310 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
His remark on the occasion had been, “ If I leave home 
before the feast, the people will say I have more regard for 
foreigners than for my own subjects.” And, therefore, 
ever watchful as he was over his influence with the people, 
he determined to risk the loss of his own gratification, for 
the certainty of holding firmly the reins of government at 
home. 
Immediately after the festival, Radama had hastened to 
the coast, but received by the way the mortifying intelli¬ 
gence, that Sir Robert had touched at Tamatave, and was 
gone. “ Then it is too late,” exclaimed Radama, “ and I 
shall never see my friend !” 
Mr. Has tie accompanied the king to Tamatave, where 
he made his final arrangements with Jean Rene.. Radama 
then proceeded to Mahavelona, and had at Foule Point an 
interview with Captain Moorsom, who was then at that 
port in command of the Ariadne. 
The behaviour of the king on this occasion, with the 
subjects of conversation pressed upon his attention, are so 
characteristic on one side, and so highly creditable on the 
other, that both may be with propriety described pretty 
nearly in Captain Moorsom’s own words, especially as they 
present a simple but graphic picture of the person and 
character of a prince, who, to borrow the expression of the 
captain, “was adorned with qualities fis much beyond his 
situation in the then existing circumstances of his country, 
as any monarch of whom we have record.” “In his indi¬ 
vidual character,” observes Captain Moorsom, “ it is pro¬ 
bable he approaches nearest to that of Peter the Great.” 
Radama is described by the same writer as being short 
and slender, and, though at that time thirty years old, as not 
appearing more than twenty, with a boyish aspect and 
demeanour. On the occasion of his first interview, Captain 
