lency's kind inquiries after her health, and have the pleasure of informing you that Her Majesty at present enjoys excellent health, and desires me to say that she hopes you also enjoy the same. I am happy to say that I also am enjoying good health at present, and hope you also are well.

Your Excellency's intention to come up to the capital on some future occasion fills me with great pleasure, and for the reason that, should your intention be fulfilled, I can assure you of a most hearty welcome, according to our good friendship.

I have also to assure your Excellency that your arrival here in the capital will give great pleasure to Her Majesty and the Government. I have, &c.,

Rear-Admiral Macdonald.

RAINILAIARIVONY.

(Inclosure 3.)-Rear-Admiral Macdonald to the Prime Minister

(Extract.)

of Madagascar.

Undaunted, Tamatave, Madagascar, August 21, 1876. Ir is with pleasure that I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's kind and cordial letter dated the 16th August, and to avail myself of the same opportunity of tendering to you my sincere and hearty thanks for your assurance of hospitable intentions towards me on any future occasion when circumstances may permit me the honour of visiting your capital.

I can assure your Excellency that Her Britannic Majesty's Government have the kindest feelings towards the Government of which you are the head.

I venture to point out to your Excellency that despatch in all matters pertaining to public business is now considered the first essential by strong Governments, and I would submit for your consideration that it would be well if many matters now pending between your Excellency and Her Britannic Majesty's Consul met with immediate attention, and were not permitted to continue unsettled, from no other cause, apparently, than a wish to procrastinate difficulties which must eventually be met in one way or another.

I trust you will be good enough to present my dutiful respects to the Queen, assuring Her Majesty I feel greatly honoured by the message she has authorized your Excellency to send to me, and with the wish that all good may attend you.

SIR,

R. J. MACDONALD.

No. 393. Rear-Admiral Macdonald to the Secretary to the

Admiralty.

Undaunted, at Mozambique, August 29, 1876. WITH reference to my letter to you of the 29th December, 1875, on the subject of certain operations in the Nossumbelava

River, Madagascar, in latitude 16° 35' south and longitude 44° 31' east, by the boats of Her Majesty's ships Thetis and Flying Fish against armed Sakalavas who fired upon the boats of the first-named ship, I have the honour to inclose, to be laid before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, a letter I have received from Captain Ward, of Her Majesty's ship Thetis, detailing the particulars of a second visit made by him to Nossumbelava, by which it appears that good results have attended the prompt and judicious measures adopted by him on that occasion.

I also beg to inclose, for their Lordships' information, copy of a letter forwarded to me for perusal by Her Majesty's Consul in Madagascar from the Chief Secretary of State of that island, expressing the pleasure of the Hova Government at the proceedings of Captain Ward on the first-mentioned occasion.

Rear-Admiral Hall.

I have, &c.,

R. J. MACDONALD.

(Inclosure 1.)—Captain Ward to Rear-Admiral Macdonald. Thetis at Sea, Lat. 16° 47' S., Long. 40° 51′ E., July 27, 1876.

SIR, As the Nossum belava River had not been visited by our boats since the occasion on which they were fired upon by the natives on the 7th October last, I thought it advisable to make another expedition to this river, with the object, in the first place, of making it apparent to these people, who are mere savages, that their hostile attitude did not result in freeing their river from the presence of the white men; and, secondly, of obtaining, if possible, an interview with the Chief who had formerly attacked us, and thereby placing our relations on a more satisfactory footing than the late interchange of rifle-shots had left them.

On the evening of the 21st July the Flying Fish and Thetis anchored in the bay, and the next morning moved in to an anchorage about two miles outside the bar of the river.

By 2 P.M., after some considerable delay caused by the boats getting aground, the flotilla, consisting of the cruizing-launch and two cutters, and steam-cutter, under the senior lieutenant and two other lieutenants of Thetis, and the Flying Fish's cutter and steam-cutter, with Commander Crohan and navigating lieutenant and sub-lieutenant from that ship, and 100 blue-jackets and marines, had arrived inside the mouth of the river.

Commander Crohan and myself, accompanied by the Flying Fish's interpreter, who happened to belong to the place, landed immediately at the first village we came to with the hope of finding some of the natives who had not taken flight. In this we were rot disa pointed, although the bulk of the inhabitants, including all the

women and children, had disappeared. On our walking up towards the village, three or four men crept out, musket in hand, from behind the huts, and after a short conversation with the interpreter, confidence was so far established that one of them offered to take us to a village where an old Chief lived, though we were informed that the Chief whom we were in search of had gone up the river that morning. Having proceeded to the next village, we obtained an interview with the old Chief, who, after some palaver, offered to introduce us to the Chief we sought, that is to say, the one who had formerly fired upon the boats. We accordingly steamed up the river, accompanied by this man, and at sunset anchored opposite a small opening in the mangroves, where canoes were hauled up, indicating a landing-place. Here we landed, taking a small guard of blue-jackets with us, and after a walk of about a mile reached a place where the hum of voices and the sound of goats and poultry made us aware of the proximity of a village, though the surrounding trees hid it from view. Here the old Chief left us to announce our arrival, and after a long delay he returned with three soldiers-very fine specimens, one of them fully 6 feet high-whom the Chief had sent as a deputation to receive us; but we were informed that the Chief himself could not be prevailed upon to meet us: he had fought with us, and could not understand what we could possibly want with him except to take him prisoner; so, to remove all cause of apprehension, I offered to meet him alone with the interpreter, and this, after a time, was agreed to.

