequent voyages in canoes. And although filanjàna travelling, like all sublunary things, had its drawbacks, I always enjoyed that mode of getting over the ground. But in setting off on a journey which was to last for several weeks, it was not always easy to get started. You might engage your men for two or three weeks beforehand; you might advance money to keep a hold on them; you might even induce them to deposit a small sum with you as security; but one was never quite sure that every man had arrived, and was going along with you, until one had got clear away at least half-a-day’s journey. All sorts of excuses would be made, or no reason at all be given, especially if the journey was to be through a part of the island not often traversed. The bearers were easily hired, but not so easily secured. One man not turning up, another would go to seek for him, and he, in turn, would have to be hunted for by his companions.
TRAVELLING IN MADAGASCAR
Travelling in Madagascar, at least by the main lines of road, is fast losing its former characteristics. Along the easy gradients, the bridged streams, and the embankment-crossed swamps traversed now by good highroads, one is apt to forget how our bearers used to climb up steep and rugged ascents, ford rivers, sometimes up to their necks in rushing waters, and flounder through morasses. In fact, the bearers are becoming somewhat demoralised by these easy and smooth roads, and we now need to take a ride “across country” to realise what our early experiences here were.[26] Mr Street and I, however, managed to get a number of men, about fifty in all, to start with us; and as we were not at all sure of finding native huts to stay in all through our route, we took a tent with us, as well as provisions and clothes, and books to give away to the people who could read them. Towards the end of May we left the capital for our southern journey.
One more word of preface to this chapter. Like the tour around the Antsihànaka province, already described, this journey was, first of all, a missionary one; and although I shall not trouble my readers with details of this kind, it must be understood that my companions and I took every opportunity we had of speaking, not only to congregations, but also to any small gathering of people we came across, of the great and glad truths of the Gospel, of which we were the messengers.
I shall not describe here the route between Antanànarìvo and Fianàrantsòa: the elevated tract of bare table-land, more than six thousand feet above the sea; the cultivated valleys of the three or four chief rivers; the green pleasant basins of Ambòsitra and Ambòhinàmboàrina; the enormous rocks of Angàvo, and the belt of grey-lichened forest above Nàndihìzana. There were, however, three points which struck me in the Bétsiléo province as being very different from what we see in Imèrina. First, was the much bolder and grander scenery; the mountains are higher in the south, and the gneiss and granite rocks rise up in stupendous masses of stone, such as we do not often see in the northern province.