HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
51 
The Betanimenes, who were a more frugal race as well 
as more courageous than the people of Anteva and Maha- 
velona, no sooner found that the source of the stores of the 
pirates were exhausted by the destruction of their ships, 
than they prepared to return to their villages with the rich 
treasures they had amassed; nor would the people of the 
neighbourhood have opposed their departure, had not the 
pirates tried every method to incite them to violence by 
representing that the booty belonged by right to them, as a 
return for the kindness they had shewn to the strangers; 
and that, if they suffered such possessions to be taken 
away, they would be lost, and dispersed about the country. 
The respect due to strangers was long before it could be 
overcome; but at length the people of Anteva and the 
adjacent provinces yielded, and attacked the Betanimenes. 
A bloody war ensued, in which the pirates cautiously 
avoided any public interference, but they secretly encour¬ 
aged both parties, by selling arms to one, and represent¬ 
ing to the other that they had right on their side. At 
length the Betanimenes, who had not come from home 
prepared for a protracted contest, found their ammunition 
expended; and the pirates, seizing this auspicious moment 
for their guilty purpose, advised them to the act of ex¬ 
changing their prisoners of war for arms and gunpowder. 
The Betanimenes, provoked by the unwarrantable and 
unlooked-for attack of the other party, eagerly followed 
the pernicious counsel of their pretended friends. Defend¬ 
ing themselves with great bravery, they had taken a large 
number of prisoners, who proved a great incumbrance, 
they therefore sold them to the pirates, and received in 
exchange arms and ammunition. Having obtained these 
supplies, they found themselves placed in a more advan- 
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