We left Antanànarìvo on Thursday afternoon, 13th September, a large number of our missionary friends accompanying us for a distance out of the city, in fact as far as the banks of the Ikòpa, along which our route lay for several miles. Here one could not but be again impressed with the importance of these river banks in preserving the rice-fields from being flooded, and by the good work done by the old kings of Imèrina in embanking the river and thus turning marsh and bog into fruitful fields. Stopping at the L.M.S. mission station of Ambòhidratrìmo for the first night of our journey, we reached the station of Fihàonana in Vònizòngo on the second day, putting up at the manse, although the minister (Rev. T. T. Matthews) and his family were away from home. A short half-day’s ride brought us to a third mission station, that at Fierènana, where we had a Sunday’s rest before setting out on the unknown and principal portion of our journey. We stayed in the house which, a year or two before then, I had marked out for our friends, and recalled how I had taught Mrs Stribling to lay bricks, to bond together the corners of the walls, to manage the chimney breasts, etc., so that she became quite proficient and was able to teach the native workmen bricklaying, which was then to them an unknown art. [Sidenote: ATTRACTIONS OF A MARKET] On Monday morning we fairly started on our journey away from mission stations and Europeans. Two hours’ ride brought us to a large market where hundreds of people were assembled. We were set down and, before we knew what our men were about, were left almost without a bearer, it being too great a temptation for our fellows not to go into the thick of a market; and it was some little time before we could get hold of them to carry us into the village near the place. All this day’s journey was up a long wide valley enclosed by lines of hills, which gradually approached as we proceeded; and our evening halt was in a village covered with a layer of finely powdered cow-dung, although the village chapel, our usual inn on such journeys, provided a fairly comfortable resting-place for the night.