246 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
their security in their homes to the interest the British 
nation, through him, has taken in the welfare of Mada¬ 
gascar.” 
Without wishing to depreciate the honourable and gene¬ 
rous conduct of the British government, or of its repre¬ 
sentative at the Mauritius, it is impossible to read the 
faithful narrative of Mr. Hastie without feeling desirous of 
awarding to him also his full share of credit in these trans¬ 
actions. 
The moral character of a nation just emerging from bar¬ 
barism, may be affected for generations, often for ages, by 
the honourable, upright, and conscientious, or false, treach¬ 
erous, and sordid, conduct of the agents employed by more 
enlightened and powerful countries. We have seen, in 
tracing out the last few years of the history of Madagascar, 
that a breach of public faith, authorized by one individual, 
brought a disgraceful stigma on the British name, and a 
lasting stain upon the British character, and was the cause 
of thousands of human beings being plunged, in the course 
of a few months, into a state of wretchedness and slavery. 
Well would it be for our country if this was a rare occurrence, 
if her moral reputation had not often been foully stained in 
the eyes of nations who are destitute of the means of moral 
dignity which we possess ! And if we could also estimate 
the sum of misery, vice, and pollution with which the 
slave traffic has ever been accompanied, we should then be 
better able to give our just tribute of gratitude and admira¬ 
tion to the zealous, loyal, disinterested, and benevolent 
exertions of the British agent in Madagascar. 
After passing parties of slave-dealers, chiefly Frenchmen, 
almost at every stage, the travellers arrived at Tamatave 
on the 1st of November. Here they were received with a 
clamorous welcome, and in barbarous state, by Jean Rene, 
