THIRTY YEARS IN MADAGASCAR
OXFORD
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
[Illustration: THE REV. T. T. MATTHEWS.]
THIRTY YEARS IN
MADAGASCAR
BY THE REV. T. T. MATTHEWS
OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY
WITH
SIXTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
AND SKETCHES
SECOND EDITION
LONDON
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
4 BOUVERIE STREET AND 65 ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD
1904
PREFACE
For the facts of the historical introduction I am mainly indebted to
the writings of earlier writers and missionaries, and to unpublished
native accounts of the earlier years of the mission and of the
persecutions; for mine would have been almost impossible had it not
been for the labours of those other workers in the same field, and for
the native sources I have mentioned. Without such knowledge as this
introduction gives no correct conception can be formed of Madagascar
and the Malagasy, of the work done for and among them, the present
condition and future prospects of the people, and of the future of
Christian work in the island.
I have been also indebted to a long course of reading on mission work
at large, and on the work in Madagascar in particular. Much of this has
become so mingled with my own thoughts that I cannot now possibly trace
all the sources of it; but I have tried, as far as I could, to make
acknowledgement of all the sources of information to which I have been
indebted, and special acknowledgement of those more recent sources of
information not alluded to in any other book on Madagascar. There are
many things in this book derived from native sources that have not been
utilized before.
Believing that ‘a plain tale speeds best being plainly told,’ I have
tried to tell my story in plain and pointed language, and I hope I have
also been able to tell it graphically enough to make it interesting. My
great difficulty has been condensation; very often paragraphs have had
to be reduced to sentences, and chapters to paragraphs.
One who has spent thirty years in the hard, and often very weary, work
of a missionary in Central Madagascar--not to mention the arduous and
exhausting duties of deputation work while on furlough--with all the
duties, difficulties, and anxieties involved in the superintendence of
large districts, with their numerous village congregations and schools,
could hardly be expected to have much spare time to devote to the
cultivation of the graces of literature or an elegant style. I have
tried to tell my story in a warm-hearted way, being anxious only that
my meaning should be clearly expressed, whatever might be its verbal
guise. I have never been able to understand why, without flippancy
or irreverence, religious topics may not be treated at times ‘with
innocent playfulness and lightsome kindly humour.’ Why, too, should
the humorous side, and even humorous examples, be almost entirely left
out of records of foreign mission work? Such incidents sometimes help
to relieve the shadows by the glints of sunshine, and for this reason
I have ventured to describe the bright, and even humorous, as well as
the dark side of missionary work. I have tried to set forth the joy and
humour as well as the care, the sunshine as well as the shadow.
John Ruskin says: ‘A man should think long before he invites his
neighbours to listen to his sayings on any subject whatever.’ As I
have been thinking on the subject of missions for forty years, and
have been engaged in mission work for thirty, if my thoughts are not
fairly mature on the subject now, and my mind made up on most points
in relation to missions and mission work, they are never likely to
be. At the same time, when an unknown writer asks the attention of the
Christian public upon such an important theme as foreign missions, he
is at least expected to show that he has such a thorough and practical
acquaintance with them as fairly entitles him to a hearing. I hope the
following pages will prove my claim to this consideration. If they
help to create interest in the great cause of foreign missions in some
quarters, and to deepen it in others, I shall feel well repaid for all
the trouble the preparation of them has cost me.
I am deeply indebted to friends for their valuable help and advice, and
render them my very hearty and sincere thanks.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
A LAND OF DARKNESS 13
CHAPTER II.
‘THE KILLING TIMES’ 42
CHAPTER III.
FROM DARKNESS TO DAWN 69
CHAPTER IV.
THE MORNING BREAKING 87
CHAPTER V.
BREAKING UP THE FALLOW GROUND 107
CHAPTER VI.
EARLY EXPERIENCES 123
CHAPTER VII.
SHADOW AND SUNSHINE 142
CHAPTER VIII.
DISTRICT JOURNEYS AND INCIDENTS 168
CHAPTER IX.
DEVELOPMENT AND CONSOLIDATION 183
CHAPTER X.
THE DEAD PAST 202
CHAPTER XI.
PROGRESS ALL ALONG THE LINE 213
CHAPTER XII.
GATHERING CLOUDS 229
CHAPTER XIII.
BIBLE REVISION AND ‘AN OLD DISCIPLE’ 248
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LIGHT EXTENDING 267
CHAPTER XV.
THE CONQUEST OF MADAGASCAR 291
CHAPTER XVI.
TRIALS, TRIUMPHS, AND TERRORS 314
CHAPTER XVII.
