=Betsileo--“The Sombre Fringes of the Night”=
The glad Dawn sets his fires upon the hills,
Then floods the valley with his golden light,
And, triumphing o’er all the hosts of night,
The waiting world with new-born rapture fills.
L. C. MOULTON.
The scene now changes to the province of Betsileo, in the south of the
Island, where the work is carried on amongst a backward people, whose
territory abuts upon the districts occupied by tribes more benighted
still--the Sakalava, the Bara, and the Tanala.
Until quite recently the work in Betsileo was separated from the work
in Imerina by a journey in a filanjana (palanquin) occupying from
eight to ten days. Now the 264 miles which separate Tananarive from
Fianarantsoa are covered in two days in comfortable automobiles, along
a magnificent road which has been constructed by the French. For almost
the whole of the distance the country is very hilly, the road rising to
4,500 feet above the sea level, and being carried over mountains in a
continuous series of curves with easy gradients.
We were travelling in the middle of the Malagasy winter. The mornings
were cold and misty, but before long the sun broke out and we enjoyed
a changing panorama of hill and mountain, waterfall and river, and
far-spreading distant views. Peaks sixty miles away appeared to be
quite near. Time after time the road traversed amphitheatres in the
mountains, and I was often reminded of stretches of country in the
province of Hunan in Central China.
Fianarantsoa is the capital of the Betsileo province, the inhabitants
of which are a curly-haired, dark-skinned people of a somewhat low
type, except in the large towns where most of the population is Hova.
Work is also carried on at outstations amongst the Bara and Tanala
tribes in the south. The L. M. S. first sent resident missionaries to
settle in Betsileo in 1870, and the Paris Missionary Society and the
Norwegian Society are also at work there.
Fianarantsoa is picturesquely situated in a mountainous region. It
stands considerably higher than the top of Snowdon, and commands a
wonderful view on all sides--of mountains and moorland, forest and
river in infinite variety. During our visit, in the early mornings
great seas of mist lay in the valleys, but later in the day the whole
landscape was flooded with brilliant sunshine.
The work in the Capital itself and at seventy-four outstations is
in charge of Mr. Huckett and Mr. Johnson, who have borne the burden
and heat of the day for upwards of thirty years, while Miss Hare has
been in charge of the Girls’ School for the last seventeen years. The
Mission Compound is extensive and contains the Girls’ School, three
Mission houses, the Theological College, which was once a hospital,
and cottage accommodation for the students at work in the College and
the boys from the L. M. S. country stations attending the Boys’ School
of the Paris Missionary Society. In Fianarantsoa there were all the
evidences of extensive missionary activities and of a successful work.
The numerous meetings that were held during our visit were crowded.
During our stay the annual gatherings of the Betsileo Isan-Kerin-Taona
(yearly meeting) were held.
They were the first gatherings of the kind at which I had been present
in Madagascar. As I attended meeting after meeting the impression made
upon me as a visitor was that of “fields white unto harvest.” To my
unaccustomed eyes the white lambas, which seemed to fill the Churches,
suggested the white fields referred to in the Gospels. And then came
the thought which gave rise to glad thanksgiving, that in Madagascar
the harvest indeed had been plenteous, though the labourers had been
few. Then came a vision of the great harvest-home when from the north
and south, the east and west of this island men and women, boys and
girls would all be gathered into the Kingdom, and those who sowed and
those who reaped would rejoice together.
Three meetings stand out in my memory. On the Wednesday there was
a representative gathering of the delegates from the L. M. S. and
P. M. S. Churches in Antranobiriky Church. M. Couve, of the Paris
Society, addressed some burning words to the delegates, which went to
their hearts. I spoke of the United Malagasy Church of the future,
and rejoiced to find so hearty a response to the idea of union. Next
day at the Assembly M. Couve spoke with great earnestness on the
duty of self-support, and Mr. Houghton gave an eloquent address on
self-government.
