SLAVES. 181 



the innate injustice of buying and selling and holding as 

 property one's fellow- creatures remains unaltered, practically, 

 there is not, as a rule, much in the circumstances of the 

 slaves generally to call for any great commiseration ; for, on 

 the whole, they are kindly treated by their masters, they are 

 considered as a kind of inferior members of the family to 

 whom they belong, and many of the slaves have a practical 

 freedom of action to which the free population are quite 

 strangers. They will join in the conversation of their mas- 

 ters at table and give their opinion with a freedom which 

 strikes us as amusing, and which is utterly alien to our 

 English habits with our servants. And then it must be 

 remembered that in Madagascar there is not the colour pre- 

 judice, or the distinction of race between master and slave, 

 which raises such an impassable barrier between the dark and 

 white races in other countries where slavery exists ; for the 

 masters are often just as dark in colour as their slaves, and, 

 as will be presently described, are, as regards some of them, of 

 exactly the same origin. 



The slave population in Madagascar is divided into three 

 distinctly marked classes — viz., the Zaza-Hova, the Andevo, 

 and the Mozambiques. 



The first of these, the Zaza-Hova, are, as their name 

 implies, of the same stock as the Hovas themselves, the mass 

 of the population of the central province. But they or their 

 ancestors have become slaves either from having been sold 

 for debt, or as a punishment for political offences or for 

 certain crimes. The cruel code of native laws up to about 

 sixteen years ago denounced not only death for many offences, 

 but also reduced the culprit's wife and children to slavery. 

 And so a large number of persons are slaves whose fathers 

 at a recent or more remote period were free people. 



The second and largest division of the slave population, 

 the Andevo or slaves proper, are chiefly the descendants of 

 those who were captured in the numerous war expeditions 

 carried on by the Hovas in various parts of the island, 

 especially in the reigns of lladama I. and Hanavalona I. 

 These wars were conducted with fearful cruelty : the men 

 being, even after submission, often ruthlessly shot down or 



