HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
417 
mourning, suspending all ordinary pursuits, repressed all 
public movements among the people, relieved the govern¬ 
ment from public business, and enabled those who had, 
with hands deeply stained with innocent blood, placed 
Ranavalona on the throne, to mature the plans by which they 
had determined to maintain the power they had assumed, and 
to govern the country. 
Imagining themselves sufficiently firm in the position 
they had taken, their first public act was to annul 
Radama’s treaty with the British government. According 
to the stipulations of that treaty, an annual supply of 
articles for the use of the native government was to be 
furnished by England as an equivalent for the loss sustained 
by the abolition of the slave-trade; and a British agent 
was to reside at the capital of Madagascar. On the death 
of Mr. Hastie, Robert Lyall, Esq. was appointed to succeed 
him, and proceeded immediately to Madagascar. He 
reached the island in the autumn of 1827. At Tamatave 
he met Radama, by whom he was received with the respect 
to which his office entitled him; but on account of the 
unfavourable season of the year, he did not proceed to the 
capital till the following July. When he arrived at Tana¬ 
narive, he was received with salutes of cannon, and other 
marks of attention from the government, but had no oppor¬ 
tunity of presenting his credentials, or holding official 
intercourse with the government, as the death of Radama, 
which occurred at the time, suspended all public business 
that was not connected with the royal funeral, the national 
mourning, or the recognition of the successor to the throne. 
In these circumstances Mr. Lyall and his family remained 
at the capital until the 29th of November, 1828, when an 
official message was brought to him by the officers of the 
palace, to the effect, that the queen did not feel herself 
2 E 
ii. 
