At a little before five o’clock we came to a hollow at the end of the promontory, with a long piece of water dividing it from a steep abrupt hill, on which the large village of Ambòhipèno is situated. This place had a clay wall surrounding it, and contained about ninety houses. The “road” to it is the water just mentioned, about four feet wide, where the papyrus had been cut away; this being past, the path was up a steep clay slope. As we got near the village, we could see a number of people assembled to meet us, and on arriving at the top had a most pleasing reception. As we cleared the water and began to ascend, the singers struck up a hymn; they were all seated on one side of the road, the school-children on the other, while a little farther on were a crowd of people headed by the elderly men of the place. One of these, the judge of the district, a pleasant old man, then received us with the usual speeches, to which I had of course to reply. After a few minutes’ delay, and promising to come and preach to them on the following afternoon, we pushed on, for it was near sunset, and we had still three or four miles to traverse before reaching our destination. [Sidenote: A HOSPITABLE RECEPTION] It was about an hour after sundown before we reached Ampàrafàravòla, but a bright moon near the full prevented any difficulty in travelling. The town itself was almost entirely Hova, and consisted of about ninety houses in a square stockade of palisading, a double line of which ran all around it; but there were as many more Sihànaka houses within half-a-mile of the _ròva_, and two or three small villages at no great distance. On the west side of the town was a large, well-built, clay chapel, not then finished. Our first look at it, without any doors or windows, made us doubtful whether we could use it as a lodging, especially as the evening breeze blew sharply through the numerous openings; however, as we found there were temporary doors and shutters of _zozòro_, which filled them up to some extent, we decided that we had better stay in it. A few minutes after our arrival, the lieutenant-governor of the district and his attendants came out of the _ròva_ to meet us; and then, of course, came loyal inquiries and polite speeches and, after a little time, beef, rice and poultry, etc. We were glad at last to get some tea, but we found the chapel very windy and letting in far too many mosquitoes to be pleasant, so we pitched the tent at the far end of the building as a sleeping apartment, and by dexterous management Mr Pillans and I stole a march on our bloodthirsty little tormentors, and managed to get a good night’s rest; while the doctor secured the same under the protection of his mosquito net.