VARIOUS ESTIMATES. 



141 



five per house being adopted as the average inmates of each 

 (vol. i. pp. 113, 1 14). But as the Hovas never conquered a 

 considerable portion of the south and west of Madagascar, 

 there could be little reliable information to be obtained about 

 those parts of the country. It is also said that " the amount 

 of the population is evidently less than the island has contained 

 at former and not remote periods of its history." 



Some Trench "writers have given a considerably lower esti- 

 mate of the population, and from the intercourse which some 

 of these have had with the western coast, some reliance may 

 be placed upon their opinion as regards that portion of the 

 island. M. Barbie du Bocage reckons the entire population 

 at only three millions.* 



In a paper read before the Anthropological Society of 

 London (March 1868), by Lieut. Oliver, Pt.A., on "The 

 Hovas and other Characteristic Tribes of Madagascar," he 

 gives a number, but says also, " of which it is impossible to 

 obtain accurate information." 



f I. Hovas . . . Fair . . 800,000 



1. Malay origin ? ] ^; it^lSsiSca* '. \ ^^"^^ ^^^^^ ^'5-'°°° 



(4. Betsileo , . . Brown . 1,500,000 



I 5. Antsih^naka . . ) j^ j,^^^^ ^ 



. , . . , T 1 6. Bezanozano . . j ^ -^ ' 



2. Aborigmal? •< 7. Southern tribes and L,,, r.oonoo 



(8. Sakalkvas . . P^^'^ ' ^'"°°'°°° 

 Total . 5,300,000 



This estimate is evidently largely in excess of the facts, as 

 may be seen from an examination of one item. From statis- 

 tics I obtained in the Antsihanaka province, I reckoned that the 

 people there do not probably exceed in number from 40,000 to 

 45,000, while the Eev. P. Gr. Peake, whose district comprises 

 part of the territory of the Bezanozano tribe, gives 45,900 as 

 their number, an estimate formed on the basis of the Govern- 

 ment taxes on freeholds. Giving a few more to allow for the 

 strangers in the district, these two tribes together amount to 

 less than 100,000, or only a third of Oliver's estimate as 

 given above. It may be added that his division of the 

 different tribes, as regards origin and colour, is very arbitrary, 



* Madajascar : Possession Frangaise depuis 1642, p. 63. 



