A CANOE VOYAGE. 
97 
the Hova dynasty. There can be no doubt as 
to the enormous impetus and encouragement 
which would have been given to commerce and 
trade in the island, and especially in the in¬ 
land provinces, at present so difficult of access, 
if this project of uniting these lakes had been 
successfully carried out, as a convenient outlet 
would thus have been provided for the rapid 
and cheap transport of produce from the more 
remote districts to the seaports and the various 
home and foreign markets, which is now not 
of sufficient value to bear the exorbitant cost 
of transit. 
Eadama had been at work some time when 
the whole undertaking was suddenly abandoned. 
It is a matter of tradition that one day, as the 
people were digging, human cries issued from 
the trench, and blood was seen to ooze forth at 
the same spot. This was reported to the king, 
who took counsel with his idol-keepers. They 
declared—as the native oracles had, and still 
have, an eccentric habit of doing—that this idea 
of a canal being new was therefore undesirable, 
and that these were unmistakable signs of the 
anger and disapproval of the gods ; and he, rather 
weakly we think, decided to proceed no further 
at that time with his project of uniting the 
lakes. 
The scenery around these magnificent sheets 
G 
