HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
197 
They build their huts, and rear their families, in the recesses 
of the forest, cultivating suitable portions of the soil for 
their scanty subsistence. The male children of these 
people are regarded as woodcutters from their birth, and 
labour at their avocation through life without any wages or 
remuneration from the government; and were any of them 
to abandon their occupation, and leave the forest, they would 
be pursued by soldiers, treated as criminals or deserters if 
overtaken, and shot or otherwise put to death. This hard¬ 
ship is not confined to the woodcutters, but extended to all 
the natives regularly employed by the government. These 
amount to a considerable number, as there are, besides the 
fellers of timber and burners of charcoal, smiths or general 
workers in iron about four hundred in number, gunsmiths 
and spear-makers, carpenters, gunpowder manufacturers in¬ 
cluding those who prepare nitre and sulphur, tanners and cur¬ 
riers, soap-boilers, tailors, and sempstresses. The numbers 
engaged respectively in these several avocations vary, but 
all are required to labour at them during life for the sove¬ 
reign, without any payment for their labour; they are, it is 
true, exempted from the taxes levied on the freemen, but 
they are obliged to provide for the support of themselves 
and families, which they generally effect by the cultivation 
of a small portion of rice-ground; but should the labours of 
their several avocations not allow time for this, the govern¬ 
ment makes no provision for their support, and this must 
be supplied, as is the case with those in the army, by their 
relations, or the families to which they may severally 
belong. No individual appointed by the sovereign to any 
of the above occupations could leave the same for any 
other, or remove to another part of the island, excepting by 
the consent of the government, without being subject ta 
the penalty of death. 
