434 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
French; and the natives were kept in a state of great 
excitement and unsettlement, expecting a renewal of the 
attack. 
In order to provide for the defence of the country, the 
army was augmented; and, in addition to the forces on the 
coast, it was reported that 12,000 troops were collected at 
the capital, and every preparation made for the most vigorous 
and obstinate resistance. 
On one occasion, when the officers on the coast sent up 
a report of the claims of the French to a part of the terri¬ 
tory, the nobles and chiefs of the principal districts in the 
interior were assembled; and when the demand of the 
French was made known, their reply was, 44 No: before we 
will consent to give them one foot of land, we will face them 
ourselves, and, if needful, will send our slaves. If this be 
not sufficient, our wives shall go and fight against them, 
rather than allow them a place on our shores.” In the 
mean time the Malagasy fever made great havoc among the 
French soldiers; and the chiefs of the invading forces, in 
consequence either of the non-arrival of adequate reinforce¬ 
ments, or the spirit and ability shown by the Hovas, aban¬ 
doned the enterprise, and sailed finally from the coast of 
Madagascar in October or November, 1830. 
Although the Hovas from the first determined to resist 
to the uttermost the settlement of the French on the coast, 
and made the most active preparations for opposing what¬ 
ever force they might bring, they placed no small measure 
of dependence upon the being able to keep their enemies 
on the coast, and on the havoc they expected the fever 
would make among them. Radama was fully sensible of 
the advantage of keeping any foreign enemy within the 
reach of this formidable destroyer; and on one occasion, 
when he was told that the French were about to execute 