THE END OF THE MONARCHY 352
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE TRIUMPH OF THE GOSPEL 369
INDEX 381
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE REV. T. T. MATTHEWS _Frontispiece_
MAP OF MADAGASCAR _To face page_ 13
MALAGASY HAIR-DRESSING „ 28
A HEATHEN WAR-DANCE „ 28
THE CAVE IN WHICH THE BIBLE WAS HID FOR
TWENTY YEARS „ 44
THE FOSSE IN WHICH RASALAMA WAS SPEARED „ 44
THE MARTYRDOMS AT AMPAMARINANA „ 51
THE SPEARING AT AMBOHIPOTSY „ 60
THE STONING AT FIADANANA „ 60
THE BURNING AT FARAVOHITRA „ 60
CRIMINALS IN CHAINS, ILLUSTRATING HOW THE
MARTYRS WERE TREATED „ 64
RADAMA I. RADAMA II „ 74
THE ROYAL IDOLS OF MADAGASCAR „ 74
THE PALACE, ANTANANARIVO „ 74
A RIVER SCENE AND A FOREST SCENE IN MADAGASCAR „ 83
HEATHEN MALAGASY „ 110
MALAGASY TYPES: A HOVA PRINCESS. A HOVA
CHRISTIAN. A MINSTREL. MALAGASY
POUNDING RICE „ 112
THE PALACE CHURCH, ANTANANARIVO „ 119
MALAGASY CHRISTIAN WORKERS „ 144
A GROUP OF NATIVE PREACHERS AND EVANGELISTS „ 144
ANALAKELY: CHURCH AND MARKET-PLACE „ 164
THE PIAZZA, ANDOHALO „ 164
MARTYRS’ MEMORIAL CHURCH, FIHAONANA „ 186
THE SPURGEON OF MADAGASCAR „ 186
MARTYRS’ MEMORIAL CHURCH, AMPAMARINANA „ 186
THE MISSION HOSPITAL. MISS BYAM, THE
MATRON. A GROUP OF NURSES „ 195
SUBURBAN CHURCH, OLD STYLE „ 201
SUBURBAN CHURCH, NEW STYLE „ 201
IMERIMANDROSO CHURCH „ 201
MEMORIAL CHURCH, AMBATONAKANGA „ 230
INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH „ 230
AMBATONAKANGA FROM FARAVOHITRA „ 237
ANTANANARIVO ON A FÊTE DAY „ 237
THE QUEEN OF MADAGASCAR ON THE WAY TO
THE LAST REVIEW „ 245
A GARDEN PARTY AT THE QUEEN’S GARDENS „ 245
THE AUTHOR TRAVELLING IN PALANQUIN. THE
MANSE AT FIHAONANA „ 250
FIANARANTSOA, CAPITAL OF BETSILEO „ 267
MALAGASY WORKING THE SOIL „ 267
THE OLD SCHOOL, AMBATONAKANGA „ 279
THE NEW SCHOOL, AMBATONAKANGA „ 279
GROUP OF SCHOLARS, TEACHERS, AND CHRISTIAN
WORKERS „ 279
THE LAST KABARY „ 291
THE QUEEN’S LAKE, ANTANANARIVO „ 291
RAINILAIARIVONY, THE LAST PRIME MINISTER
OF MADAGASCAR „ 300
WILLIAM AND LUCY JOHNSON „ 305
GENERAL GALLIENI „ 320
B. ESCANDE. P. MINAULT „ 353
THE LAST QUEEN OF MADAGASCAR „ 359
THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY PRINTING-OFFICE „ 364
THE NORMAL SCHOOL „ 364
THE GOVERNOR OF TAMATAVE „ 374
[Illustration: MAP OF MADAGASCAR.]
THIRTY YEARS IN MADAGASCAR
CHAPTER I
A LAND OF DARKNESS
‘He brought them out of darkness.’--PSALM cvii. 14.
Madagascar is the third largest island in the world, about 1,000 miles
long, by 375 at its widest part, with an average breadth of about 250
miles. It has an area of about 230,000 square miles, so that it is
almost four times the size of England and Wales, or two and a half
times that of Great Britain and Ireland, or seven times the size of
Scotland!
This important island is situated in the Indian Ocean, and separated
from the east coast of Africa by the Mozambique Channel, which is some
250 miles broad. It lies between latitude 12° 2’ to 25° 18’ south of
the line, and longitude 44° to 50° east of Greenwich, about 550 miles
to the north-west of the island of Mauritius--the far-famed ‘key of the
Indian Ocean’--some 950 miles to the north-east of Port Natal, and 750
to the south-east of Zanzibar.
‘Although visited by Europeans only within the last 400 years,
Madagascar has been known to the Arabs for many centuries, probably a
thousand years at least, and also, although perhaps not for so long a
time, to the Indian traders of Cutch and Bombay.’ Moreover, some of the
great classical writers of Greece and Rome, such as Aristotle, Pliny
(the elder), and Ptolemy, seem to have heard of Madagascar; though
until a few years ago this had escaped notice, owing to the fact that
the island was known to them by different names.
There is perhaps some ground for supposing that the Jews may have known
of Madagascar, and that the sailors of Solomon, in their voyages in
the ‘ships of Tarshish,’ may have visited that island. ‘Ages before
the Arabian intercourse with Madagascar, it is highly probable that
the bold Phoenician traders’ ventured as far to the south, or at least
obtained information about this great island.
The fact that the Ophir of Scripture, from which came the famous
‘gold,’ is now believed by most high authorities to have been on the
east coast of Africa, renders it highly probable that these ‘ships
of Tarshish,’ with Solomon’s sailors on board, may have visited
Madagascar. If so, it is easy to account for the close resemblance
between certain Malagasy and Jewish customs, such as the scape-goat and
the sprinkling of blood, or rather their practice of soaking a piece of
bulrush in the blood of the bullock killed at the annual festival of
the _Fàndròana_, i. e. ‘the bath,’ and placing it above the lintel
of the door of the hut for its sanctification and protection from evil
influences. The killing of a bullock at the annual festival of the
_Fàndròana_ seems to suggest some slight connexion with the Jewish
sacrifice of a bullock on the day of Atonement. Quarrels were made up,
and binding engagements entered into, over the body of a slain animal.
The Jewish forms of marriage, the practice of levirate marriage, the
Jewish law as to bankruptcy, under which the bankrupt and his wife and
family were sold into slavery for the behoof of his creditors--there
is a Malagasy proverb which says: ‘Pretentious, like a slave of Hova
parentage’--and other usages seem all to point in the direction of
Jewish influences.
There are fifteen different tribes in Madagascar, but the Hova
tribe--that occupies the central province of Imèrina, Ankòva (the land
of the Hova)--was for about a century the dominant one. The Hovas were
not the aborigines of Central Madagascar; these were a tribe or people
called the Vazìmba, who were dislodged by the ancestors of the Hovas,
and who have been extinct for ages. In their heathen state the Hovas
worshipped at the tombs of the Vazìmba, and offered sacrifices to their
shades to propitiate them, as they believed they could harm them or do
them good. The Hovas might be called the Anglo-Saxons of Madagascar, a
race of foreigners who entered the island 1,000, perhaps 2,000, years
ago, and who, strange to say, belong to the Malay portion of the human
family, and are thus allied to the South Sea Islanders.
How the ancestors of the Hovas came to Madagascar is a mystery, as the
nearest point from which it is believed they could have come is the
neighbourhood of Singapore, upwards of 3,000 miles away. Hova tradition
states that their forefathers landed on the north-east coast of the
island, fought their way gradually up into the interior, and finally
took possession of the central province of Imèrina. That is probably as
near the truth as will ever be discovered.
