chap. xi. GOVERNMENT BEARERS EXEMPTED FROM TAXES. 293 
which they consequently expected to receive no pay. I 
requested the chief, who provided their rice, to write down 
the names of all those who remained, and to tell them that, 
whatever they might receive from others, I would pay every 
one who should continue with me until we reached the 
capital. I had proposed to do this before, but the officers 
objected. I had also heard that the districts around Tama- 
tave, from whence bearers for the government are taken, 
were, in consideration of this service, exempt from certain 
taxes which are levied on the others. Whenever any of the 
bearers absconded, the chiefs of the place provided other 
men to carry the packages which had been left, to the next 
post, or government station. 
The weather improved during the forenoon, and I walked 
through the village, which stands on the top of a hill of 
stiff yellow clay. The ground immediately around is wet 
and swampy, having considerable portions cultivated with 
rice. The country beyond appeared more woody, and the 
prospect on every side was bounded by high land, or distant 
mountains. Gardens belonging to the villagers covered the 
sides of the hill, and their houses were in tolerably good con¬ 
dition. Many of the women were employed in weaving, 
others in dyeing their materials; but I noticed in two of the 
houses a barrel of arrack, with a brass tap in the end of it, 
standing near the door, and a number of natives sleeping 
on the ground round about it. These houses are the native 
grog-shops, which have been recently established, and seem 
likely to prove prolific sources of idleness, poverty, and 
wretchedness to the people. I was informed that, after the 
killing and the distribution of the bullock on the previous 
day, some of the bearers had bartered their beef for arrack, 
and this it was which had made them so noisy during the 
night, and so disinclined to move forward the next morning. 
A young officer, travelling from the capital to the coast. 
