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plunged into them by the bystanders, and they perished on the spot. This decided the whole question.

*

The condition of the people under the savage sway of this woman, is deplorable in the extreme. All of both sexes who have learned any handicraft in the missionary schools, or elsewhere, are obliged to work for her without payment. She claims them all as her serfs, and recognises no property but her own. Girls are drafted from the schools to make clothes for the army. Hundreds of smiths are engaged on the public works, and still larger numbers of wood-fellers are compelled to cut down timber in the forests, and carry it to the capital. They are suffered to find the means of sustenance as best they can, at such moments as they can furtively employ themselves out of the view of their inhuman task-masters. See now the results of misgovernment on the morals of a people, and on their national character. First, there is want in its most hideous forms, with all its debasement of the feelings. Theft, and rapine, and falsehood, are almost necessary consequences, and hence a general disorganization of society. Ellis tells us, that, unable to meet these cruel demands on their personal services and their property, multitudes fled from the towns and villages to the forests, formed themselves into banditti, and sought a precarious subsistence by seizing upon the cattle that might graze in the adjacent country, or plundering the travellers that passed near their places of retreat. Nearly 200 of these were taken and executed. Mr. Ellis says, that lying has, in some cases, been enforced upon the natives, it having been required of every Hova when speaking with foreigners on political matters, to state the exact opposite to the truth on pain of punishment. So far has this been carried, that it was once a serious and public complaint against Christianity, that it taught the people to scruple at telling lies, even to deceive their country's enemies."

66

There are no public temples in honour of any divinity, nor any order of men exclusively devoted to the priesthood. The houses in which the principal idols are kept are considered in some way sacred. The keeper of the idol receives the offerings and sacrifices, and gives the responses. The people are believers in fate or destiny. They worship usually at the tombs of their ancestors, which are held very sacred. As to the soul, sometimes they speak of it like materialists. Yet they believe in some sort of existence after death, and are exceedingly afraid of ghosts. In their astrology the moon holds the chief place, but receives no worship. Neither is fire worshipped in any part of the island. They practise circumcision, and they observe the weekly division of time. The new-year is ushered in with

* FREEMAN and JOHNS, p. 11.

European Intercourse.

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numerous ceremonies, which bear a strong resemblance to those of the Jewish passover. Abstinence from swine's flesh is almost universal. Caste does not prevail, but clanship does. Divination and trial by ordeal prevail to a frightful extent, and lead to unutterable cruelties. The sovereign is regarded as a divinity. Accession to the throne is a sort of apotheosis. Yet the people are not naturally savage or inhuman, nor are their morals worse than those of other heathens.

"Their worst propensities as a people have been generated by the importance attached to some fell superstitions among them, and still more by the demoralizing and brutalizing influence of the wars in which they have recently engaged. They have become dreadfully familiar with blood, and shed it with less scruple than they ever did. Falsehood, chicanery, avarice, and deceit, extensively prevail. The common vices of sensuality, excepting intoxication, are also extremely prevalent: but various crimes, not always reprobated among some of the refined nations of antiquity, are utterly unknown in Madagascar, or are followed with immediate death on discovery. They possess also not a few redeeming qualities. Parents generally are devotedly fond of their offspring, and children are respectful to their parents to old age. There is much genuine hospitality in the country, and warm and steady friendships exist. They are a people prepared for improvement, and whose rapid advancement, under favourable circumstances, would amply repay the anxieties, toil, and sacrifices, that might be expended in their service."*

European intercourse has not had a beneficial influence on Madagascar. It has even gone far to neutralize the exertions of the missionaries, who have had to encounter deep national distrust. For many generations prior to this intercourse it would appear that Madagascar had been a common mart to Arab, Indian, and other eastern traders. But the first distinct notice of it that has reached our own time was that of the Portuguese navigator Marco Paulo, who published his account as long ago as the close of the 13th century. Three centuries passed by from this time before it attracted the attention of Europeans, when the Portuguese established a settlement on its coast. About the middle of the next century it appears to have become an object of cupidity to the French. In 1642, a "patent was granted by Cardinal Richelieu to Captain Rivault, for the exclusive right of sending ships and forces to Madagascar and the neighbouring islands, in order to establish a colony or plantation, for the promotion of commerce."-Ellis, vol. ii. p. 6.

The French do not appear to have been opposed by the natives; but their gross injustice and refined cruelty generated a deep feeling of animosity to foreigners in the minds of the Malagasy.

* FREEMAN and JOHNS, ch. iii,

The religion which they and the Portuguese forced upon the natives, by fire and sword, had inspired them with insuperable dread and dislike, feelings which were very naturally extended to Europeans of all nations and Christians of all Churches. Hence, no doubt, the general massacre of a Dutch settlement. In the middle of the 17th century, as already mentioned, the French formed their East India Company, which took possession of some portions of the island of Madagascar. The French settlement was governed a few years by one Pronis, who left a worthy precedent for his countrymen in the South Seas. "When Captain Pronis was governor, (says Copland, p. 37,) he treacherously sold a great number of the natives, who had unsuspectingly engaged themselves in the service of the colony, to Vander Meister, the Dutch governor of the Mauritius. Ellis informs us, that "the unfortunate victims of his reckless cupidity were shipped off in so crowded a state that the greater part of them died on the passage; and the remaining few, upon arriving at the Mauritius, fled immediately into the woods, where they subsisted ever afterwards in a wild state, eluding all attempts to recapture them."-Vol. ii. p. 10.

