232 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
your object. The king stopped the traffic; he put to 
death those who even spoke against his measures; he risked 
his life, his security in the government, and was ultimately 
obliged publicly to acknowledge that he had done wrong, 
when you did not return with the promised equivalent. 
Murder is here avenged by the death of the perpetrator, 
and the sale of all his family. Falsehood or treason meets 
the same treatment; and I must candidly tell you, that if the 
king transgressed to such an extent as the English govern¬ 
ment has, I, who have nursed him, could no longer view 
him with pleasure. What then must be the feelings of a 
people who have suffered as the Hovas have by his at¬ 
tempted alliance with the English. The measure you pro¬ 
pose would remove from our country all those who con¬ 
tribute to our comfort. Where do we get all we have, but 
from those to whom we sell slaves? We do not manufac¬ 
ture powder or arms; we are not possessed of mines; we 
have only very bad mechanics, little cloth, and are by con¬ 
stitution an indolent people. By the sale of slaves, all 
our wants are supplied through the persons to whom we sell 
them. What do we derive from the English ? Nothing ! 
They keep no intercourse with us. They promised, and 
have not performed !” 
Mr. Hastie explained to him also, what must have been 
very difficult for half-civilized people under such circum¬ 
stances to understand, that the sanction of the king of 
England, now obtained, must in future preclude any fail¬ 
ure on the part of the English government; and entered at 
length into the merits of the plan proposed, assuring him, 
that if the English were not sincere, they would not attempt 
to renew an alliance, from which no pecuniary advantage 
could be derived, and that the disinterested measures of the 
British government should convince him of its sincerity. 
