For several years I had taken a deep interest in the southern part of the Betsileo province and in the town of Ambóhimandróso; to whose people the Society had long desired to send a missionary: we now prepared to visit it. On Friday, October 3d, the whole party from the Capital, accompanied by Mr. Brockway, left Fianáran. The greater part of our road lay along a fine valley, narrow and bordered by peculiarly noble hills. The parallel ridges of the Betsileo Country run generally from north-north-west to south-south-east. This valley ran for twenty miles a little west of south. The ridges therefore all crossed it; but some mighty force had broken them through at this point, had swept away their rocky remains: and left great precipices, buttresses and promontories overhanging the narrow cleft along which we journeyed. Each headland has its distinctive name. Nothing but photography can duly show the grandeur of these rocks; and only a map on a large scale can rightly delineate the country. The highest mountain in the Betsileo, a grand peak, named Ambohitramanjáka, “king’s town,” we left up a narrow valley on the west of our road. All the way we had on one side or the other, the drain of the valley, the river Ranofotsy. We camped in the valley at night, and had the hills on the east of us all on fire.
Next day we came early to the end of the valley, which is a cul de sac: and saw in it and in the hills to the east the sources of the Ranofotsy. To the west of the terminating hill is a most noble boulder standing alone on the mountain side, called Vato-ávo, “high rock.” Mr. Cameron and I climbed it and found that we had unwittingly secured a most important station for the survey of the country. Both Fianáran and Ambohimandroso were visible: it is the only point in the line of route from which both can be seen at once. We saw at our feet on the south the great rice basin of Ambohimandroso, studded with hamlets perched on the red clay hills. East and west were enormous gneiss mountains: while far to the south was the lofty granite ridge of Kipaséha, its sharp saw-like crest standing clear against the sky. Near to us was the Betsileo village of Ivátoavo, through which we were to pass, and in which the houses are built in and amongst a mass of gigantic boulders, with a thick cactus hedge as their protection. As we passed, the women all came out to look at us. We also looked at them; for their hair was fastened up into a number of flat buttons, which looked like a supply of black penny-pieces hanging about their ears. We reached our destination at four o’clock.
Ambohimandroso is an important town. It is situated on a round clay hill: the Hova fort and governor’s house being as usual on the crest, 3260 feet above the sea. The houses are three hundred in number; and the total population must be fifteen hundred. Most of the houses, according to the usual Betsileo fashion, are built of wood. The posts are strong and square, the walls are of thick boards fixed upright: and the roof, as in Imerina, has a high pitch. It is formed of strong timbers and is thatched with leaves or reeds. The windows of Betsileo houses are small: the door also is small and the door-sill is high above the ground: a post therefore is provided for the paterfamilias and his belongings, on which each carefully stands before he doubles himself up and makes his way through the opening. It is worth noting that in Malagasy the same word is used for door and window; both being constructed in the same fashion and in old houses differing little from one another. The houses of the garrison, of the governor and his officers, follow the fashion of Imerina; they have large doors; are strongly made; and their sides are neatly panneled. But as elsewhere they lack finish; and but little provision is made for privacy. Not a single house we saw had a glass window in it, to provide light, when rain and wind compel the owner to close his wooden shutters. The newest houses outside the fort are being made of clay. The town has on the south other lofty hills: but as in Ankay and Menabe, the sandy parts of these hills have worked into deep hollows which at a distance look like scars and sores upon the hill-side.
On the north, east and west the basin of Ambohimandroso is more level; the rice fields are numerous, and the little hamlets with their rings of verdure dot the country everywhere. The basin is watered by a single stream, flowing from the eastern hills. Its supply is not overabundant. Hence the curious name given to the place, Tsi-énim-paréhy, “not enough for the rice cultivation.” A larger supply of water would doubtless produce far greater crops in both portions of the district. Beyond a low ridge to the east is a second open valley with numerous arms, rich also in villages and rice grounds: several of these villages have chapels: and it is the comparative abundance of population, which renders this town so eligible as the residence of an English Missionary. The Chapel of Ambohimandroso occupies an excellent site and is of large size, sixty feet by thirty. But it needs a great deal of improvement to make it, what it ought to be, the model chapel of the district; and it will be well worth the while of the Mission to assist the congregation in giving to it that position.
We spent a pleasant Sabbath with the people: and though the governor of the town, the native pastor and his excellent wife, and many other principal members of the church were absent with the Queen, we had several serious consultations with those still here, on the provision they would make for the comfort of the missionary, who was now on his way from England. How far would they co-operate with him in securing for their children a more thorough Christian education than they have ever enjoyed? On the whole they responded to our views; and we believe that the Station can be made as great a position of usefulness as any in the Betsileo Country.
