24 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
Such were the repeated testimonies given by the French 
to the result of their own trial of the intellectual and moral 
qualities of the pitiable inhabitants of Madagascar. And 
yet, actuated by a strange inconsistency of feeling, no sooner 
were the Protestant Missionaries settled at the capital of 
the island, and about to commence their work, than the 
superior of the Catholics of Bourbon wrote to Radama, 
recommending the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion 
as the best for kings and princes, as well as for the good of 
their subjects, and requesting to send a body of priests to 
be maintained “ out of the king’s meat,” who might instruct 
his people in useful knowledge and Christianity. 
This officious zeal to instruct those who had been pro¬ 
nounced incapable of instruction, found but little encourage¬ 
ment on the part of Radama. His policy would, no doubt, 
expose him to the charge of being obstinately determined 
to continue in the darkness of heathen superstition; but 
risking all this, he simply replied, that having entered 
into a treaty with Protestant England, he would hereafter 
admit no Missionaries into his dominions but those who 
belonged to the Protestant religion. 
About the same period, Radama took occasion to speak 
of Father Stephen in the south of the island, and declared 
that he would never allow his subjects to be instructed in 
Christianity by any other means than those of persuasion, 
and the diffusion of learning to enlighten their minds. A 
noble recognition of a fundamental principle in sound legis¬ 
lation—that where compulsion begins, religion ends. 
In the year 1666, the French East India Company having 
extended their views, appointed the marquis de Monde- 
vergue to the general command of all the French settlements 
situated beyond the equinoctial line. This of course 
included Madagascar, which place was appointed the seat 
