l82 VOYAGE TO MADAGASCAR- 



To thefe accounts of M. de Moda^e, Ind 

 M. de Commerron, might be added that 

 of an officer who procured a Klmos^ whom, 

 as he told me, he wifhed to carry to France ; 

 but M, de Surviile, ,who commanded the 

 vefTel in which he had taken his paflage, 

 ■would not permit him* 



After fuch aurhetitic teftimonies, is it not 

 aftonifhing that Flacourt fhould have treated 

 as fables, every thing that concerns the tx- 

 Hence of thefe people ? Let not, therefore, 

 the authority of this man, fufpicious in 

 every refpe<J!t, on account of his implacable 

 hatred again ft the MadecafTes, be any more 

 oppofed to incontrovertible hiks. The 

 iflanders of Madagafcar are a people neither 

 worth lefs nor Hupid, becaufe their manners 

 are contrary to ours, and becaufe they think 

 proper to trace out fantaftical figures on 

 their bodies. Cuftoms and ufages differ 

 according to climates. Man every where 



takes 



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