466 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
army returned to the capital after an absence of several 
months, the Christians went to the Missionaries accompanied 
by a considerable number of their comrades, who through 
their means had been induced to forsake the delusive 
superstitions of the country, and to seek admission among 
the disciples of the Saviour. 
Though disaster had attended the chief body of the forces 
employed in 1833, the government sent another army in the 
same direction in the following year. The officers exercising 
the chief power, and the Hovas generally, did not feel 
themselves secure in their assumed sovereignty, so long as 
any considerable portion of the inhabitants of the island 
were in circumstances to maintain their own independence; 
nor could they rest satisfied with their enviable distinction 
in regard to the wealth they had obtained, so long as any 
tribe possessed herds of cattle, or other property that was 
worth taking, and of which they felt themselves strong 
enough to deprive them. 
Influenced by these considerations, another large force, 
headed by the young prince, was sent by the Hovas to the 
southern part of the island, early in 1832. This expedition 
was successful in carrying devastation and bloodshed 
through a large tract of country, murdering great numbers 
of the men, reducing their wives and children to slavery, 
robbing their fields and granaries, and driving away their 
cattle. On the first of September 1832, the Hovas returned 
to the capital with immense booty, as well as about 10,000 
unhappy captives, to be sold into slavery. 
The satisfaction which this successful expedition had 
produced was of but short duration, as reports arrived, in the 
course of the ensuing month, that another expedition from 
France, destined against Madagascar, had arrived at Bour¬ 
bon, and might be almost daily expected on the coast. 
