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6 When Radama I came down from his capital in the highlands to the east coast in 1817, with a large following and an escort of some twenty-five thousands soldiers, to exercise his powers of suzerainty over the Betanimena and Betsimisaraka chiefs, he visited Tamatave, where he concluded an amicable arrangement with Jean René and Fiche, the two half-caste chiefs who ruled on the banks of the Hivondro. Under Mr. Cameron alone, who was engaged in the construction of machinery and other public works, nearly six hundred youths were constantly employed. Under his superintendence a canal was
cut between the river Ikiopa and a lake at Amparibe, which was converted into a reservoir of water for the powder-mills, which were also erected by Mr. Cameron. The French subjects expelled from Antananarivo by order of the Malagasy Government, and who left the capital on the 29th May, arrived at length at Tamatave on the 23rd June. The bearers who accompanied them from the time of their departure had received orders not to go beyond the village of Maromby, on the Iharoka near the coast, about sixty miles from Tamatave, as they could not trust themselves within reach of the French. It is highly creditable to the Malagasy that this large party of French people should have been able to traverse the country held by the Malagasy troops driven out of Tamatave safely and without injury and insult within a fortnight of the bombardment of the fort and other villages along the coast, at a period when the exasperation against the French was most profound. This example shows what a firm hold the Prime Minister retained over the people, the slightest relaxation of which would have resulted in terrible retaliation. After the arrival of the embassy, the chief ambassador, Ravoninahitriarivo, made a public address at one of the periodical Isan-Enim-Bolana meetings, when the delegates from the churches assemble at the capital to discuss the affairs of the united church. A similar proceeding was carried out on the same afternoon at Bémanéviky, on the banks of the river Congony in Passandava Bay.
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