HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
229 
power over them is not invested even in your civilized king, 
whose representative has occasioned me to risk my ascen¬ 
dency in Ankova. What am I to say to my subjects ? 
They obtain every thing they want by the sale of slaves; 
and how can I ask them to renew a treaty with a nation 
that has deceived them ? They will naturally say, that I, 
individually, am to reap the benefit; and that stopping the 
trade will cause them, in a short time, to lose all the advan¬ 
tages they now derive from it.” 
The king concluded by saying, that however easy it 
might be to convince him of the true causes that created 
the late difficulty, it would be next to impossible to induce 
his subjects to believe it; and they were most deeply 
concerned, as, of the vast number of slaves that I met 
proceeding to Tamatave, only very few belonged to him; 
and fathers were now so accustomed to consider their 
children as disposable property, and to sell them, that he 
was quite at a loss for means to enable him to support the 
amity he wished to retain with the English. 
Mr. Hastie replied, that he felt ashamed and humbled 
on behalf of his country; but, as he had before explained, 
the act of an individual should not prejudice the king 
against a nation; that if sincerity was not intended by the 
British government, it would not seek a renewal of the treaty 
with him, as it could not expect to gain any advantage 
but what affected the good of his country; that he was of 
old acquainted with the sentiments of his excellency, 
Governor Farquhar, on this subject; and that the treaty being 
now approved and sanctioned by the king of England, no 
individual under him dare to set aside any of its conditions. 
The king said, that an act of the solemn nature, which 
he considered that approved by the governor, and agreed 
to by himself, to be, having been once broken, left no 
