ing April. In the meantime, however, she could spend the interval at his house in the Mauritius.
With equal surprise and delight Madame Pfeiffer accepted this invitation. Though Sir George Gray, the Governor of the Cape, offered to accompany her on a journey through the territory if she would stay, yet nothing could induce her to give up the prospect of a visit to Madagascar. At the Mauritius she was warned against Mr. Lambert as a very dangerous man; but whether she suspected any of his designs or not, she was determined to accompany him on his journey to Tananarivo.
At length on the 25th of April, 1857, Madame Pfeiffer embarked on board an old Trafalgar battle-ship, then a cattle transport from Madagascar to Mauritius, for Tamatavé, where she was joined by Mr. Lambert on the 15th of May. Previous to sailing for Madagascar, Mr. Lambert visited Zanzibar and Mozambique on behalf of the French Government, for the purpose of hiring negro laborers for the Island of Bourborn. This was a new species of slave-trade, invented by the French and acquiesced in by the English. The negro was designed to be in servitude only five years, and was to receive two dollars per month from his master besides board and lodging. After his five years had expired, he might find his way back to Africa if he had saved money enough to pay his passage, which, however, one can readily conceive there might be many obstacles and opposing interests to prevent; for the interests of planters are hardly more in accordance with the purer motives of philanthropy than are the politics of States.
At Tamatavé, while waiting for Mr. Lambert, Madame Pfeiffer became the guest successively of Madamoiselle Julie to whom Mr. Lambert had given her a letter, and of her two brothers who had estates in the vicinity. These persons had received a French education either in Bourbon or Paris, and yet they preferred to lapse into barbarism instead of living up to the standard of civilization. Madamoiselle Julie kept a harbor boarding-house; and at times there were as many as five vessels in the harbor.
At length, the journey for the capital was commenced on the 19th of May. The party consisted of Mr. Marius, Mr. Lambert and Madame Pfeiffer. Mr. Marius was a Frenchman, who had resided on the island twenty years. He undertook the office of interpreter and the general direction of the journey. It required four hundred men to bear the presents which Mr. Lambert had provided, from his own purse, at a cost of