‘About the seventh century, the Arabs of Mecca took possession of the
Comoro Islands, lying to the north-west of Madagascar, and extended
their commerce all over the coasts of that great island; and it was
to a marked extent their language, civilization, and religion which
for centuries dominated the north-west of the island. The great Arab
geographer Edresi, who lived in A.D. 1099, has left among
his writings a description of Madagascar, which he calls Zaledi. The
same author refers to the emigration of Chinese and Malays, who settled
in Madagascar at an epoch which unfortunately cannot now be precisely
determined, but which at least is not so very remote; these were
probably the ancestors of the Hovas.’
Madagascar was first made known to modern Europe by the celebrated
Venetian traveller Marco Polo, in the thirteenth century. He, however,
had never seen or visited the island, but had heard during his
travels in Asia various accounts of it under the name of Magaster,
or Madagascar. He devotes a chapter of his most interesting book of
travels to a description of the island; but he seems to have confounded
it with Magadoxo on the adjoining coast of Africa, as much of what he
relates is evidently confused with accounts of the districts on the
mainland of Africa, and of the island of Zanzibar, since he says that
ivory is one of its chief products, and that it contained elephants,
camels, giraffes, panthers, lions, and other animals which never
existed in Madagascar. The ‘rock’ or ‘rukh,’ a gigantic bird which he
describes, is in all probability the aepyornis, the original of the
huge bird of Sinbad the Sailor, long deemed fabulous. The aepyornis,
now extinct, was a struthious bird allied to the New Zealand moa. It
produced an egg which would fill a gentleman’s silk hat.
It was not until the beginning of the sixteenth century that any
European set foot on Madagascar. Towards the end of the fifteenth
century the adventurous Portuguese navigators, Bartholomew Diaz and
Vasco da Gama, reached the southernmost point of Africa, and rounded
the Cape of Good Hope, thus discovering the sea route to India and
the far East. On the Mozambique coast da Gama found numbers of Arabs
trading with India, and well acquainted with the island of Madagascar.
In A.D. 1505, King Manoel of Portugal sent out a fleet to
the Indies, under the command of Don Francisco de Almeida, who in the
following year sent back to Portugal eight ships laden with spices. On
their way they discovered, on February 1, A.D. 1506, the east
coast of Madagascar. Joas Gomez d’Abrew discovered the west coast of
the island in the same year, on August 10, St. Laurence’s Day, from
which circumstance it was called the Island of St. Laurence, a name
which it retained for more than a hundred years.
During the early times of French intercourse with Madagascar, in the
reign of Henry IV, it was known as the île Dauphiné; this name was
never accepted by other nations. There is, however, every reason for
believing that the name Madagascar is not a native name, but one given
to the island by foreigners. ‘Nòsindàmbo’ (the isle of wild hogs) was
a name sometimes given to Madagascar; but when the Malagasy themselves
spoke of the whole island, they usually called it _Izao rehètra
izao_, or _Izao tontòlo izao_ (the universe). The Malagasy,
like many other islanders, probably thought that their island home, if
not the whole universe, was certainly the most important part of it,
and that the Arabs and other foreigners came from some insignificant
spots across the sea. Another name used by the Malagasy for their
island is _Ny anìvon’ny rìaka_ (what is in the midst of the
floods), a name that might be fairly applied to most islands. This
name, it is said, was engraved on the huge solid silver coffin of
Radàma I, the King of Madagascar, or rather King of the Hovas. On it
he was called _Tòmpon’ny anìvon’ny rìaka_ (Lord of what is in the
midst of the floods).
As might be expected, the accounts given of Madagascar by early
voyagers and writers are full of glowing and extravagant language as
to the fertility and natural wealth of the island. Although these are
certainly very great, they have been much exaggerated.
The earliest known English book on Madagascar was written by Walter
Hammond, surgeon, and published in 1640. The same author published
another book in 1643, dedicated to the Hon. John Bond, Governor and
Captain-General of the island of Madagascar; but who this Hon. John
Bond was, or what right he had to that title, no one seems to know. In
the latter part of the seventeenth century a book on Madagascar was
published by a Richard Boothby, merchant in London. From the preface of
his book we learn that two years before its publication there had been
a project to found an English colony, or plantation, as it was called
in those days, in Madagascar.
Doubtless there were many who mourned over the failure of this project,
just as there are many, and the writer among them, who regret that
the British flag does not wave over Madagascar to-day. Such a state
of matters, they think, would be better for the world at large, and
for Madagascar in particular. In their opinion the British flag, like
the American, represents justice, mercy, and equal rights to all men
of whatever clime or colour. This cannot be said to the same extent
for all symbols of dominion. British and American statesmen seem
still to have a belief--even although at times it may suffer partial
eclipse--that ‘Righteousness exalteth a nation; whereas sin is a
reproach to any people.’ Nations, civilized or uncivilized, cannot
permanently be governed by falsehood and chicanery.
Until 1810 Madagascar seems to have been almost lost sight of by
European nations. In that year the islands of Mauritius and Bourbon,
or Réunion, were captured from the French by the British, under Sir
Ralph Abercromby. When the peace of 1814 was arranged, the island of
Réunion was restored to France; but the island of Mauritius remained
in the possession of Great Britain. Shortly afterwards a proclamation
was issued by Sir Robert Farquhar, then Governor of the lately acquired
colony of Mauritius, taking possession of the island of Madagascar as
one of the dependencies of Mauritius. This proceeding, prompted by the
belief that Madagascar was such a dependency, was discovered to be a
mistake, and all claim to the island was given up.
The slave trade was at that time in full operation in Madagascar.
