CHAPTER V.HOW IT STRIKES A STRANGER.
Therainy season had fully set in and we prepared to settle down in the Capital for three or four months. Busy times were before us. We had to hold important consultations with the missionary brethren respecting the arrangements of the mission: we had correspondence to maintain with home: and there was much to accomplish in working out our numerous observations and framing maps of the Imerina and Betsileo Provinces. Our first work was to provide a suitable home for this period of our stay. Mr. and Mrs. Pillans found a neat little house on the east side of the City-hill: and with the help of an excellent native woman and her husband, intelligent, kind-hearted and upright people, they managed their novel housekeeping exceedingly well. Mr. and Mrs. Grainge kindly received me into their house; and until I finally left the city they provided so kindly and considerately for all my wants, that it became to me a very pleasant home.
Our house was situated at the end of the Faravóhitra hill; on a long clay spur projecting to the north and east, which spread out into a level terrace, with steep banks onits north and west sides. The house faces the west, and has opposite a noble mass of granite rock, above which stands conspicuous the Faravohitra Memorial Church. From the north side of the terrace we had a beautiful view over the Imerina plains. The wooded hill of Ambóhimánga; the solid arched ridges of Andringitra, the lofty peaks of Lóhavóhitra, and the broad massive hill of Ambóhimonóa, formed the outer border of the landscape. Naméhana was in the centre of the picture on its round hill; on the right was Iláfy with its green woods: while close before us were the large villages of Ankádifotsy and Manjákaráy, with their dark red soil, their neat new chapels, their numerous well-built houses and long walls.
Our house was limited in size, though it looked large; having but four rooms round a large central hall. It was built of sun-dried brick; had two gables on its west front; and a verandah all round. A weak point in the house was, that though boarded, it was on a level with the ground. The house was not native, but of English pattern, and would pass very well for an Indian bungalow. My own room was soon put in order: and with its camp bed and washing-stand, a solid table, a deep wardrobe, my travelling-trunks, and its little fire-place, it was a cosy, comfortable den. The broad shelves of the wardrobe contained my books, clothes and instruments: and kept my papers, maps and letters within easy reach. On the top were ranged a camera, my tool-box, a small chest of tea, and a supply of English stores. Here I passed many months of pleasant toil, editing the Conference Papers, conducting correspondence, drawing maps; and holding friendly consultations with numerous visitors, who cameto talk over serious matters, or perhaps have a quiet chat over four-o’clock tea.
As in all Christian missions abroad, our family life was very simple. The meals were breakfast, dinner and tea: the English supper, as in other tropical countries, being omitted. Beef was the chief meat available; and occasionally good mutton, with the long, fat tail. Turkeys, ducks and fowls we could buy in abundance. The potatoes were moderately good; stewed peaches are a dish for a king; and peas are becoming common: but the country has few green vegetables like those of England. The Malagasy have no cakes and no bread. These are made in the mission families from flour imported either from England or the Cape. Good coffee is being grown on the island: but our tea and sugar, sauces, oils and pickles, were all imported. Good jam is made from the Cape gooseberry, well known in India, and also from the mango: but all the usual English jams were imported from home. Of eggs and milk we could obtain a good supply: and butter was made in the house; on the primitive system of shaking the milk in a bottle. The stock of rice in the markets is large: but we could not get for an English table the many finer kinds which are so abundant in India.
Our Malagasy servants were not nearly so skilful, so neat in their dress or so regular in their habits, as are servants in India. They have been under English training a comparatively short time; till recently many of them have not been able to earn money for themselves: and they have lacked the great motives to personal improvement and diligence by which the free service of India is stimulated. What curious costumes they would at timesput on! What strange cookery they would produce! What vagaries they would be guilty of! Indian servants worry their mistresses enough in household arrangements: but I am afraid that the Malagasy servants are a greater worry still. My own servant was willing and attentive; but he was not strong: and certainly he went through a great deal and travelled far in the course of my wanderings in the island. His wages were six shillings a month for service; and two shillings extra for food: and on that magnificent sum he maintained a wife and two children; kept his house in repair; and subscribed systematically to his church funds. I learned much Malagasy from him: and with occasional interpretations of difficult matters from my host and hostess, we managed to understand each other tolerably well.