Lescallier, a Frenchman, was sent to Madagascar in 1792 for the purpose of ascertaining if it were practicable once more to attempt the establishment of a colony in that country. He thus expresses himself in a memoir in the "National Institutes" :

"The French government have at long intervals formed, or rather attempted to form, establishments among these people; but the agents in these enterprises attended exclusively to the interests and emoluments of the Europeans, and particularly their own profits; while the interests and wellbeing of the natives have been entirely forgotten. Some of these ministerial delegates have been dishonest adventurers, and have committed a thousand atrocities. It cannot, therefore, excite surprise, that sometimes they have experienced marks of the resentment of the Malagasses."

Alas! how generally has this been the conduct of Europeans in their intercourse with barbarous nations. Treacherous, rapacious, cruel, licentious, they have produced against Christianity and its missionaries, in many cases, almost unconquerable prejudices; in some, the most rancorous animosity. It was thus at Madagascar, when our missionaries arrived there during the reign of the late monarch. They entered upon their work under what seemed the most favourable auspices.

"The sovereign was their immediate patron, and the English representative, (Mr. Hastie) the active organ of forwarding their interests with the government. All opposition was borne down by the King; the people had but one course before them, which was to furnish their quota of children required from the respective villages, to

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the government schools, which were ultimately to comprise upwards of 60 villages, and not less than 5000 scholars in daily attendance. In all this the King was seeking merely and exclusively that knowledge which is most directly power, but with scarcely the remotest idea of its adverse bearing on the superstition of his ancestors."*

The missionaries pursued their work with great vigour. During fifteen years, namely, from 1820 to 1835

"The whole of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were translated, corrected, and printed in the native language, at the capital, aided by very liberal grants from the British and Foreign Bible Society; not fewer than 25,000 tracts, aided by the prompt and generous encouragement afforded by the Religious Tract Society, were printed; Russell's Catechism was translated, and an edition of 1000 copies generously given by Mr. Cameron, a member of the mission. Nearly all these publications were put into circulation. The number of schools increased till they amounted to nearly 100, containing nominally about 4000 scholars, to whom were imparted the elements of instruction and of religious truth. Probably some 10,000 to 15,000 altogether, passed through the mission schools in the period under review. Elementary books were provided for the use of these, and probably as many more were distributed among those who voluntarily acquired the art of reading without attendance on the mission schools." †

We will now follow the Narrative in its instructive and interesting account of the measures taken by the Government to suppress the mission; and certainly, with all the severity of those measures towards the natives, if we take into account the despotic and feudal character of the Government, as well as the nature of the established religion, we shall be, perhaps, surprised at their moderation, and at the solicitude manifested to conduct them with due regard to what was right and just according to the standard of rectitude in that part of the world. Our own country was guilty of more savage persecution 300 years ago, and at the present moment several of the European nations would, in similar circumstances, perpetrate outrages quite as shocking to the feelings of Christian freemen. In fact, we shall be obliged to exhibit specimens as bad on the part of France and Portugal before we conclude this article. We have often wondered at the tolerance with which such things are regarded when they occur on the continent of Europe, or when they are the acts of Europeans in their colonies. Surely those who know their Master's will and yet shamefully violate it, must be held far more culpable than those who sin in ignorance.

Radama, the late king, on acceding to the terms of a treaty for the suppression of the slave traffic in his country, and grant

* A Resident, p. 38.

VOL. VII. NO. XIII.

FREEMAN and JOHNS.
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ing to the agents of the London Missionary Society access to his dominions, stipulated that his people should be taught various branches of the arts and sciences. Several artizans were therefore appointed to accompany the mission, and remained in the country a long time. Their instructions, though not strictly of a religious character, could not but effect a powerful movement in the native mind.

"Habits of thought, attention, industry, and application were formed, new ideas were communicated, and new associations were generated; a spirit of inquiry was fostered, intelligence was conveyed from one to another, and all the materials of improvement and civilization were placed in requisition. The government assumed to itself the control of the labours of the artizans, a measure obviously attended with both advantages and disadvantages. Many intelligent youths were placed under instruction, amounting probably to not less than from 1000 to 2000 altogether, including smiths, carpenters, builders, tanners, curriers, saddlers, boot and shoemakers, spinners, weavers, soapmakers," &c.

The female members of the mission contributed an important share in effecting the work of Christian civilization among their own sex, and with the happiest results. In the moral change thus effected the members of the Government did not at all sympathize. They regarded it from the beginning with jealousy and fear. They could not tell whereunto it might grow. Such a revolution in the religious sentiments and moral habits of the people, wrought by a mere handful of European teachers, alarmed the rulers, who, not anticipating such a movement, and not having capacity to manage it, yielded to the self-preserving instinct of despotism, and determined to crush the mission. For a while, however, the Queen, who succeeded Radama, her husband, manifested rather a friendly disposition. But evil counsels prevailed, and she was resolved to rule the souls as well as the bodies of her subjects. The meaning of her laws, edicts, and messages on the subject (and she took great trouble to explain and vindicate her course both to the missionaries and her own subjects,) is simply this :—

"I am determined that the ancient and established customs and habits of the country shall remain unaltered. Arts and manufactures, if under the exclusive surveillance of my own government, and strictly limited to my advantage, I shall not object to. The inculcation of obedience to the laws I approve of. But to relinquish divination and idolatry, is an offence which I will punish with death. The arts of civilized life may come to my country, but the people are not to cultivate them for themselves. I will direct who shall be taught; none else are permitted to learn; and the abilities which they then acquire are to be wholly employed in the service of the government,"

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