The glad Dawn sets his fires upon the hills, Then floods the valley with his golden light, And, triumphing o’er all the hosts of night, The waiting world with new-born rapture fills. L. C. MOULTON. The scene now changes to the province of Betsileo, in the south of the Island, where the work is carried on amongst a backward people, whose territory abuts upon the districts occupied by tribes more benighted still--the Sakalava, the Bara, and the Tanala. Until quite recently the work in Betsileo was separated from the work in Imerina by a journey in a filanjana (palanquin) occupying from eight to ten days. Now the 264 miles which separate Tananarive from Fianarantsoa are covered in two days in comfortable automobiles, along a magnificent road which has been constructed by the French. For almost the whole of the distance the country is very hilly, the road rising to 4,500 feet above the sea level, and being carried over mountains in a continuous series of curves with easy gradients. We were travelling in the middle of the Malagasy winter. The mornings were cold and misty, but before long the sun broke out and we enjoyed a changing panorama of hill and mountain, waterfall and river, and far-spreading distant views. Peaks sixty miles away appeared to be quite near. Time after time the road traversed amphitheatres in the mountains, and I was often reminded of stretches of country in the province of Hunan in Central China. Fianarantsoa is the capital of the Betsileo province, the inhabitants of which are a curly-haired, dark-skinned people of a somewhat low type, except in the large towns where most of the population is Hova. Work is also carried on at outstations amongst the Bara and Tanala tribes in the south. The L. M. S. first sent resident missionaries to settle in Betsileo in 1870, and the Paris Missionary Society and the Norwegian Society are also at work there. Fianarantsoa is picturesquely situated in a mountainous region. It stands considerably higher than the top of Snowdon, and commands a wonderful view on all sides--of mountains and moorland, forest and river in infinite variety. During our visit, in the early mornings great seas of mist lay in the valleys, but later in the day the whole landscape was flooded with brilliant sunshine.