346 
in this instance before us, gave themselves up to every 
species of debauchery and excess; seizing the wives and 
daughters of the natives, and carrying off their cattle and 
goods. 
With such pernicious examples before their eyes, the 
natives, who were not idiots, concluded that whatever 
these new teachers might profess, the religion they were 
so anxious to communicate did not restrain its European 
votaries from the commission of acknowledged crimes; 
and therefore it was too much for them to expect, that 
they should be obliged, all at once, to renounce the cus¬ 
toms and habits which their forefathers had practised. 
When Fernandez Navarette 1 * visited the island, which 
was in 1647, he found the morals, both of the French and 
the native convents, in a very relaxed state; and asserted, 
that out of a thousand of the latter who had been baptized, 
there were not fifty who lived like Christians. Navarette 
was a good catholic, and complains bitterly of the licentious 
conduct of the French and Portuguese who resided at 
Madagascar, and who laughed at him and the other 
Spaniards for “ eating offal meat on Saturdays.” He was, 
notwithstanding, obliged to go on shore, and to associate 
with these reprobates; for it seems his own countrymen, 
who composed the ship’s crew, were not much before-hand 
with them : their riotous conduct disturbed him so much, 
that there was not a place in the whole ship were he could 
repeat his “ Ave Marias in peace.” He speaks hand¬ 
somely of Pronis, who was then governor, calling him 
a “ very saint.” This is also the character given of him 
by his successor, Flacourt, who describes him as a “ very 
good ecclesiastic, though but a moderate governor.” 
The exertions made by the French priests, at the period 
of Navarette’s visit, appear to have been considerable. 
* This person was a Superior of the order of St. Dominic, and was sent out 
by the court of Spain, on a mission to some of the Indian islands, to which lie 
was on his passage when lie touched at Madagascar. 
