265 
3-4,000 slaves annually ; and in the registers of the King for 
1819, were reckoned 1,158 that were sold belonging to him 
alone. 
The Huwa have such an insatiable thirst for money that 
they even brave death to procure it, and surpass all that is 
said of the children of Israel in Egypt. If they can procure 
any pecuniary advantage they are in transports of joy, and 
are unable for a length of time to take their eager glances 
from this object of their idolatry; but the least loss over- 
whelms them with heavier sorrow than the death of a near 
relation, so that instances are not unfrequent of people de- 
ceived by their debtors, who have expired with grief. They 
borrow money upon their unripe vegetable productions, and 
can hardly wait for the period of their maturity, till they 
carry them to market, to satisfy their creditors, and to delight 
their own avarice by the sight of the money. They are so 
distrustful that they never think their money is safe till it is 
buried; and from the King down to the lowest beggar, the 
earth is their strong-box. ‘ 
A great degree of fidelity has been attributed to the Huwa 
in mercantile transactions, and it has been known that articles 
of value lost among them, have, after many days, been found 
in the King’s keeping; but this manner of obtaining posses- 
sion of lost property seems to have been purely political on 
the part of government, and practised in order to raise the 
King’s reputation with foreign nations, as well as to show 
how absolute was his power over his subjects. 
Cultivation is too restricted, the inhabitants are too desti- 
tute of enterprise, and the roads are too bad, dangerous, and 
widely separated. to allow of any traffic with the coast being 
pursued to advantage. — Ic fre 
_ Tannanarivon, the capital of the province of Emerina, and 
the residence of the present King, is the seat. also of the tri- 
bunals of justice, police, &c.: it is situated near the centre of 
the district, and is about 300 English miles distant, West, 
from the N. Eastern coast of Tamatave. This city is on the 
bank of the river Kiupa, which takes its rise in the S. East, 
and, intersecting the whole province of Emerina, falls into 
