HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
93 
the late British resident at the capital of the island—lat 
18° 56' 26'' S., and 47° 57'48" E. of Greenwich, or 45° 37' 22" 
E. of Paris. The highest elevation of Tananarivo above the 
adjoining vale, is about five hundred feet. Its elevation 
above the level of the sea, is believed to be about seven 
thousand feet. The direction of the hill is nearly north¬ 
west and south-east. The two principal paths to its sum¬ 
mit, wind up in an extremely irregular manner; one from 
the east to the centre of the town, and another from 
the north, proceeding through the town to its southern 
extremity. 
The signification of the name Tananarivo is determined 
by its etymology. Arlvo, signifies a thousand; tanana, 
means a town. The compound word will therefore signify 
a thousand towns. It may be regarded as a name given in 
compliment to the extensive population thus drawn together; 
and, viewed as descriptive of a native’s idea of a town—so 
large as to comprehend a thousand towns in one. This ap¬ 
pears to be the correct interpretation of the term. The 
European, who smiles, it may be, at the childish exaggera¬ 
tion, will yet forgive the fond vanity of the Malagasy, who 
thinks as proudly of his City of a thousand towns, as ever 
did the inhabitants of Palmyra or Babylon, Corinth or Rome, 
in their dreams of the pomp, splendour, and durability of 
their immortal cities. 
The summit and the sides of the hill, on which the city 
stands, are covered with buildings, especially near the top. 
The houses are built on the declivities by means of artificially 
levelled terraces, of twenty, thirty, or forty feet in width. 
O before Tahiti, or before the largest of the Sandwich Islands. In the 
geographic position of the capital, as given above, the Missionaries suppose 
there is an error of one degree, and that it should be 48° 57' 48" east of 
Greenwich, 
