HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR, 
97 
The number of houses is about six or seven thousand, 
affording an average of three persons to each house. The 
increase of one-third in the amount of the population 
in the short space of about eight years, distinctly shews 
the value of Radama’s government to the country. 
The increase arose in part from persons preferring to 
settle at the capital rather than to remain in the country, 
for the same reasons which have led to the increase 
of our cities in Europe; where, however, a denser popula¬ 
tion on a given spot is no proof of a general augmenta¬ 
tion in the inhabitants of the country,—the accumulation 
in the one case being founded on a diminution in 
another. There is, however, reason to believe that the 
increase in the population of Madagascar has been very 
general, more particularly in the vicinity of the capital, 
where the influence of the government has been most pow¬ 
erfully felt, and its vigilance most beneficially exercised. 
The suppression of the slave traffic, and of the horrid 
practice of infanticide, and the diminished sacrifice of life 
from the mock trials by ordeal, during the enlightened 
reign of Radama, will in no small degree account for the 
increase. 
The average number of inhabitants to each house ap¬ 
pears small. It is, however, to be remarked, that the 
houses consist generally of but one apartment, or that 
occasionally divided by a partition made of coarse matting 
and a few bamboos. Most of the inhabitants, excepting the 
poorest classes, have two houses; others three or four, or 
even more, several of which are used as kitchens, or 
occupied by their relations, slaves, and slave families. As 
civilization has advanced at the capital, it has augmented 
the desire of securing additional comforts and accommo¬ 
dations, and hence the increased number of habitations 
H 
