504 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
ancestor of the Europeans, to whom they wish to transfer 
the allegiance of the people. 
4. The conviction, on the part of the members of the 
government, that the present system of despotism could only 
be exercised over an uninstructed and servile people, that 
freedom of thought and speech would be followed by freedom 
of action, and the system by which irresponsible power was 
preserved in the hands of the rulers, weakened if not de¬ 
stroyed. The government was fully sensible of the advantages 
of knowledge, and hence both Radama and his successor 
had encouraged teaching and the useful arts—but it was not 
for the people. Their steady aim was to monopolize all 
these advantages, and to use them as means of keeping the 
nation at large in a state of more entire subjection. 
5. The expectation of receiving instruction in the manufac¬ 
ture of muskets and other arts, from some natives of France, 
who engaged to teach all that the English had taught, with¬ 
out associating with it any religious instruction; and per¬ 
haps a fear of the interference of the British government, of 
whose encroachments in India, Ceylon, and South Africa 
they received very highly-coloured accounts. The govern¬ 
ment had always manifested extreme jealousy of foreigners 
residing in the island, and a fear of all foreign intercourse 
with the country. 
6. The order, propriety of conduct, integrity, and chastity 
of the native Christians, especially the chastity of the native 
Christian females, rendered them obnoxious to the dis¬ 
pleasure of the heathen. It was customary for any officer 
of high rank or station, in the army or the palace, to employ 
the influence with which his office invested him, for the 
violation of the sacred obligations of conjugal life among the 
people. This, the Christians invariably resisted, and 
thereby greatly exasperated some high in rank and power* 
