3-070-858 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Hova Beach Governor at Morondova, Madagascar, 1881. 'We are indebted to Mr. J. N. Stone, Staff-Surgeon R.N., for several sketches of scenes and figures observed during the visit of H.M.S. Ruby, corvette, under the command of Captain C. E. Foot, to the coast of the Mozambique Channel and to the Island of Madagascar, in October last year. Captain Foot, with a party of officers and seamen of the Ruby, landed at Morondova, on the south-western shore of the island, and went up to Mohabo, a town eighty miles inland, the capital of the province of Menabe, to visit the Hova Governor of that province. The Hovas are the ruling nation of Madagascar, and the Sakalave are a subject race, inhabiting the western districts. The central figure of our three Illustrations is that of an important Hova official, the "Beach Governor" at Morondova. He wore a very tall opera hat, a stiffly starched shirt, with its tails standing out over the trousers, and white linen scarf over the left shoulder. This personage may be taken as a type of the comparatively civilised Hova, one of the governing race, who affects a European tone'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.