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STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

CHAPTER II.

GENERAL STATE OF THE COUNTRY SINCE THE ACCESSION OF RANAVALONA.

Proportion of the country under the Queen's government-Standing army-Bourgeois-Extermination of the male population-Expeditions-Hova troops self-destroyed at IkongonaCrucifixion-Carnage-Near escape of two boys-Sale of captive children-Native letter describing a campaign—American whalers-Embassy to England-Barbarous crueltyCivil service to the government-Practice of district bettingVillages deserted-Modes of capital punishment-Queen's amusements-Power abused-Provisions scarce-Service to the Government by the women.

IT is difficult to say what proportion of Madagascar is actually under the government of Ranavalona. Radama's father, it is well known, commenced his career on a very limited scale, and at the time of his death, his dominions probably did not comprise above a sixth part of the island. Radama, as already intimated, enlarged his kingdom by conquest, till he obtained, it may be, more than half of the island. To secure these additions, and ultimately obtain the whole, have been the principal objects of the queen's reign hitherto. No claim to this universal sovereignty over the island, can be established on the ground of any former rights. The people claiming it on the behalf of the queen are called Hovas,— the race or tribe of natives inhabiting the province of Ankova. They assume to themselves the right of being

MILITARY EXPEDITIONS.

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the masters of the island, and are attempting to establish their claim by all the means they can command. Hence the attention of the Hovas has been chiefly directed to annual predatory excursions, or as they themselves loftily designate them, "military expeditions ;" and while these have devastated and depopulated many distant parts of the island, they have impoverished the province itself in which the capital is situated, and out of which the troops have been drawn for this destructive system. The province of Ankova has been drained of its youth to maintain, during the past ten years, a standing army, amounting to no less than from 20,000 to 30,000 men; and as large numbers of these have been, from various causes, annually cut off, new levies have been made, till the flower of the people has perished.

These warlike excursions, for the purpose of subduing the provinces that have not submitted to the Hovas, are attended with melancholy results and cruelties abhorrent to humanity. A division of the army, amounting to perhaps 2,500 or even 10,000 men, as the case may seem to require, is despatched about the close of the rainy season to some fated spot, with orders to return home by the commencement of the next rainy season, affording a campaign of about six months. Usually the army is attended by an equally large or larger number of bourgeois, that is to say, non-military persons, following the camp to assist in obtaining plunder, which they afterwards, at the close of the campaign, share in fixed proportions with the regular troops.

These expeditions are extremely fatal to all parties concerned. No commissariat existing in the Malagasy

с

army, and no regular provision being made for the troops, many of the soldiers perish on the road from fatigue, famine, and disease. Many also are cut off by the inhabitants of the districts they are attempting to subjugate. Where they are successful, they depopulate and destroy. Whole districts are stripped of their inhabitants, and large tracts of country thrown utterly out of cultivation. The policy of the queen during the last seven years has been to exterminate all the male inhabitants of the conquered provinces capable of bearing arms, and to reduce all the rest to slavery. It may be estimated that no less than the fearful amount of 100,000 men have been murdered by the queen's troops since her accession. A few only of this number have been killed while actually fighting; the rest has consisted of those who had laid down their arms, promised submission, and committed themselves into the power of their deceitful but remorseless enemies. More than double that number, including women and children, has been captured and shared among the troops, or sold into domestic slavery through various parts of the island.

Painful as may be the recital of some of the details of this frightful subject, a complete view of the case cannot be formed without it.

Among some of the earliest expeditions sent out during the queen's reign, were those under the command of Rainiharo and Ramboasalama to the south, and of Ravalontsalama to the west, in 1831. Deceit and cruelty were practised by both parties. The former, on their way to their destination, came to a town in the Betsileo country, and determined to sacrifice it for the sake of

plunder.

OF MALE INHABITANTS.

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There were about three hundred families residing there, living in quiet and peaceable submission to the Hovas, regarding them as friends, and never dreaming of attempting to escape on the approach of the army. The officers of the queen's troops then invited all the men from the village to a friendly repast with them in their tents, and the invitation was accepted. The soldiers had private orders given them to be provided with cords, and that, as soon as they heard the drum beat, they should seize and tie up their guests. the appointed hour the unsuspecting villagers arrived, entered the tents, sat down quietly waiting for the cooked rice; the drum was heard, the soldiers seized their visitors, led them to a spot at a little distance, and then deliberately put them all to death by spearing. The women and children of course were taken as plunder. The second officer in command on this occasion, Ramafadrahona, boasted that he had killed eleven of them with his own hands.

At

One of the villagers who happened to remain at home, hearing what was taking place, effected his escape to Ikongona, about sixty or seventy miles distant, and related the dreadful tale. That village was situated on the top of a high hill, and surrounded by a strong wall. Here several chieftains were collected, and many thousands of the people. As soon as they heard the fate of the man's companions, they determined to accept no such friendly invitation from the Hovas, but to defend themselves to the utmost. The army arrived there in three days. One division of it was appointed to the attack, under the command of the officer above named,

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BESIEGERS SELF-DESTROYED.

with instructions to retreat for the day at four o'clock, if the village were not taken by that time. The path that led up to it was exceedingly narrow, and was situated by the side of a tremendous precipice. Close to the entrance to the village was a spot of open level ground, and there the soldiers, after having with difficulty arrived, planted their cannon and fired on the village, while those within defended themselves by casting stones over the walls, &c. Many of the bourgeois had ventured between the soldiers and the wall, to be ready, as soon as the village could be taken, to rush in and seize the prey. Four o'clock arrived, and the village was not taken; the commander gave orders for the troops to withdraw; the bourgeois hearing this, and being next to the wall, were afraid that the soldiers would descend the path before them, and so leave them in the rear exposed to the enemy, who might take advantage of the retreat, rush out, and fall upon them; they therefore rushed impetuously forward in order to get possession of the path first, and this threw the whole line of soldiers into such irretrievable confusion, that they actually pushed one another by hundreds, officers, soldiers, bourgeois, pell-mell, over this tremendous precipice, where they were dashed to pieces. Not less than two or three thousand perished by this circumstance, and among them Ramafadrahona himself, and his friend and companion Rafalimanana, as if Providence had taken vengeance on them for the innocent blood they had shed. Not one of the villagers, however, came out at the time; and when they did venture out, they were astonished at the numbers that had perished, and the quantity of muskets and spears scattered about,