The third meeting was a memorable one. It was a united Communion
Service held on Thursday afternoon in the Church of the French
Protestant Mission. The spacious church was crowded to its utmost
limits. The aisles and stairs were thronged with devout worshippers.
A native pastor conducted the service. Missionaries and evangelists,
pastors and preachers joined with some 800 Christians and the
Deputations from the two societies round the table of our Lord. Men
and women, brown and white, were all as one in that sacred service of
commemoration and consecration. The solemnity of the gathering was
emphasised by the thunderstorm which broke over the town while the
service was proceeding. The church became dark. The wind howled. The
lightning flashed. The thunder rolled. The rain fell. And then came the
brilliant sunshine--a prophetic vision of the history of the Church
of Christ in Madagascar. Persecution, trouble, and anxiety have beset
that Church in the past. Even now there are clouds upon the horizon.
But the day is surely coming when the glorious shining of the Sun of
Righteousness will flood this great island with light and love, and all
who live in it “shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and ...
as the stars for ever and ever.”
Mr. Huckett has long carried on a fine piece of work in the
Theological Seminary. Here pastors and evangelists receive a three
years’ course of training, and there is a two years’ course for
catechists and itinerating preachers. Mr. Huckett also superintends
the boys and youths from the country mission stations, who come up to
Fianarantsoa to complete their education, living in the cottages above
referred to, which are supported by the Glasgow Foundry Boys’ Religious
Association. Another branch of Mr. Huckett’s manifold labours is the
secretaryship of the local agency of the British and Foreign Bible
Society. From the Bible and Book Room in the Compound the Scriptures
are distributed to the whole of the South of Madagascar, and five
colporteurs are at work.
At the Girls’ High School, conducted by Miss Hare, there are one
hundred girls on the books, of whom on the occasion of our visit
ninety-six were present. There is ample accommodation for more
scholars, but the Government regulations prevent it being utilised.
Some of the girls at the school come from the country stations and
live in the Mission house with Miss Hare. It would be a very great
help to the work if a Boarding Home for Girls could be established
in Fianarantsoa. In addition to her duties in the School, Miss Hare
also has the oversight of the wives of the students at the Theological
Seminary. The Paris Mission carries on the Boys’ High School and a
Normal School, to which the L. M. S. students go.
About an hour’s journey from Fianarantsoa another fine example of
missionary activity is to be seen at the Leper Home, at a place
pathetically called “The Village of Hope.” This work was started by
Mrs. Huckett twenty years ago. My visit was a sad experience, and will
be an abiding memory. No leper who enters this home, in which there are
forty-three inmates, ever comes out again. The sufferers die, and are
buried in the grounds. My thoughts naturally carried me back to Dr.
Fowler’s Leper Home in Central China at Siao Kan. “The Village of Hope”
might well be called the “Village of Despair,” for maimed and missing
hands and feet told their tale only too plainly, and pitiable sores on
the legs and face were common. But without exception all the patients
seemed bright and happy, and one could not doubt the joy that had come
into the lives of the poor afflicted creatures, thirty-three of whom
were Church members, while others were enquirers. We visited the rooms
in which they live, and afterwards attended a pathetic and yet happy
meeting in the Chapel at which we all spoke. The lepers were genuinely
glad to see us and gave us a hearty welcome. After we left we could see
the whole community, standing in their white lambas just outside the
gate on the top of the hill, waving farewells to us for fully half an
hour.
Thirty-two miles south of Fianarantsoa is the growing Government
town of Ambalavao, which is reached by pousse-pousse along another
well-engineered road through the mountains. As we approached the town
we were met by streams of natives, many gaily decorated, returning
from the annual three days’ fair. For many years Ambalavao was worked
from Ambohimandroso, but it has been a residential station since 1903
under the care of the Rev. D. M. Rees, whose untiring efforts are
ably seconded by those of his wife, who has the great advantage of an
excellent knowledge of French. The Mission house is an old Malagasy
residence which has been enlarged. The Station Church is one of the
most handsome and best built churches in Madagascar. On the occasion
of our visit it was crowded to its utmost capacity by a gathering
representing the forty-four outstations in the district.