Our house stood within a large garden: and the pains taken by my hostess in cultivating it were rewarded by seeing it for months together bright and gay with flowers. Many of our English flowers grew readily: but nothing could equal the coxcombs in their beauty. The flowers were enormous: we had eleven in the garden, all handsome in form and of a deep rich crimson. But one, the pride of the garden, grew to be thirty-two inches in length and eighteen inches across: and when finally cut off, close to the green stem, it weighed two pounds and a quarter. It was a truly splendid flower.
Our garden was a very practical place also. We grew English peas, broad beans, French beans, carrots, mint and vegetable marrows. We had a large number of mango-trees, which yielded a good crop of mangoes, and several bibás or loquat trees, which also gave very sweet fruit.And several cucumber vines secured a regular supply of English cucumbers.
During the rainy season, from December to April, the weather was exceedingly pleasant. The sun was hot: but the air in Imerina is thin and the heat was not oppressive or fiery, as on the coast or in the plains of India. The thermometer usually stood in the shade at 75°. Under a strange but convenient rule the storms and thundershowers rarely fell before four in the afternoon. But often during the evening they would burst with great violence: the lightning would stream in chains of molten silver all over the sky; the thunder would follow in sharp, cracking peals with a terrific cannonade; and then the rain fell in torrents. During the morning the air was exquisitely fresh and crisp and pure: the sky was a pale, delicate blue; the light was sharp and brilliant; and we could distinctly see objects many miles away, as if they were close by.
The view from the platform on which our house stood, over the plain to the northward was wonderfully beautiful. Bordered by grand hills and studded with hundreds of villages and towns, Imerina is in many respects one of the most picturesque provinces of Madagascar. Here it is gay with the bright green of the young rice: there it is shaded with the dark woods of Iláfy and Ambóhimánga. Here the great turtle-head rock of Ambátomaláza stands conspicuous in the landscape, or the lofty pillars of the Three Sisters; there are the long slope of Fándravásana, the rugged peaks of Antóngona, or the towering masses of Ankáratra. Here lie the quiet waters of the Queen’s Lake, with its little island embowered in trees; there are seen clusters of villages with their brown huts, the green rampartsof Ambóhidrapéto or the lofty amóntana of Ambóhidratrímo. It was impossible to survey this wide-spread scene without feelings of exhilaration and delight. We know the golden glory which at sunset lights up the snows of Switzerland: but nothing can exceed the sharpness of the light as it plays over the landscape in the crisp, clear air of Madagascar after refreshing rain; and no pen can describe the deep golden blush which beautifies the red hills with an unearthly radiance when the autumnal sun sinks calmly to rest. Day after day, from the terrace of my Madagascar home I looked with feelings akin to rapture upon that wondrous scene. For I saw on every side not merely material beauty, the grace of form, rich tones and tints of colour, or the bountiful supply for a people’s wants; I beheld the proofs of a young nation’s progress; new houses rising in the villages; new houses of better pattern for the wealthier classes. I saw the fortressed hills deserted for the open plain; peace, security, mutual confidence had taken the place of intestine war: I saw the new school-house and the handsome church, intelligent children and devout congregations; I saw that men were living in truer fellowship with men, because together they were striving to rise higher towards God.
The great market of Antananarivo was a place full of interest to us strangers. It is called theZomaor Friday, because it is held upon that day. It stands on the north-west of the city; on the hill which forms the outer side of the Analakely valley. It is lozenge-shaped, and its sides are about sixty yards long. It may once have proved spacious; but the requirements of the place have outgrown the accommodation and it is now far too small for its work.It is believed that thirty thousand people come into it from the country every Friday. The south side of the market extends to the public road, and there have been erected a line of booths, covering wooden platforms, which in Madagascar form the nearest approach to shops. Everywhere else there is a great absence of convenient arrangements for the display and sale of goods. A few squares of raised clay, a few wooden frames, a few large umbrellas, these are the only fittings. In most cases the traders just lay their goods on the ground on mats or a white cloth. There are also no fixed roads through and across the market-place, and it is as difficult to move through the dense crowd as through a herd of cows.
