42 
that if, in some of the relations of life, the Madegasses 
fall below us, in others we cannot improve them; 
and that we owe them but little resentment, if, on 
some occasions, they have indignantly flung on those 
who have invaded their rights, the epithet of savages*, 
and declined all further intercourse with a set of 
lawless intruders, who, they believed, aimed at nothing 
less than the utter destruction of their customs and 
liberty. 
The influence of climate and situation must be 
allowed to have great weight in the formation of 
character. In northern countries, where the neces¬ 
saries of life are procured at a great expence of 
labour, we find the inhabitants, in general, active, 
industrious, and careful. On the other hand, those 
who live under a milder sky, where Nature bestows her 
favours with a liberal hand, are supine, indolent, and 
improvident. Thus it is with the Madegasses. 
Placed, by an indulgent Providence, in a land literally 
flowing with milk and honey, where the means of 
existence, and even the luxuries of life, spring up 
gratuitously around them, they exhibit an easy, indo¬ 
lent disposition f, careless of futurity, and only desirous 
* They long entertained the belief, that the Europeans 
ate the slaves they purchased, and they looked on them with 
horror, as canibals. 
f It is evident, however, that this indolence arises rather 
from absence of occupation, than from sluggishness; for when¬ 
ever an occasion for exertion presents itself, they do not shrink 
from either toil or danger. A celebrated traveller, in describing 
their character, represents them as “ one day sedentary , 