Malagasy slaves supplied the islands of Mauritius and Bourbon, while
shiploads were conveyed to North and South America, and even to the
West Indies. Slaves could be bought on the coast of Madagascar in those
days at from six to twelve pounds, and sold at from thirty to sixty
pounds for a man, and at from forty to eighty pounds for a woman;
and hence the trade proved a very tempting one to many. It reflects
lasting honour on the British nation that no sooner had Madagascar
come, to some extent, under the influence of Great Britain, through her
possession of Mauritius, than a series of efforts were put forth to
annihilate this vile traffic in human flesh. The attitude of British
officers, consuls, and other officials towards man-stealing has ever
been most uncompromising. Not even their bitterest enemies have
ever dared to accuse _them_ of selling the protection of their
country’s flag to Arab slavers. And it was due, in the first instance,
to the exertions of Sir Robert Farquhar, the able and humane Governor
of Mauritius, that the slave trade with Madagascar was abolished.
At the close of the year 1816 Sir Robert Farquhar sent Captain Le Sage
on a mission to Madagascar, to induce Radàma I to send two of his
younger brothers to Mauritius to receive an English education. They
were sent, and placed under the care of Mr. Hastie, the governor’s
private secretary, who afterwards took them back to Madagascar; and
ultimately became himself the first British Agent to that island,
and one of its best and noblest friends, a friend who has never been
forgotten, notwithstanding all that has taken place in recent years. A
most favourable impression was made on the mind of Radàma I by the way
in which his brothers and he had been treated by Sir Robert Farquhar
and the British.
Advantage was taken of this impression, and Mr. Hastie had instructions
to negotiate a treaty with Radàma I for the abolition of the slave
trade. This he ultimately accomplished by promising an annual subsidy
from the British government of some two thousand pounds; and a present
of flint-locks and soldiers’ old clothes for the king’s army. No act
of Radàma’s life shed such lustre on his reign, or will be remembered
with so much gratitude, as his abolition of the slave trade. Sir
Robert Farquhar, however, contemplated not merely the civilization of
Madagascar, but also its evangelization. With this in view, he wrote to
the Directors of the London Missionary Society suggesting Madagascar as
a field for missionary enterprise, and giving them every encouragement
to enter upon it.
At one of the earliest meetings of the Directors of the Society in
1796 the subject of a mission to Madagascar was taken up; and when
the subsequently famous Dr. Vanderkemp left England in 1796 for
South Africa, he had instructions to do all in his power to further
the commencement of missionary operations among the Malagasy. The
propriety of his paying a visit to the island to learn all he could for
the guidance of the Directors was suggested. In 1813 Dr. Milne, whose
name was destined to be so honourably connected with China, was also
instructed to procure in Mauritius, on his way to China, all available
information regarding the contemplated sphere of labour.
But it was not until 1818 that the first two London Missionary Society
missionaries left our shores for Madagascar. In November of that year
the Rev. D. Jones with his wife and child landed at Tàmatàve, and in
January, 1819, the Rev. T. Bevan with his wife and child arrived, only
to find that Mrs. Jones and her child were already dead of fever, while
Mr. Jones lay very dangerously ill with it. Mr. Bevan at this seems to
have lost heart. His child died on January 20, he himself on the 31st,
and his wife on February 3. Thus within a few weeks of landing on the
coast of Madagascar, five of the mission party of six had passed away,
and the sole survivor was at the gates of death! They did not then
know, what we know now, the proper season for landing on the coast of
Madagascar. They landed just at the beginning of the fever season, and
having no quinine they were but imperfectly equipped for fighting so
dire a foe as Malagasy fever.
When able to travel, Mr. Jones returned to Mauritius to recruit his
strength, and in September, 1820, he returned to Madagascar, along with
Mr. Hastie, the first British Agent appointed to the court of Radàma I.
The king received them very kindly, and when he understood the object
of Mr. Jones’s coming, he sent a letter to the Directors of the London
Missionary Society, in which he said: ‘I request you to send me, if
convenient, as many missionaries as you may deem proper, together with
their families, if they desire it, provided you send skilful artisans,
to make my people workmen as well as good Christians.’
Accordingly between 1820 and 1828 the Directors of the London
Missionary Society sent fourteen missionaries to Madagascar--six
ordained men and eight missionary artisans. Among the latter were a
carpenter, a blacksmith, a tanner, a cotton-spinner, and a printer.
Thus almost all that the Malagasy know to-day of the arts and
industries of civilized life, in addition to the knowledge of ‘the way
of Salvation,’ they owe to the missionaries of the London Missionary
Society. The best of the Malagasy people have always been grateful to
the Society for all it has done through its agents for their temporal
and spiritual welfare.
Recently, however, another and a very different version of Malagasy
history has been produced. It begins by casting reflections upon our
work in Madagascar. We are told that the British missionaries have
never done anything for the Malagasy, except to teach them to sing
a few hymns and make hypocrites of them! We are seriously asked to
believe that the Malagasy owe all their knowledge of civilization,
and of the various arts and handicrafts of civilization, to a French
sailor, who was wrecked on the coast of the island, found his way up
to the capital, and there became the very intimate friend (or more,
as some French writers maintain) of Rànavàlona I, the persecuting
queen. Voltaire is credited with saying that he could ‘write history a
great deal better without facts than with them.’ This ‘New Version of
Malagasy History’ fully conforms to his ideal--the facts are lacking.
This ‘old man of the sea’ is a myth like his prototype.
Whatever else they may have done, it cannot be denied that the British
missionaries were the first to reduce the language to writing. When the
missionaries arrived in Madagascar the people had no written language.
The king had four Arabic secretaries, and, but for the advent of the
missionaries, in all probability the characters used in the language
of Madagascar would have been Arabic, which of course would have made
the acquisition of the language much more difficult to foreigners than
it is. When the king saw the Roman characters, he said: ‘Yes, I like
these better, they are simpler, we’ll have these.’ And so the character
in which the language of Madagascar was to be written and printed was
settled by the despotic word of the king under the influence of the
missionaries.
