Ill 
as to the strength and disposition of her inhabitants; 
for the experience of the first few years of their inter¬ 
course with them, must have conveyed a tolerably 
clear intimation of these. The only inference we can 
draw from the facts which have presented themselves to 
our observation, is, that the French Government were 
possessed of every qualification necessary to insure 
a failure in their endeavours to colonize Madagascar : 
to a spirit of intrigue and jealousy, which fettered the 
hands, and cramped the energies of their colonists, they 
united a parsimony that starved them, and a domineer¬ 
ing and revengeful spirit, that disgusted and incensed 
their new subjects—not sufficiently despotic and arbi¬ 
trary to enforce their wishes with promptness and 
decision but too much so to allow them to treat with 
the Madegasses on enlightened and liberal principles. 
It is to these causes we attribute the failures which 
we shall soon have occasion to relate. Had France, 
in the first instance, established a colony upon the 
principles of mutual advantage, and supported it in a 
manner worthy of a great nation had she, instead 
of sending soldiers to ravage the plains, and massacre 
the inhabitants, in order to reduce them to obedience, 
conveyed thither artizans and mechanics, to commu¬ 
nicate to them the blessings of civilization,—instead of 
an inveterate enemy, she would have had a faithful 
and enlightened ally; and their combined exertions 
* The reader will recollect, that we are speaking of the times 
previous to the French Revolution, and not of those which com¬ 
prised the reign of Napoleon. 
