HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
133 
Under these circumstances the appearance of the royal 
messengers was peculiarly welcome. An escort of forty 
men had been sent forward to meet the party, taking with 
them a letter from Radama, and a hundred head of cattle. 
No means, however, had been provided for bringing up the 
sick, who had been left behind, the cattle not being sent as 
beasts of burden, but as provisions, not of the most con¬ 
venient description, to eat on the way. 
With his usual urbanity of manner, Radama desired his 
messengers to assure the travellers he should be delighted 
to receive them, though his letter contained many regrets 
that, owing to the recent fire in his capital, which had 
destroyed his palace and the residence of his court, he 
would not be able to accommodate his guests as he could 
have wished. 
Le Sage observes, that he has generally seen difficulties 
encountered produce a feeling of satisfaction, but that, in 
his party, the feeling was far from universal, some appearing 
to look back with a degree of horror to the miseries they 
had endured, and with despair to those they expected yet 
to encounter, though with nothing really to complain of 
beyond the intemperance of the season, and the extremity 
of fatigue. These causes, he says, were sufficient to lay 
many of his companions gasping on the ground, while 
others, with bitter execrations, declared they would prefer 
immediate death to attempting farther progress. It is 
more than probable, that the seeds of incipient disease, of 
which the victims themselves were not aware, may have 
occasioned the despondency for which their leader was 
unable to account. 
In passing through Radama’s territory, Le Sage was 
saluted many times by letters and messengers from the 
king, inquiring how he sped on his journey, and bearing 