When the language was mastered, and reduced to writing, the first task
the missionaries undertook was the translation of the Scriptures. Here
lies the radical distinction between Protestant and Roman Catholic
missionaries. The former always give the people as soon as possible the
Word of God in their own tongue; the latter never give it. There have
been Roman Catholic missionaries in various parts of Madagascar since
1641; but they have never yet translated the Scriptures into Malagasy,
and are not likely to do so. When the missionaries had translated and
printed the Gospel of St. Matthew they sent up a copy to the king. It
was read to him by one of his young noblemen whom the missionaries had
taught to read. The king did not seem particularly interested in the
Gospel until the account of the Crucifixion was reached, when he asked:
‘Crucifixion, what is that?’ It was explained to him. ‘Ah!’ he said,
‘that’s a capital mode of punishment; I will have all my criminals
crucified for the future. Call the head-carpenter.’ He was called,
and ordered to prepare a number of crosses. I was very intimate for
fourteen years with a Malagasy native pastor who had seen some of those
crosses. During the dark and terrible times of persecution, tyranny,
and cruelty under the rule of Rànavàlona I, some criminals, it is said,
were really crucified.
When there was an addition to his family, Radàma I used to proclaim an
_Andro-tsì-màty_--a day of general and unrestrained licentiousness.
The whole country, and the capital in particular, was turned into
a pandemonium of bestiality. Similar licence attended the great
gatherings for the ceremony of circumcision. Mr. Hastie, the British
Agent, compelled Radàma to put a stop to these orgies. He threatened,
if another were proclaimed, to publish the proclamation in every
gazette in Europe, and thus expose and hold him and his court and
people up to the execration of Christendom. This had the intended
effect. The king was always anxious to stand well with the nations of
Europe; but when his wife came to the throne, she, being herself a
shameless and outrageously licentious woman, restored these hideous
customs.
Some years ago a missionary on the Congo stated in _Regions
Beyond_ that moral purity was quite unknown where he was labouring.
A girl morally pure over ten years of age could not be found. It was
the same in Madagascar, and is the same there to-day among the tribes
that have not yet been reached by Christianity. Heathenism presents
an indescribable state of things, and yet it never was so bad in
Madagascar as in some other lands. A missionary from Old Calabar
declared some years ago that in the sphere where he laboured he did
not know a woman either in the Church or out of it who, in the days of
heathenism, had not murdered from two to ten of her own children. The
dark places of the earth are not only the habitations of cruelty, but
of every unutterable abomination.
Radàma I was an extraordinary man. He has been called the ‘Peter the
Great’ of Madagascar, and from some points of view perhaps he deserved
the title. Some called him the ‘Noble Savage’; but he hardly deserved
the epithet of ‘noble,’ for he was ruthless and cruel. At his first
interview with Mr. Hastie and Mr. Jones he seems to have been so
pleased with them that he invited them back to dine with him next
day. They accordingly went to the palace, and while they were seated
at table a slave bringing in a tureen stumbled and spilt a little
soup on it. Radàma turned and looked at one of the officers who stood
behind him, and the latter left the room. When Mr. Hastie and Mr.
Jones quitted the presence of the king, they saw the headless body of
the poor slave lying in the yard. He had had his head struck off for
insulting the king by spilling soup on the table in the presence of
the sovereign and his guests! On another occasion, in 1826, the king
went down to the port of Tàmatàve to see a British man-of-war. While
at Tàmatàve he sent a slave up to the capital with a message, giving
him six days to go up and return. It is still regarded as a hard
journey either to go up to the capital or to come down in six days.
This poor slave must have run every hour of those nights and days; and
yet because he did not return on the evening of the sixth day, but the
morning of the seventh, he was killed! Terrible as such things are,
they are mild compared with some of the enormities perpetrated in
heathen countries.
Radàma died in 1828, a victim to his own vices. Rabòdo, his wife, or
rather one of his wives, for he had twelve, by the aid of a number
of officials, who were most of them opposed to Christianity and to
the changes introduced by Radàma I, had herself proclaimed queen as
Rànavàlona I. She soon made her position secure by murdering all the
lawful heirs to the throne. Radàma had designated Rakòtobè, his nephew,
the eldest son of his eldest sister, as his successor. He was a young
man of intelligence who had been trained by the missionaries in their
schools. He and his father and mother were put to death, as were also
a number of the more enlightened officials. Andrìamihàja, a young
Malagasy nobleman who had been a very great favourite with the queen,
and had been mainly instrumental in placing her on the throne, and who
was believed to be the father of her child, the future Radàma II, soon
fell under her displeasure and was murdered. He had been considerably
attracted towards Christianity, and at the time when his executioners
reached his house he was reading the recently translated New Testament.
The original plan had been to banish all Europeans at once; but on the
ground that they were useful in the work of education and civilization,
he had secured their continuance for a time in the island, and had also
aided and encouraged the work of the artisan missionaries. The queen
sent to the missionaries to say that she did not mean to interfere with
them or their work, as she was no less anxious than her late husband
that the people should learn to be ‘wise and clever.’ The missionaries
therefore thus continued to labour, and such great progress was made
that they and their converts very soon got into trouble.
Rànavàlona I was an able, unscrupulous woman. Her subjects regarded
her with terror. She combined the worst vices of barbarism with the
externals of semi-civilization. Brutal amusements and shameless
licentiousness were conspicuous at her court. Her extravagance was
great, yet her subjects condoned this, and even her acts of cruelty,
on account of her extraordinary capacity for government. She had her
rice picked by her maids of honour, grain by grain, so that no atom
of quartz or stone might be found in it. If a single particle of grit
reached Her Majesty’s tooth, it cost the offending maid of honour her
life.
‘Among those who had gained a slight knowledge of the doctrines
of Christianity before the missionaries were expelled in 1836 was
Rainitsìandàvaka, in some respects a remarkable man. He was then a
middle-aged man, of extra sanguine temperament. He did not belong to
the congregation of Ambàtonakànga. He had never been baptized, but he
had conversed with some of the church members and with some of the
missionaries. After a time he began to make a stir in and around his
own village in the north, teaching the people that Jesus Christ was to
return to the earth, when all men would be blessed and perhaps never
die; that there would be no more slavery, for all men would then be
free; that there would be no more war, and that cannons, guns, and
spears would be buried. Even spades might be buried then, for the earth
would bring forth its fruits without labour. The idols, he said, were
not divinities, but only guardians.
