40 
a vicious passion that is not thereby called into exercise. 
It was not possible that the Madegasses should escape 
the foul contamination: brandy and gunpowder, the 
principal articles of barter with the slave captains, 
were liberal^ supplied, and gave fresh stimulus to 
their civil discords ; while the vicious examples of the 
crews of the slave ships, who are generally men of 
dissolute and depraved habits, produced the most 
deplorable effects. 
Thus was the infamous traffic in human flesh 
introduced into Madagascar, and ever since has it 
desolated that beautiful country; turning a garden 
into a wilderness, and the habitations of man into a 
retreat for wild beasts. The cultivation of the land 
has, in many instances, been entirely neglected, 
because the cultivators were uncertain whether they 
would be permitted to enjoy the fruits of their labour. 
At the same time the bitterest animosities were 
engendered between men of the same blood, which 
nothing but extermination was capable of satisfying. 
Savages have been rendered more savage, by the 
inculcation of new principles, which have, in their 
operation, burst asunder the most powerful claims of 
nature, in order to make room for the exercise of all 
the bad qualities that are latent in the human breast. 
But a happy change has already been wrought by the 
partial abolition of this inhuman traffic; and if it be 
followed by the introduction of Christianity, and the 
arts of civil life, we may yet see Madagascar rising in 
the scale of nations, and exhibiting to the world in her 
