Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/541

 According to Grandidier the Hovas, taking the term in the widest sense, so as to include all the tribes of the central regions who have adopted the name of the victorious nation, number altogether about one million souls, or, say, one-third of the whole population of the island. Thanks to the greater relative density of the inhabitants in their territory, as well as to the commanding position occupied by them in the centre of the island, they have naturally acquired a decided superiority over the discordant tribal groups scattered over the low lying coastlands. Effect has been given to this natural superiority by their better organised administration, supported by troops trained to European methods of warfare by English and other foreign officers.

A vast part of the territory encircling the central province of Imerina is still almost uninhabited, especially in the western districts. In this direction stretch extensive wildernesses, where the traveller may journey for days together without meeting a single group of habitations. To these frontier tracts the English explorers have given the name of No Man's Land; according to Grandidier they neither are nor can be inhabited.

During the last century the military preponderance belonged to the people of