HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
175 
he is reduced to slavery, his wife, however innocent she 
may have been, is also deprived of her liberty. Woman is 
held in estimation chiefly as the creature of convenience to 
man, and often suffers as the victim of his caprice and 
ungoverned passion, or of his sordid and heartless avarice. 
The state of native society in Madagascar, in reference to 
the females, adds another to the already extended catalogue 
of facts which shew the obligations of the sex to the Chris¬ 
tian religion, and prove that it is only where the principles 
of divine revelation prevail, that woman is raised to the posi¬ 
tion in the social relations of life, for which she was intended 
and qualified by her Creator; while the happy results that 
have followed the partial diffusion of the principles of 
Christianity, the introduction of Christian marriage, among 
the natives of this interesting country, as well as the choice 
and abundant fruits in social peace and hallowed affection, 
which they have brought forth among communities still less 
civilized,* shew that they have lost none of their power to 
refine, to elevate, and to enrich with the highest privileges 
the female portion of every community in which they 
prevail. 
* The South Sea Islanders and some of the aborigines of South Africa. 
