HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
535 
ably received; had it been otherwise, we cannot but suppose 
that some means would have been found for making it 
known to the Missionaries or their friends. The natives 
are forbidden to write to any foreigner, and no letters have 
been received in Mauritius; but reports, generally vague 
and unsatisfactory, have been frequently brought to the 
latter by traders between Port Louis and the Malagasy 
coast. These reports conveyed no intimation of the least 
improvement in the circumstances or prospects of the people, 
though each, adding to the number of impediments to com¬ 
mercial intercourse, and causes of annoyance to the Euro¬ 
pean traders, renders stronger remonstrance from our govern¬ 
ment in behalf of the claims of humanity, as well as in favour 
of the interests of its own subjects, more imperative than 
ever. 
When the latest accounts were sent from Mauritius, no 
report had arrived of the adoption by the native government 
of any measures less oppressive and sanguinary than those 
by which the Hovas have now reduced the people under 
their rule to the extreme of social wretchedness. No tidings 
had been received tending to allay the deep anxiety of our 
brethren, and the generous and warmly attached Christian 
friends of the Madagascar Mission in Mauritius, on behalf of 
those reduced to perpetual and rigorous slavery, or doomed to 
fetters and imprisonment. No accounts of leniency on the 
part of the government, or any mitigation of the sufferings of 
the Christians, were received; but reports were brought by 
more than one conveyance, of continued persecution, and 
continued if not increased severity towards the Chris¬ 
tians. An early report stated that accusations had been 
preferred against a considerable number of the natives, and 
that another female had been sacrificed. After subsequent 
arrivals, it was reported that several had been put to death 
