402 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
he of all propriety and order in these respects, that the 
riotous pleasures in which he indulged tended greatly to 
injure his health and shorten his life. He was extremely 
fond of wearing gaudy and showy dress, but was always 
clean in his person. He was not avaricious in the expen¬ 
diture of money upon his own vanity and pomp, though 
naturally covetous, and sometimes mean. In journeying 
through the country, or in his campaigns with his army, he 
was generous in the distribution of rice, oxen, and other 
provisions; and whenever any tribes arrived to pay him 
their homage, he acted kindly and generously towards 
them, receiving them in the most flattering manner, with 
all pomp and magnificence. His ruling desire being to be 
praised abroad in the world, many strangers who only paid 
a short visit to Radama received an impression somewhat 
too favourable of his general character. If, in the presence 
of a respectable European, he gave way to a fit of violent 
passion, and this individual seriously asked, c Sire, what 
are you going to do ? What will the public gazettes and 
historians relate concerning you, if you commit such acts 
of injustice as will tarnish your glory for ever?’—he would 
not only become calm and reasonable, but, thanking the 
European for the reproof, would often commute death for 
imprisonment, and perhaps even pardon the offender. He 
had brilliant talents to fight and to conquer, but not so 
much to govern, by protecting the welfare of a conquered 
people; and amongst his military officers, he not only intro¬ 
duced a great deal of useless pomp, but also great immo¬ 
rality. Instead of studying to obtain his revenue from 
agriculture, commerce, and industry, or by encouraging 
the introduction of useful trades, he depended upon the 
spoils of war and plunder for the support of his kingdom. 
He never studied so much how to civilize Madagascar, as 
