404 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
With the limited education he had been able to obtain, 
and the irregular and incidental means of information he 
possessed, Radama had certainly acquired what, under such 
circumstances, amounted to a respectable degree of intel¬ 
ligence. This, however, was so partial as to produce an 
impression that his mind was rather capable of being fur¬ 
nished, than actually well stored; and that his capacity for 
knowledge was combined with a keenness of perception 
and natural shrewdness, which might have been rendered 
available for great intellectual attainments, had the early 
circumstances of his life been more favourable for such 
cultivation. 
Whether Madagascar ever possessed a prince of equal 
talent before him, may be questioned; but there can be no 
doubt that it never possessed one who did so much towards 
the improvement of his country. None of his predecessors 
possessed so large an extent of territory, nor entered into 
foreign alliances of so durable and important a nature: 
none afforded so much encouragement to the civilization of 
his country; and though it is a fact much to be lamented, 
that he neither understood Christianity, nor valued it for 
its own sake, he gave it the royal sanction by favouring the 
labours of its friends, for the sake of the civil benefits which 
he anticipated in connexion with its introduction and 
extension in his empire. 
The reign of Radama constitutes an epoch in the history 
of Madagascar, too important ever to be lost sight of. 
Important as regards its alliance with Great Britain, the 
suppression of the slave-trade, the adoption of a general 
system of education, and the introduction of Christianity 
into the very heart of the country; while the subjugation 
of nearly the whole island, the formation of a large native army 
on the European model, the reduction of the language to con- 