It was dark when I entered the village square, where a number of nearly naked men, each armed with spear and musket, were assembled, and after a short delay the Chief made his appearance, very penitent, and making many protestations of friendship, assuring me that anything our boats required should always be supplied to them, and that he would never allow a shot to be fired at them again. In answer to the question why he had fired upon our boats, he replied that when he saw the white men come up the river his heart was afraid, but he added that the people who had fired upon the boat on the first occasion were not his men.

I told him that I was willing to accept this as an excuse for this time, and reminded him that after he had fired upon us we landed at his village and found it deserted, and might, if we wanted revenge, have burnt it; but we wished to show him and his people that we wanted to be friends, and so left it untouched: but he must understand that we could only remain friends as long as he and his people behaved in a friendly way to us, and any repetition of the sort of reception which we had met with on our former visit would cause the destruction of his villages. After renewed assurances of a desire on his part to remain on friendly terms, I took my leave, and

our party having re-embarked, the boats proceeded down to the mouth of the river, where we anchored for the night, and in the morning returned to the ships.

Taken in connection with the severe lesson which was taught by the rockets and rifles of the former expedition, I hope we have succeeded in proving to these people that while we possess the power to hurt, we are anxious to be on friendly terms, and that so long as they behave civilly to us they need fear nothing from us.

Such an understanding as this will probably be of more value to us in any future dealings we may have with them than the severest punishment we could have inflicted upon them.

The bar of the Nossum belava River is shoal and somewhat difficult of access, but the river itself, when once inside, is broad and deep-our anchorage at the highest point we reached, probably ten miles from the mouth, having six fathoms close to the banks. About six miles from the entrance the river divides into two branches, only one of which we explored, and this had no features of interest, traversing a low clay country, perfectly flat with thick mangroves, the roots of which are flooded at low tide, growing all along the banks. One bend of the river near the mouth is the only exception to this general description; here the banks are higher, and the country apparently more open, and the trees, which are of a larger description than the mangrove, more scattered. It was behind these, on the occasion of our former visit, that our assailants found shelter.

The other branch, we were informed, was frequented by small coasting dhows, which went up there for bananas and rice. One of these we saw going up the river as we entered.

Rear-Admiral Macdonald.

I have, &c.,

T. LE H. WARD.

No. 395.-Rear-Admiral Macdonald to the Secretary to the Admiralty. (Extract.) Undaunted, at Zanzibar, September 20, 1876.

I HAVE the honour to request you will inform the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that, shortly after my arrival at this port on the 9th instant, I waited upon His Highness the Sultan of Zanzibar, accompanied by Dr. Kirk, Her Majesty's Political Agent and Consul-General, and attended by my staff and the captains of Her Majesty's ships then in port.

His Highness paid me the distinguished honour of lining the streets with his soldiery, and receiving me with a guard of honour composed of his Persian body-guard, and himself met and greeted me on foot at some considerable distance from his palace gates.

My reception by His Highness was most cordial and gratifying, and his expressions of good-will were repeated and emphatic.

On the day but one following, the Sultan honoured me by a visit to my flag-ship, when he was received with the honours and ceremony due to his position; and, subsequently, His Highness entertained me and the captains and many officers of Her Majesty's ships present at a banquet at his palace, which was illuminated for the occasion.

The Slave Trade in the Sultan's dominions has of a surety of late received a very serious blow, but whether the check be only temporary, and whether the slave-dealers in the interior may not still discover and work out new land routes and ports of shipment where His Highness' Arab Governors are not now established, are questions which are yet to be determined; but, under any circumstances, His Highness has, by his late Proclamations, made a noble sacrifice to uphold in their integrity the terms of his Treaties with Great Britain.

Rear Admiral Hall.

R. J. MACDONALD.

AGREEMENT between the British Government and the Sultan of Socotra. (Non-cession of Island except to the British Government. Assistance to Wrecked Vessels.)—January 23, 1876.

(Translation.)

PRAISE be to God alone!

The object of writing this lawful and honourable bond is that it is hereby covenanted and agreed between Ali bin Abduila bin Salem bin Saad bin Afreer, Sultan of Socotra, on the one part, and Brigadier-General John William Schneider, the Governor of Aden, on behalf of the British Government, on the other part, that the said Ali bin Abdulla bin Salem bin Saad bin Afreer, Sultan of Socotra, does pledge and bind himself, his heirs and successors, never to cede, to sell, to mortgage, or otherwise give for occupation, save to the British Government, the Island of Socotra or any of its dependencies-the neighbouring islands.

In consideration of the above covenant, the said Ali bin Abdulla bin Salem bin Saad bin Afreer, Sultan of Socotra, has received from Brigadier-General John William Schneider, the Governor of Aden, on behalf of himself, his heirs and successors, an immediate payment of 3,000 (three thousand) dollars, and he, his heirs and successors, shall further receive from the British Government a yearly subsidy of 360 (three hundred and sixty) dollars, it being understood that this stipend imposes on the aforesaid Ali bin Abdulla bin Salem bin Saad bin A freer, Sultan of Socotra, his heirs and