The Tanála people are reckoned with the Betsileo: but I doubt whether they are of Betsileo blood. They seem rather to be a portion of the Bezánozáno, who people Ankay; and these again are part of the Betsimisáraka tribes. Their country is extremely unhealthy. Placed between the two lines of forest, and their decaying vegetation, it suffers greatly, for eight months of the year, from fever. And none can reside there permanently, who have not become _víta-tázo_, “fever-proof.” This constitutes the religious difficulty. Gladly would the Mission place one of its English families there to take charge of the Tanála people, were it not for the unusual risks which they would be called to run. We talked the matter over with Hióvana and her brother in Fianáran. She impressed us as being a truly noble lady. She is an eloquent speaker in public; and her addresses at the kabarys are listened to with delight by the assembled multitudes. But she can speak with peculiar beauty of voice and tone in private: and the shrewd and touching pleas with which she and her brother urged that we should appoint an English missionary to their people, were presented with earnestness and power. They have always given a warm welcome to those missionaries who have paid them a visit: and any one who would spend some months of the year with them would do the Tanála people great service. They ought at least to command the services of one of the ablest native ministers, whom the Mission can supply. For several years I had taken a deep interest in the southern part of the Betsileo province and in the town of Ambóhimandróso; to whose people the Society had long desired to send a missionary: we now prepared to visit it. On Friday, October 3d, the whole party from the Capital, accompanied by Mr. Brockway, left Fianáran. The greater part of our road lay along a fine valley, narrow and bordered by peculiarly noble hills. The parallel ridges of the Betsileo Country run generally from north-north-west to south-south-east. This valley ran for twenty miles a little west of south. The ridges therefore all crossed it; but some mighty force had broken them through at this point, had swept away their rocky remains: and left great precipices, buttresses and promontories overhanging the narrow cleft along which we journeyed. Each headland has its distinctive name. Nothing but photography can duly show the grandeur of these rocks; and only a map on a large scale can rightly delineate the country. The highest mountain in the Betsileo, a grand peak, named Ambohitramanjáka, “king’s town,” we left up a narrow valley on the west of our road. All the way we had on one side or the other, the drain of the valley, the river Ranofotsy. We camped in the valley at night, and had the hills on the east of us all on fire.