Radama— the young, savvy ruler of the rising military power in Madagascar. Robert Townsend Farquhar— governor of the British island colony of Mauritius, whose plantation economy depends on slave labor. James Hastie— an enterprising East India Company sergeant, ready to take on a risky mission. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, as Britain and France face off in the southwest Indian Ocean, the destinies of these three characters intertwine. Will the British cut a deal to end the export of slaves from Madagascar, and if so at what cost? Will Radama, with Hastie by his side, win the internal power struggle against nobles and clan chieftains? Hastie' s previously unpublished journals offer the most comprehensive early 19th century account of Madagascar, its landscape, crops, industry, commerce, culture, and inhabitants, and weave a narrative of hazardous travel, byzantine court intrigue and colonial geopolitics. Sir Mervyn Brown, a former UK ambassador and historian of Madagascar, has described Hastie as " one of the most important and attractive figures in the history of Anglo-Malagasy relations."