33B 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR, 
and carpenters obtain about double the sum. When work 
is done by hire, it is most frequently by contract. A master 
will often hire out his slave at the rate of five dollars, 
rather more than twenty-one shillings sterling per annum, 
with provisions and clothing. 
The natives are in the habit of lending their slaves to 
assist their neighbours and friends in dragging stones for 
graves, removing their houses, &c., and they borrow again 
in their turn. They have thus less occasion to hire labour 
than would otherwise be requisite. The free people are 
also in the habit of assisting one another by their personal 
labours. In all such cases the parties requiring aid find 
provisions during the time of labour, and then usually 
give some kind of feast, or distribution of meat, at its 
termination. 
Foreign commerce has long been carried on with Mada¬ 
gascar. Arabs from Muscat have for many years been 
accustomed to trade with the people of Mojanga on the 
eastern coast. The Imaum of Muscat formerly maintained a 
deputy, who governed at this port. Many xArabs frequently 
brought their merchandise, which generally consisted of 
raw r silk, cloth, earrings, finger-rings, beads, necklaces, pre¬ 
cious stones, swords, powder, white cloth, &c. to the capital 
for sale. The last party of merchants arrived in 18*29, 
before the queen’s coronation. The fine river Betsiboka 
being navigable for canoes from Mojanga to within fifty or 
sixty miles of the capital, gives great facility for a regular 
trade between this port and Ankova. 
Numbers of the natives of India, chiefly from the Presi¬ 
dency of Bombay, have at different periods visited Mojanga, 
for the purpose of trade, and have brought their mer¬ 
chandise to the capital, where some have remained to 
dispose of the goods, while the rest have returned in their 
