HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
175 
slight degree of proficiency, he evinced a consciousness of 
his own superiority, by wishing to see others placed in the 
situation which had lately appeared so perilous to him. 
Several of his officers were accordingly ordered to make 
the experiment, while he laughed heartily at their awk¬ 
wardness. 
During the stay of Mr. Hastie at the capital, several 
merchants arrived from the coast, for the purpose of pur¬ 
chasing slaves, but all were discountenanced by Radama. 
There were vast numbers of slaves at the capital, at that 
time on sale; and it is not to be wondered at, that the 
traffic should have been encouraged by a people whose 
indolence induced them to give up all kinds of manual 
labour to this unfortunate class of their fellow-beings. 
The inhabitants of Tananarive at that time never worked 
their grounds. Their land was tilled, their houses built, 
and their timber and clothing obtained by slaves. With 
regard to the abolition of this traffic, the king himself 
appeared, at an early period of the negotiations, to be 
won over by the arguments of Mr. Hastie; but though so 
absolute in his government, and in his influence over his 
people, that every look and word of his was the subject of 
imitation, and the slightest command for silence obeyed 
in an instant by tumultuous thousands, there seemed to 
be a point to which he could not, dared not, lead his 
people—and this was, the abolition of the traffic in slaves. 
During the time that Mr. Hastie was pressing the subject 
upon his attention, ten or twelve of his principal coun¬ 
sellors were in the habit of assembling every morning at 
the back of the house occupied by the British agent. 
These men used to sit upon the ground, deliberating for 
about two hours, after which two of their number used to 
wait upon the king, and doubtless these deliberations had 
