VOYAGE TO MADAGASCAR. 205 



ill and was always very fhort, and being 

 obliged to repair their veflels fpeediJy, and 

 to procure provifions, they could not think 

 of fowing divifion among thefe people, 

 who might have revenged themfelves dur- 

 ing their abfence on their women and 

 children, and have entirely ruined their 

 eftabliOiments ; and it was only at certain 

 periods that they could give themfelves up 

 to all the excefTes of drunkennefs and de- 

 bauchery. But when they were forced to 

 renounce their infamous profelTion, they fol- 

 lowed a plan of life entirely different. 

 Their views then were directed towards 

 the means of recovering a part of thofe 

 riches which they had imprudently diffi- 

 pated, and to fccure the protedion of the 

 Europeans by opening to them a branch of 

 commerce, with the extent and importance 

 of which they were well acquainted, Thefe 

 profiigatesj therefore, were the firft who in- 

 troduced 



