186 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
off their stock during the ensuing five years. It was again 
pointed out, both to him and his ministers, that other and 
better means of wealth would be offered to them. But the 
king, absolute in all other things, seemed powerless here. 
He described himself as being in the greatest distress, from 
having committed his character so far as to propose terms 
which he now found it impossible to abide by. 
Mr. Hastie, ever ready to apply his influence to the 
most vulnerable part of Radama’s feelings, represented to 
him in strong colours, how the slightest appearance of 
receding from his own proposition, would allow an idea to 
get abroad that he was governed by his people, instead of 
governing them. To which he replied, that the hope of 
profit had as powerful an effect upon his people, as the love 
of glory had upon him, and that if they were prevented 
selling their captives, he could never induce them either to 
make war, or to defend their country. Receiving the full 
value of the slaves, he said, would be no compensation, as 
they were not worth feeding in Madagascar ; and if the 
masters did not dispose of them, they would soon dispose 
of their masters. He promised, however, that he would 
not swerve from what he had written. He would enter 
into an engagement not to sell any himself, if the English 
would supply him with the means of defence; but he 
wished the governor clearly to understand, that if the 
stipulated supplies did not duly arrive, he must sell slaves . 
Mr. Hastie, of course, assured him, that if he fulfilled his 
part of the contract, there could never be any defalcation 
on the part of the English; and well would it have been, 
had his confidence afterwards been supported by measures, 
on the part of the acting governor of Mauritius, as humane 
and liberal as those which marked the administration of 
Sir Robert Farquhar. 