‘He and his followers formed themselves into a procession, and went
up to the capital to tell the queen the glorious news. The queen
appointed some of her officers to hear his story. They returned and
reported it to Her Majesty. She sent back to ask him if she, the Queen
of Madagascar, and the Mozambique slave would be equal in those days?
“Yes,” he replied. When this was told the queen she ordered the prophet
and his chief followers to be put into empty rice-pits, boiling water
to be poured over them, and the pits to be covered up[1].’
Such is heathenism! Missionaries are sometimes charged with a tendency
to give only the bright side of things without much reference to
the other. The charge is unjust. Common decency forbids more than
a suggestion of what heathenism implies. The missionaries are the
‘messengers of the churches,’ whose task it is to make the darkness
light, and their narratives must necessarily bear upon the results of
their labours. By God’s good help and blessing, what has been done in
Central Madagascar, in the islands of the South Seas, in New Guinea,
in Central Africa, in Manchuria, in Livingstonia, and in other parts
of the mission field, can be told; while that which the Gospel has
supplanted may well be left to be the unspeakable hardship of those
who have to face it in the name of their Lord, and of our common
Christianity and civilization.
A famous missionary once attempted to tell his experiences as to
heathenism, and got himself into trouble for his pains. Missionaries
give their hearers credit for Christian common sense, and for the
knowledge that there is a dark and dreadful side to missionary work,
such as to justify the sacrifices of the churches and their agents in
undertaking it. One significant fact may be mentioned here. While there
was a name for every beast, and bird, and blade of grass, and tree,
and stone, and creeping thing, there was not in the language of
Madagascar a word for moral purity. Such a thing had no existence until
the people received the Gospel, and learned from it to value the things
that are pure, lovely, and of good report.
[Illustration: MALAGASY HAIR-DRESSING.
A HEATHEN WAR-DANCE.]
In 1823 the work of translating the Scriptures into Malagasy was begun,
and in 1824 Radàma I gave the missionaries permission to preach the
Gospel in the vernacular. The natives were not a little amazed to hear
a European declaring to them with fluency in their own tongue the
wonderful works of God. The mission made very rapid progress for a few
years. There were about a hundred schools established in the provinces
of Imèrina and Vònizòngo, and some four thousand children gathered into
them. These schools were not centres where a large amount of secular
and a small amount of religious education was given; they were also
preaching stations, visited periodically by the missionaries, where the
Gospel was preached and the Scriptures were explained. The truth thus
found entrance into many benighted souls, laying hold of them in a way
that nothing had ever done before, proving that it was still the power
of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth. Many had grown
weary of their old heathenism, and were feeling after God, if haply
they might find Him.
The people had often spoken of _Andrìamànitra_[2] _Andrìanànahàry_
(God the Creator) as existing, and the people had been told in their
proverbs, with which all were familiar, that ‘God looks from on high
and sees what is hidden’; that they were ‘Not to think of the silent
valley’ (that is, as a place in which it was safe to commit sin); ‘for
God is over our head.’ They were told that ‘God loves not evil’; and
also that ‘It is better to be condemned by man than to be condemned by
God’; and again that ‘The waywardness of man is controlled by God; for
it is He Who alone commands.’
In their proverbs God was also acknowledged as ‘the Giver to every
one of life.’ This confession is found in the ordinary phrase used in
saluting the parents of a newly born child, which was, ‘Salutation!
God has given you an heir’; while His greatness is declared in another
proverb which says, ‘Do not say God is fully comprehended by me.’ He
was recognized as the rewarder both of good and evil; and hence their
proverb, ‘God, for Whom the hasty won’t wait, shall be waited for by
me.’ God’s omniscience was recognized in the proverb, ‘There is nothing
unknown to God, but He intentionally bows down His head’ (that is, so
as not to see); a rather remarkable parallel to the Apostle Paul’s
words, ‘The times of ignorance, therefore, God overlooked.’ One proverb
says, ‘Let not the simple or foolish one be defrauded, God is to be
feared’; while another tells that, ‘The first death may be endured, but
the second death is unbearable.’
In the Malagasy proverbs and folk-lore you have some few of the
‘fossilized remains of former beliefs’; and in these the people were
told something of God and goodness, of right and wrong, while hints
were given of a life beyond the grave, where good men would be rewarded
and wicked men punished.
These, however, were but ragged remnants of former beliefs, which,
while they might be enough to show that God had not left Himself
without witness, had lost most of their meaning for the people, and
almost all their power over them. They were in no way guided by the
fear of God in their daily life and conduct. God was not in all their
thoughts, for He was a name and nothing more to the vast majority of
the people.
The Malagasy were under the baneful sway of the most degrading
superstitions. Hence polygamy, infanticide, trial by the poison ordeal,
and all the attendant horrors of heathenism were everywhere rampant.
The people were goaded on to commit the most cruel and heartless
crimes against their nearest and dearest by the _Mpanàndro_ (the
astrologers), or the _Mpìsikìdy_ (the workers of the oracle), and
the _Òmbiàsy_ (the diviners or witch-doctors). They and theirs
were harmed or made ill, as they thought, by the _Mpàmosàvy_
(the wizards or witches). They thought that all disease arose from
bewitchery, and hence medicine was known as _Fànafòdy_, i. e. that
which removes or takes off the _Òdy_, the charm or witchery. The
far-famed _Òdi-mahèry_ (powerful-charm) for which Vònizòngo, my
own district during my first term of ten years in Madagascar, was once
so famous, was mainly composed of the same ingredients as the witches’
broth in _Macbeth_--the leg of a frog, the tongue of a dog, the
leg of a lizard, the head of a toad, and such like. The great poet says
that ‘One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,’ and the same may
be said of the touch of superstition.
The people had been sunk for ages in ignorance, and formed a
counterpart to the heathen world which the Apostle Paul describes as
‘having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
God through the ignorance that was in them, because of the hardening
of their heart. Being past feeling, they gave themselves over unto
lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.’ This made
them mere playthings in the hands of the ‘astrologers,’ ‘workers
of the oracle,’ and ‘diviners’; for without their assistance they
regarded themselves as completely at the mercy of the much feared
_Mpàmosàvy_ (the wizards or witches).
