HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
437 
either from the French or those parties of natives who, 
taking advantage of the state of the town and neighbour¬ 
hood, addicted themselves to outrage and plunder. 
It was the earnest wish of Mr. Freeman to bury his 
child near the spot where the remains of the first Mission 
families had been interred, but it was not deemed prudent 
to venture so far from the beach. A retired spot, over¬ 
grown with trees and brushwood, near one extremity of the 
bay, was therefore selected; and here two seamen dug the 
Infant’s grave, and the afflicted father, after bowing in agony 
of spirit before the Father of mercies, and asking Divine 
consolation and support, deposited the remains of his 
beloved child in the earth, while the captain and the first 
officer of the ship, each armed with a loaded musket, kept 
watch against surprise or assault. On the 5th of Novem¬ 
ber, the embassy from the queen arrived at Tamatave and 
proceeded to the north in search of the French. At day¬ 
break on the following morning, the Radama got under 
way, and the Missionary and his mourning family proceeded 
to Mauritius, to remain for a short time, and then embark 
for the Cape of Good Hope. 
The stimulus to the most vigorous activity in military 
preparations for the defence of the country, produced by 
the attack of the French, continued long after they had 
retired from the coast; and the expectation of its being 
renewed was accompanied by an equal degree of activity 
and determination, on the part of the chief officers in the 
government, to revive superstition and idolatry in the 
island. The power of the idols was acknowledged as 
supreme in almost every transaction; public offerings, and 
acts of homage to the idols, were multiplied in the capital; 
and the movements of the government, in many of their 
minute details, were regulated by the pretended orders of 
