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APPENDIX. 
Radama was in early life remarkable for self-command, 
temperance, and moral purity, differing in this respect in a 
most remarkable manner from the youth of his country. So 
strongly marked were these features in his character, that his 
father questioned whether he could entrust to him the reins of 
government, regarding the absence of the passions, so prevalent 
amongst all around him, as indicative of a feeble mind; and re¬ 
wards were actually offered by Radama’s father to those who could 
allure him into immoral practices. Unhappily these efforts were 
but too successful, and laid the foundation of irreparable injury to 
his character and constitution. 
His manners, when he was first visited by the agents of the 
British government in 1816, accorded with the usages and 
customs of his country. The few Europeans, who had previously 
resorted to the capital, had gone thither to accumulate wealth 
by the purchase of slaves ; and to have introduced the improve¬ 
ments of civilised society would have been to counteract their 
own designs. 
Radama was not then, what he was afterwards called, “ the 
enlightened African;” He sat on his native mat upon the floor 
of his house, and was clothed in his native lamba. Neither chair 
nor table was then to be found in his residence. He ate only 
from silver dishes, and from these none besides himself dared to 
eat. Unmindful of the salutary restrictions of his father, he was 
much addicted to the use of spirituous liquors; for, though the 
law still prohibited them to the people, the monarch was superior 
to law. 
Notwithstanding the unfavourable effect of these habits, 
Radama appeared to possess a mind highly susceptible of im¬ 
provement, and to be fired with the ambition of becoming a more 
renowned sovereign than any of his ancestors. Le Sage, the 
first friendly visitor to his capital, observes that his address was 
extremely agreeable and prepossessing; and he was, even then, 
what might justly be termed a polite man. 
On every occasion, the British agent was treated by Radama 
with that peculiar regard which conveys the strongest assurance 
of friendly feeling. A house was built for his special accommoda- 
