347 
There were on the establishment at that time, one bishop, 
three missionaries, and two lay brethren; they had erected 
a church or chapel, and near it a monastery, for these 
ecclesiastics, in which was a good library of books. Pronis 
himself too, was very zealous for the conversion of these 
poor heathens; and having married a native woman, the 
daughter of one of the chiefs, might be supposed to have 
possessed some influence over their minds: but the 
effect was trifling, beyond the mere submission to the rite 
of baptism. The French had not been there long before 
they shewed themselves disposed to exercise a spirit of 
tyranny and domination, and the natives became disgusted. 
The writer we have above quoted, assures his readers that 
they would never “ improve in either temporals or spirituals 
till they be subdued.” 
Notwithstanding these things, there does not exist a 
doubt but that the natives were desirous of acquiring a 
knowledge of true religion; and, if an effort had been 
made with a proper Spirit to introduce Christianity—if, 
instead of carrying fire and sword through the provinces, 
and frightening the natives into obedience to the faith, 
they had proceeded in the true temper of the gospel, 
using no other weapons than the sword of the Spirit, and 
no other arguments than those of persuasion and scripture, 
Madagascar might at this period have presented a very 
different picture to the civilized world. Every thing con¬ 
nected with the moral state of these people was favourable 
to such an enterprise. They were wholly without a know¬ 
ledge of revealed religion, consequently their minds pre¬ 
sented a sort of blank, ready to receive the first impressions. 
Mahometanism, indeed, had been introduced by the Arabs, 
and with it a spurious account of some of the historical 
parts of the Scriptures. # But Mahometanism was not a 
religion likely to gain ground amongst these simple people; 
Page 66. 