Six miles south of Ambalavao is situated Ambohimandroso, the most
southerly station of the L. M. S., where the Rev. Thomas and Mrs.
Rowlands (who, like Mr. and Mrs. Rees, keep up the connection between
Wales and Madagascar) have faithfully carried on work for the last
thirty-four years. At the bottom of the valley between the two stations
is a river which is crossed by a ferry, where I was met by a crowd
of school children who escorted me up the steep hill to the Mission
house, the boys assisting in propelling the pousse-pousse. Here again a
crowded and enthusiastic united meeting was held, with representatives
from most of the fifty-one out-stations connected with this Mission.
Schools were inspected, visits paid to some of the Native workers,
and other gatherings held. Mr. and Mrs. Rowlands find house-room for
a dozen girls from country districts who are attending school. Each
evening these girls file into the drawing-room for singing and prayer.
On the occasion of my visit they sang “Nearer my God to Thee” in
English. Then followed their salutation, “Good-night, Mr. Hawkins,”
with a curtsey. I replied, “Good-night, girls; God bless you.” Then
came their answer, “Thank you, Mr. Hawkins.” The same formula is gone
through with “Madame” and “Sir.”
The morning I left, the girls were up early to see me off, and stood in
a row alongside the filanjana. In a frivolous moment as I was leaving
I pretended to weep to express my sorrow at parting from them, and
off I went. Mrs. Rowlands told me a week or two afterwards that at
my departure all the girls had burst into tears and cried bitterly,
saying, “What a tender-hearted gentleman to cry when he leaves us. He
must be thinking of his own daughter in England who has dark hair and
dark eyes like us!”
From Ambohimandroso I proceeded to the Society’s newest station
in Betsileo at Alakamisy Itenina, where since 1905 the Rev. D. D.
Green, another Welshman, has resided and superintended the work of
the thirty-seven outstations, of which this place is the centre. The
journey occupied all day, and the road lay amongst the mountains,
the views of the hills and clouds being magnificent. Several crowded
meetings were held at the station and at outstations. At one place the
crowd that had gathered together was three times as large as the Church
could contain, and the meeting was held in the open-air, in defiance, I
am afraid, of the French law. I stood under the shadow of the Church.
In the immediate foreground was the great congregation, some on the
seats which had been taken out of the Church, and some on the ground--a
very picturesque crowd in white and gaily-coloured lambas. Beyond the
worshippers stretched a glorious vista of mountain and valley, rolling
away into “the purple distance fair,” with the brilliant sunshine
bathing all in a flood of golden light.
The only residential station in Madagascar which I was unable to visit
was that at Ambohimahasoa, a town of growing importance, where the Rev.
Charles Collins has laboured for the last eleven years, superintending
from that centre thirty-eight outstations. Both my colleagues, however,
were able to visit it, and attended a large number of meetings there.
The Society’s work in Betsileo is well organised, and has been carried
on for the last forty-three years with great and growing success. From
the centre at Fianarantsoa, over a wide-spreading district comprising
244 outstations, the Gospel has been faithfully preached, schools
have been conducted, Christian Endeavour Societies, Dorcas meetings,
and many other missionary activities have been carried on, and this
manifold work has been accomplished by means of a small European staff
which has never exceeded ten missionaries. Their efforts have been
seconded by a native staff of about fifty ordained pastors and 500
preachers. The Church is a growing one, but much yet remains to be done
to complete the evangelization of the large territory in which the
Society is at work. Beyond to the south, as already mentioned, are the
unevangelized tribes of the Bara and Tanala districts, amongst whom up
to the present very little work has been done. But the future is rich
with promise, and if the existing work can be maintained and somewhat
extended, the Society will have a rich reward in building up a Native
Church so strong and so missionary, that before many years have passed
it will be able to carry the light into the dark places around.