We spent three days in Ambohimandroso, gathering information on many points of value. We were encamped in the Chapel, and two young officers of the garrison showed us great attention in securing our comfort and making our habitation less airy. The butchers of the town were not so complaisant. And when our cook enquired after some beef for us, as a change from the constant supply of poultry, they answered that there was a good quantity of “old beef” still unsold; and they declined to kill until that had been expended. It mattered little. Mr. Cousins was an admirable caterer; and though our Irish butter somewhat failed us, yet other English stores, with good turkeys, chickens, bread made by English ladies, sweet potatoes, plantain fritters and other trifles, provided sufficient sustenance even for hungry Englishmen in the keen, hard air. During Monday we arranged for the preparation of a temporary house for a missionary: and then made a careful survey of the town and neighbourhood; we connected our observations completely with those made by Mr. Cameron at Fianárantsoa, and took sketches of the ground. Mr. Pillans went off early with a select band of bearers to climb the peak of Iody, ten miles to the south-west, and take observations of the granite ridge, which bounded the horizon beyond.
During the day Mr. Cousins made special enquiry concerning the Ibára tribes, among whom the Mission will be glad in due time to preach the gospel; since almost none of them have heard it. He found with much satisfaction that they are akin to the Betsileo and in many respects resemble them. Their language is substantially the same: here and there he caught a new word, or an older form of idiom. But he judged that as the language of the Tanála and the Betsileo differs but moderately from the Hova dialect, so the Ibára differs but little from the Betsileo. They build too the same kind of houses: on the hill tops they erect their forts, while in the open valleys they form válas or hamlets with the green fence, and plant gardens around them. They also have large herds of cattle. But as the Betsileo differ from the Hovas in the mode of dressing the hair (though closely akin to them), so do the Ibára differ from the Betsileo. While the latter tie up the hair in penny-pieces, the Ibára form a topknot on the crown of the head, profusely plaistered with grease. Two Ibára men turned up in the town during the day and came to visit us. We found that the tribe lives west and south-west of this place. For a day and half (thirty miles) there are still Betsileo villages, even below the foot of the hills and forest. Then for four days Ibára occupy the country; and beyond them are Sákalávas. M. Grandidier who approached these tribes from the west coast indicates in his maps the same thing.
The chief town of the Ibára in this direction is Benarivo: and they hold considerable intercourse with the Hovas and Betsileo. They look on the present governor of Ambohimandroso as a friend; and through him they only recently sent a friendly message to the Queen at Fianáran, with a small brass gun. There is hope that the gospel will soon find an entrance among them. It happens, in God’s good providence, that the wife of the pastor at Ambohimandroso is herself an Ibára, the daughter of the chief ruling in Benarivo. When young she was taken captive in one of the Hova wars and went to the Capital a slave. There she married. Her husband and she bought their freedom and after a time leaving the Capital, they came south and settled in the Betsileo. Making enquiries, they found that her father and many relatives were still living in Benarivo. She was warmly welcomed home again, with her husband: and from Ambohimandroso, where he holds his appointment, they occasionally visit her friends. Both husband and wife are good Christian people: and it is hoped that through them, an entrance for light and truth and grace may be secured among the Ibára tribes. We can hope this the more, that though the rule of the Hovas in the past has often been hard, selfish and grasping, a great improvement has taken place among them. They are far more merciful, gentle and just toward other tribes in modern days, than they were: and they are far more willing to help in raising them. Were all the local officers (notwithstanding the temptations of their poverty), to be as considerate and just as the Queen, the Prime Minister and a large number of the officers immediately around them, the whole system of Malagasy government would be raised, and a moral conquest of the whole island would be a mere question of time.
A short day’s journey to the south of Ambohimandroso brought us by several important villages, to Imahazony, one of our principal out-stations. In a pool below the hill on which it stands, I was delighted to find a large cluster of blue water-lilies. Imahazony is a large town, containing two hundred houses. It is a busy place, and has many rice fields and several villages in the valleys around it. There is a great deal of sedimentary clay in this south part of the Betsileo, and towards the east the high hills give rise to many small streams of water. We had much pleasant talk with the elders of the congregation about their religious wants. It was plain that they were not far advanced: and that the whole district stands greatly in need of good schools and systematic instruction.
We had now reached the south border of the Betsileo country. Indeed we might say that we were close to three boundaries which enclose its southern end. And when in the afternoon, my colleague and I climbed the ridge of Kinanga, which overhangs the town, we had these chains of hills prominent and near. On the west and south-west was the granite ridge of Kipaseha, towering over the country. Within it were two lower groups of gneiss hills, with the forest close by, bounding the Ambohimandroso valley. To the east was the lofty mountain of Ambóndrombé, covered with dense wood. Directly south was a line of hills crossing the country from the one set of ridges to the other and shutting us completely in. Beyond the town to the south we noted several villages, and ten miles away, upon a spur of these hills, with the green forest just beyond, was the village of Angalampona, the last village peopled by the Betsileo in that direction. This was the boundary of the Hova dominion; and of the sphere which the Mission has yet occupied. Imahazony is on the line of Lat. 22° S.