140 OPPOSING INFLUENCES. 



first half of this centurj', to suhdue the other peoples of the 

 island, by which both conquerors and conquered suffered 

 severe loss. Besides all these things, there is the unhealthy 

 climate of a good deal of the coast and plain country, and 

 the poor and insufficiently-nourishing food used by the 

 poorer classes, so that their constitution is not fortified to 

 resist disease ; while in the colder parts of the island the 

 want of warm clothing for the children adds considerably to 

 the mortality of the young during the cooler months. 



When all these opposing influences are considered, it is 

 not wonderful that in some parts of Madagascar the popula- 

 tion should be apparently decreasing, although, perhaps, this 

 is not true of the country as a whole. But it is certainly 

 not increasing to any extent, and in some provinces is evi- 

 dently considerably less than it was a century ago. In read- • 

 ing Benyowski's Travels, it appears as if much larger bodies 

 of men were called out for war in his time than could be 

 mustered at the present day. But it may be hoped that, as 

 in many of the Polynesian islands, the introduction of Chris- 

 tianity has proved to be the salvation of the inhabitants as 

 peoples (as well as in other ways), and has put a stop to the 

 rapid decrease which in some cases threatened their total 

 extinction at no very remote period — so it will prove to be 

 in Madagascar. In a large part of the island the destruc- 

 tion of life by the tangdna ordeal, and through the belief in 

 unlucky days, has been put an end to, and the increase of 

 intelligence and civilisation, as well as improved morals, will 

 do much to check other causes of mortality. 



Various estimates of the population have been made at 

 different times. In Ellis's History of Madagascar, published 

 forty years ago, we find the following table : — 



The Hovas [north central] ...... 750,000 



The Sakalavap [west coast], including the Bezanozano ) , _ ^ 



and the Sihanaka [east and north-east] . • ) ' ' 



The Betsileo [south central] 1,500,000 



The Betanimena and Betsimisaraka [east coast] . . i ,000,000 



Total . . 4,450,000 



It is also stated that it had been ascertained that there 

 were in the country nearly a million of houses, a little under 



