— we 
In such harsh cases as these, the nearest relative and 
dearest friend dares not interfere, from the dread of being 
personally accused of holding league with the guilty, and 
then being compelled to drink. Mr. Cameron applied to 
Government to procure the exemption of a youth, on the ground 
that the Queen’s work could not proceed, while the appointed 
workmen were liable to be so taken away. ‘The reply of the 
chief officer (Andriamiaja) was, that he could not even pro- 
tect himself from undergoing the ordeal; but that any accused 
person might be sent to him, and he would see that no 
unfairness was practised.. Yet instances do sometimes occur 
where. affection has prevailed over superstition. An in- 
fluential judge was told that with the Queen’s approval, 
all persons, except himself, should drink. Afterwards his 
daughter, to whom he was strongly attached, was actually 
included among the accused, and the father protested that 
should she die, he would never take any part in public affairs 
again, but leave them to be managed by others as they best 
could. Fortunately, his daughter recovered. 
-. The deception practised in the whole transaction, is pecus 
to every sensible native. It is well known that the selection 
of the fruit requires great care, and that a mistake in this 
respect may destroy the innocent, or save the guilty. "Thus 
the administrators have it in their power to permit any cri- 
minal to escape, and for a small reward they often exercise 
this partiality. They frequently recover slaves, who have 
been pronounced dead, by giving them copious draughts of 
water, in which certain herbs, &c. have been boiled. The 
individuals, so saved, are sent to a great distance and sold, as 
they cannot be suffered to remain in the place where the ordeal 
had been administered to them, and they are disposed of as 
prize property, their own fears preventing them from ever 
disclosing the transaction to the families of their new masters. 
Thus, among all the rich nobility, male and female, who 
drank the Tanghin in 1830, not one died. It is equally cer- 
tain that the administrators can sacrifice whom they please. 
The fruit, which appears very red, is protested against by the 
friends of the accused, on the tacit understanding that such a 