Everything--marriages, business, journeys--could be happy or successful
only if undertaken on an auspicious day, and hence the proper
authorities had to be paid to find out the lucky days. If a child was
born on an unlucky day, or during the unlucky month of _Àlakàosy_,
it had to be put to death, otherwise it was believed it would grow up
to be a curse to its parents and its country. Of a child born on one of
the so-called unlucky days, or during the so-called unlucky month, the
diviner would at once say: ‘This child must die, or it will grow up to
be a curse to the country, _Mànana vìntan-dràtsy ìzy_ (it has a
bad destiny hanging over it).’
There were different ways of putting these unfortunate innocents to
death. If they were born during the unlucky month, they were placed in
the evening at the gateway of the village, to be trampled to death by
the cattle as they were being driven into the village for the night.
If the gods inspired the cattle to step over the infant, its life was
generally, though not always, spared. The Malagasy are very fond of
their children--the parents would kneel by the pathway, the father on
the one side, the mother on the other, pleading, with strong crying
and tears, that the gods would spare their little one. Sometimes the
cattle, with more sense than the people, when they came up to the babe,
would sniff at it and step over it, and thus its life might be spared.
This was the case, it is said, with Rainilàiàrivòny, the late prime
minister of Madagascar, who was born during the unlucky month. It was
not so often that male children were exposed in this way, some excuse
was usually found by the ‘diviners’; but as a rule the female children
were thus exposed. Twins, whether male or female, were always put to
death.
A child was not always spared even when the cattle had stepped over
it. The diviner would sometimes say: ‘A mistake has been made; this
child is not to die in that way, but by the _Ahòhoka_.’ Water
was poured into a large wooden platter, called a _sahàfa_. The
child was taken, turned over, and its face held in the water until the
poor innocent was suffocated. Some diviners were more exacting than
others. Instead of effecting death by suffocation, they would cause a
round hole to be dug in the ground, in which the child was placed, and
covered with earth up to the waist; boiling water was then poured over
it until death relieved the poor child of its torments, after which
the pit was filled up with earth and pounded over. Thus thousands upon
thousands of children fell victims to this superstition, and do so
still in those parts of the island unreached by the benign influence
of the Gospel of Christ. Members of my own congregation at Fìhàonana,
Vònizòngo, had seen such atrocities as those I have just described
committed, if they had not themselves actually taken part in them.
The standard of morality was by no means high in heathen Madagascar. A
man might be a drunkard, dishonest, a liar, or quarrelsome and given to
fighting, and as such be regarded by his neighbours as a bad man, that
is a bad member of society; but in other respects he might be utterly
immoral without earning that title. A man’s morals were not regarded as
having anything whatever to do with his personal character they were
regarded as his own private affair. The community passed no judgement
upon him.
I have said _a man_, because _a woman_ was not really regarded
as having any place in society. Women were viewed as little more
than chattels necessary for the furnishing of a man’s house. They
were the slaves of their lord and master. They were spoken of as
_àmbin-jàvatra_, that is, surplus belongings. Under these circumstances
the marriage relationship was not regarded as of much consequence,
and before 1879 a man had only to say to his wife, in the presence
of a witness, _Misàotra anào, màndehàna hìanào_, ‘Thanks, go!’ and
she was divorced. Marriage was said not to be a binding tie, but only
a knot out of which you could slip at any time. With such views of
the highest and holiest relationship in life, with divorce easy, and
polygamy rampant, the condition of society may be better imagined than
described. Yet it could not exactly be said of the Malagasy that the
‘emblems of vice’ had been ever ‘objects of worship,’ or that ‘acts of
vice’ had ever been regarded by them as ‘acts of public worship,’ as
can be said of the people of some heathen lands.
Such a state of things, of which many were wearied, paved the way, in
a measure, for the new teaching. The work of the mission made rapid
progress. The Gospel effected a marvellous change in the lives of the
people, and numbers were baptized on profession of faith and received
into church fellowship. The old heathen party became alarmed at this,
and rose in arms against the New Religion. As Samuel Rutherford
said: ‘Good being done, the devil began to roar.’ This he did with a
vengeance, making use of all who had vested interests in immorality
and superstition, and especially of the keepers of the royal idols.
The converts were charged with refusing to worship the gods of their
forefathers, and to pray to the spirits of their departed ancestors,
and with praying instead to ‘the white man’s ancestor, Jesus Christ.’
History was repeating itself. The keepers of the royal idols frightened
the queen by telling her that the gods were getting exasperated, and
that if they once were enraged they would send fever, and famine, and
pestilence, and all kinds of calamities. Although a strong-minded
woman, and in some respects unusually shrewd, the queen was very
superstitious, and the idol-keepers and the heathen party were able to
work upon her fears, and, as the issue proved, with deadly effect.
‘She determined to introduce important changes in the government of the
kingdom. She gave notice to the British Agent, and all Europeans, of
her withdrawal from the treaty which Radàma I had made with the British
government for the abolition of the foreign slave trade. She picked
a quarrel with the British Agent because he had ridden on horseback
into the village where a celebrated idol was kept, drove him from the
capital, and ultimately from the island[3].’ Things had seemingly
reached a crisis, and the missionaries felt that they might soon have
to follow the British Agent; but this was for a time prevented by a
rather singular incident.
There was no soap of any kind in Madagascar in those days. The queen
had come into possession of some English soap, and thought it desirable
to get the white teachers to make soap from the materials found in her
own island, and instruct some of her young noblemen to make it. This is
not exactly noblemen’s work, as we should think; but in those days,
and in that land, every one had to do as the queen commanded, or have
their heads cut off. To attain her object she resolved to keep the gods
and the royal idol-keepers quiet for a time, until some of her young
noblemen had learned the mystery of soap-making.
