304 
MADAGASCAR. 
entirely with the Malagasy, who have often 
suffered great hardships in their relationship 
with foreigners as regards the land. Short 
leases, however, are to be deprecated, although 
just now popular with the authorities at the 
capital, for the simple reason that they will con¬ 
duce to the limitation of expenditure and the in¬ 
vestment of capital. The investor will naturally 
demand some guarantee that he shall reap the 
fruit of his labour; and a long lease is the only ar¬ 
rangement which fairly secures that return which 
he has a right to expect. The foreigner must 
yield the point of perpetual alienation of the soil, 
and the Hovas must yield the point of short 
leases; and I think an amicable solution of the 
question will be arrived at in the long-period 
lease, with protective clauses, and a security for 
losses by internal dissensions or revolutions or 
tribal disturbances. I do not maintain that it 
will never be possible again to buy land right 
out in Madagascar, but I think that for some 
time at least the only possible way, and in fact 
the wisest way, of acquiring property in the 
island, will be by securing it on as long a regis¬ 
tered lease as possible direct from the central 
Government at the capital. 
The geographical details of a great portion of 
the island are at present very imperfect, and each 
traveller can add something to the steadily ac- 
