72 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
rious drug thus heartlessly given in return for the produce 
of their labour, the natives soon become intoxicated, in 
which humiliating state they continue so long as the arrack 
lasts: for this short-lived indulgence, they sink into a 
state of the most abject penury and misery, and then force 
themselves and their families to subsist the greater part of 
the year on roots, &c. found in the woods and swamps. 
Their chief means of subsistence is the via, a species of 
arum, the root of which is tuberous or cylindrical, and fre¬ 
quently from ten to twelve inches in diameter. It is dressed 
by baking for about twelve hours in an oven of heated 
stones under ground, after the manner of the South Sea 
islanders. In this state it will keep good for three or four 
days, but is cut into small pieces and dried in the sun, 
when intended to be kept for a longer period. 
In payment for the carriage of goods into the interior, 
or for their produce, the intoxicating draught is the usual 
equivalent : to diminish, and if possible prevent, the 
wretchedness thus induced, Radama imposed a heavy duty 
on the importation of ardent spirits. Some check on such 
an improvident and destructive infatuation in the one 
party, and of relentless avarice in the other, was required; 
but there is great reason to fear that the baneful habit is 
too deeply fixed among the unthinking natives of this part 
of the coast, to be very easily extirpated; but the attempt 
of Radama to diminish the evil, is only one among many 
instances of the soundness of his judgment and the bene¬ 
ficial tendency of his measures. There are three important 
ports in this province: Manoro, Mahela, and Mananjary. 
A considerable trade is carried on at these places, especially 
at Mananjary, by French settlers. 
The eighth, the province of Matitanana , lies south of 
Anteva, and has for a length of time been the principal 
