The men had eaten nothing all day; but we found some quiet villages higher up the river and the rain compelled us to remain. We had narrow quarters in a real Betsileo house, surrounded by the live stock of the proprietor. The family goose was “sitting;” the fowls were active and hungry; the mice ran busily about us; the ducks quacked at intervals all night; and the cocks crowed early in the morning. I slept soundly through it all, as did Mr. Cameron in his little tent outside. Mr. Pillans however was not so happy. We left early the next day; and after a rapid run of two hours down a long slope, we arrived in good time for service at the town of Ambositra. Here we found our colleague Mr. Cousins, who had come from the Capital by the direct road, and had brought us English letters; and here we spent two delightful days. We had now reached the Betsileo Province. AMBOSITRA is the chief town of its northern division, and is 4320 feet above the sea. It stands on a low hill, in the centre of a wide, well-watered basin: it contains over two hundred houses; and numerous villages, and small clumps of houses termed “válas,” are scattered over the basin, among the fertile fields. The basin is bounded by lofty hills on the east and west; other valleys are found behind these hills, though the population which they contain is thinner. On the east, about fifteen miles away, is the town of Mády, on the Mády river; it also has several villages in its neighbourhood. To an English eye, and to the eye of a missionary who knows anything of India or China, the country appears thinly peopled. Some of the first missionaries who came and looked at this district, doubted whether it was of sufficient importance to constitute it a principal station of the mission. My colleague and I had little hesitation on the subject at our first visit. Upon our return, after traversing the entire province, we felt no doubt whatever. On the contrary, in relation to the country generally we deem Ambositra a place of great importance. Within the district are some five thousand “hetra” or holdings, representing as many families, and about thirty thousand people. The town contains a thousand people; and twenty thousand lie within a half-day’s journey from it. Eight congregations are connected with the central church, and five others with the church at Mády. Ambositra lies on the high road from the Capital: its broad, rich valley, full of people, is a refreshing resting-place for those who have traversed the granite moors and valleys, north and west; the forest and its rough ridges are beyond Mády to the east, with a road into the Tánála district; and on the south, scarcely a village is seen for a whole day, among the rocky lines of hill which cross the country.