She had already proposed to the missionaries that they should confine
their efforts to mere secular education, which, however, they had
politely but firmly declined to do. The influence of the artisan
missionaries had been of immense service to the Madagascar Mission in
those early days of its existence; and mainly to their teaching must be
attributed much of the skill of the Malagasy workmen to this day. There
can be no doubt that the manifest utility of their work did much to win
for the mission a large measure of tolerance, as this incident of the
soap-making shows.
‘Having driven the British Agent from the capital and the island, and
wishing next to get rid of the missionaries, the queen sent and asked
them all to meet at the house of the senior missionary, as she had a
communication to make to them. The queen’s messengers met them, and in
her name thanked them for all they had done and all they had taught
the people. The queen wished to know, they said, if there was anything
they could still teach her people. The missionaries replied that they
had only taught the very simplest elements of knowledge, and that there
was still many things of which the Malagasy were quite ignorant, and
they mentioned sundry branches of education, among which were the Greek
and Hebrew languages, which had been partially taught to some. The
messengers carried this answer to the queen, and when they came back
they said that the queen did not care for the teaching of languages
that nobody spoke; but she would like to know, they said, whether they
could not teach her people something more useful, such as the making of
soap from materials to be found in the country[1].’
This was rather an awkward question to address to theologians, and the
ministerial members of the mission were much perplexed. Instruction
in soap-making had not been part of their college training, and they
knew little about it. ‘After a short pause, the senior member of the
mission asked Mr. J. Cameron whether he could give an answer to that
question. Mr. Cameron replied: “Come back in a week, and we may give an
answer to Her Majesty’s inquiry.” At the end of the week they returned,
and Mr. Cameron presented them with two small bars of tolerably good
soap made entirely from materials found in the island[4].’ This
incident, along with the conversations which the missionaries had
with Her Majesty’s messengers, arrested for a time the backward trend
of things. It revealed to Her Majesty and her heathen advisers their
want of knowledge about the most common things, and their need of the
most elementary education, and led to further inquiries about various
matters. The tone adopted towards the missionaries and the treatment of
them and their converts became more gentle and considerate.
The queen herself was so pleased with the soap that, on condition that
Mr. Cameron would undertake a contract to supply the palace and the
government with a certain amount of soap, and teach some of the young
noblemen how to make it, things were to be allowed to go on; and the
missionaries were not to be interfered with in their work. Mr. Cameron
and Mr. Chick, another of the artisan missionaries, undertook contracts
for soap-making and the production of other useful articles. The
government wanted them to undertake a contract for making gunpowder;
but this they declined. It took nearly five years to fulfil this
agreement. Perhaps their brethren had given Messrs. Cameron[5] and
Chick a hint to deal out their instruction as to the soap-making in
homoeopathic doses, so that they might be able to accomplish as much
as possible of their higher service to Madagascar before the end of
the period at which the contracts expired. One most important result
to the mission from these contracts was a fresh impulse to the work of
education throughout the central province. New schools were allowed to
be established, and, although the queen and government would have much
preferred to patronize merely secular education, had the missionaries
agreed to separate it from religious teaching, they were constrained
for the sake of the secular instruction to sanction and countenance the
religious education.
The education of the young naturally formed an important element in the
work of the mission from its commencement, and under the patronage of
Radàma I the work flourished greatly. Radàma never became a Christian.
‘My Bible,’ he would say, ‘is within my own bosom.’ But he was a
shrewd and clever man, and his ideas had been much broadened through
intercourse with foreigners, and especially through his constant
intercourse with Mr. Hastie, the British Agent, and he clearly saw that
the education of the children would be an immense gain to his country.
Thus he did all in his power to further this branch of missionary work,
and both he and Mr. Hastie showed great interest in the prosperity of
the schools.
In the year 1826 about thirty schools had been founded, and there were
nearly 2,000 scholars; in 1828 the schools were forty-seven, but the
number of scholars had fallen to 1,400. At one time the missionaries
reported 4,000 as the number of scholars enrolled, though there were
never so many as this actually receiving instruction. During the
fifteen years the mission was allowed to exist (1820–1835) it was
estimated that from 10,000 to 15,000 children passed through the
schools; so that when the missionaries were compelled to leave the
island there were thousands who had learned to read, and who had by the
education they had received been raised far above the mass of their
heathen fellow countrymen.
The direct spiritual results of the missionaries’ work were of slow
growth, and it was not till eleven years after Mr. Jones’s arrival
in the capital that the first baptisms took place. This was on the
Sabbath, May 29, 1831, in Mr. Griffiths’s chapel at Ambòdin-Andohàlo,
when twenty of the first converts were baptized in the presence
of a large congregation. On the next Sabbath, June 5, eight more
were baptized by Mr. David Johns in the newly erected chapel at
Ambàtonakànga.
From this time the growth was comparatively rapid and encouraging,
and by the time of the outbreak of persecution two hundred had been
received into church membership.
During the carrying out of the contracts the missionaries were hard at
work on their translation of the Scriptures. They knew very well that
what had taken place was but a calm before the storm, which they saw
approaching, and that when it burst they would all be expelled from
the island. They were most anxious to be able to leave the completed
translation of the Word of God with the people. In March, 1830, a first
edition of 3,000 copies of the New Testament was completed. Messrs.
Cameron and Chick used to go down for a few hours in the morning to
the Government Works at Ampàribè, to see to the soap-making and other
work going on there; and after that they and the other artisan members
of the mission went up in turns to help at the printing-office. The
ministerial brethren would be there with their translation, and, under
the guidance of the superintendent of the press, one member of the
mission put up the type, while another brought the paper, another inked
the type, and the rest took their turn at working the press. When, as
was latterly the case, no labourers could be got to do it, even the
ladies of the mission sometimes helped at this heavy task.
Thus these devoted men and women often worked to the small hours of
the morning printing off the Scriptures. Before their task was finally
accomplished the New Testament, and also single books of both the Old
and New Testaments, were bound up and set in circulation. Single sheets
even of the Gospels, tracts, leaves of the _Pilgrim’s Progress_,
and of the small hymn-book found their way all over the island; and
some of these, as late as 1871, I found in the possession of the people
in Vònizòngo.