HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
323 
ment had been made in the translation of the sacred scrip¬ 
tures, religious services were regularly held in the native 
language on the Sabbath, a commodious school and places 
of worship had been opened, and the Missionaries continued 
to receive the sanction and assistance of the king in their 
multiplied and increasingly important labours. 
Nor were the hopes of better and brighter days for 
Madagascar confined to that sphere alone in which the 
Missionaries were labouring. The morning of civilization 
had first dawned upon the mind of the monarch, and the 
light was now extending wherever his influence was felt. 
Agriculture was rendering to the people the peaceful 
rewards of industry. Radama felt that he had acquired 
his sovereignty by his military power, that he must main¬ 
tain his supremacy by the same means, and that, instead of 
leading into the field of battle a lawless horde of rapacious 
savages, he now commanded a regularly disciplined army; 
while the judicious and indefatigable agent of the British 
government was seizing every opportunity that presented 
itself for suggesting better principles of government, and 
proposing laws more just and beneficial, by which the 
condition of the people might be rendered more favourable 
to their intellectual and moral culture. 
It may not be out of place here to give some extracts 
from an official letter of Governor Farquhar’s, which affords 
a more correct view of the internal state of Madagascar 
for the year 1823, than could be extracted from the pen of 
any private individual, whose means of information would 
be more limited. 
“I have from the commencement,” says the governor, 
“ been of opinion, and expressed the grounds of my belief, 
that the peaceful and unambitious measures adopted, could 
not fail to lead to the most advantageous results, whether 
y 2 