The articles sold form an excellent index of the degree of civilisation which has been reached by the people. There is a loose classification of them to be found in various divisions of the market. Firewood is brought in large quantities from the forest: but it is not large wood, it is mostly brush. Huge piles ofhérenaalso are close by, a broad-leafed papyrus, most useful for thatching: beams, boards, poles and door-posts are brought in considerable quantities: they are prepared in the forest solely by the hatchet: a noble tree makes but one board, which sells for half-a-crown; and the waste in preparing it is enormous. The principal meat sold is beef, of which there is abundance throughout the island. Good mutton also may be had, of the fat-tailed sheep; and plenty of pork, which I do not recommend. The sheep are tied together by their legs. Turkeys, ducks, geese and fowls appear in large quantities. Rice abounds, of several kinds; and is sold both cleaned and in the husk. Potatoes are provided morefor the English families than for the natives generally; and with green peas, are usually brought to their houses. Yams and sweet potatoes are abundant; and also Indian corn. Green vegetables are not common; some twelve or fifteen kinds are known and eaten by the people: but they do not form so decided an element in their food as in England. Rice is all in all to the Malagasy. There is a good supply of fruit in the market; the bananas, large and small, are good: pine-apples are abundant, good and bad; also green lemons, large, red tomatoes, mulberries, wild peaches, and a little round fruit, the Cape gooseberry. There is plenty of honey: also of tobacco, of native growth. The tobacco is sold in leaf, stalk and powder: with little snuff-mulls made from bamboo; and the people do not smoke, nor smell, but suck and eat it!
All varieties of the common native lamba appear on the stalls; whether made from cotton or from the palm-fibre; with English chintzes, printed cottons, calicoes and long-cloth: and in wearing imported dresses the natives seem to consider as an ornament the name of the English manufacturer or merchant stamped on the cloth in large blue letters. Lambas with striped borders are favourites with the natives: but there is a fashion in these things, and the fashion changes in Antanánarivo, as well as in Paris. Fine straw hats are common: they are worn by the Hovas with a broad black velvet band, and make a handsome headdress. Flimsy umbrellas with double cover, through which the sun shines powerfully, are numerous and cheap. Good mats also may be purchased, as well as coarse and common mats. Silk lambas are not exposed for sale in the market, for solid reasons: but baskets of cocoons, both yellow andwhite, may always be seen: they are small in size. Hanks and skeins of the silk are common, white, yellow and brown.
There is a good supply of iron work in the market: but it is rough and coarse. Heavy spades; nails of various sizes; hinges, locks, pincers and tweezers, hatchets, choppers, hammers and trowels, are sold in abundance, all of native work. Many articles of a superior kind, saws, hatchets, padlocks, hinges and the like, are English. Of native crockery and glass there is nothing: it is all English: and the English houses that import it seem to think that flaming patterns suit the native taste. A great deal of crockery is gradually being introduced among the people, who find dishes, bowls, plates and cups exceedingly useful. A bottle is much prized in Madagascar, as in India. The native pottery is very poor: it is ill-burnt and very brittle. Still water pitchers, jars, plates and saucers (both red and black) are brought to the market in large quantities. The potter’s wheel is not known in Madagascar, as it is in India; where excellent tiles are made on it, as well as vessels of many kinds. There is good tin ware in the market: cups, water-scoops, and blue boxes with round and flat lids. Neat wooden boxes also are sold; but they are heavy. There was one stall in the market, for lozenges and tea: and a Christian schoolmaster had one, for the sale of slates, books, pencils, steel pens, note-books and paper. Lastly there were always for sale a few slaves.
Many things that may now be purchased in the city are not brought to the market at all. Good boots and shoes are increasing in numbers: and the natives work them neatly: but the sole-leather is poor and ill tanned.House furniture on English patterns can be made to order: sideboards, wardrobes, tables and chairs, can be purchased at moderate rates. The native carpenters also produce all the fittings of schools and churches, window frames, and Venetian shutters, and doors and flooring for houses.
To me the prices of all these things were an object of constant amusement; they were so low. A lady would tell her cook to bring home from the market six-pennyworth of sirloin; and receive some five lbs. of beef as the result. I once sent into the Capital a bushel and a half of potatoes for which I paid a shilling. Common pine-apples came into the market, five hundred for a dollar, that is ten for a penny: beautiful pine-apples were a penny each: a large dishful of good mangoes cost twopence. Beams and rafters, four inches by six, and twelve feet long, would cost from sevenpence to tenpence each. We used to get forty eggs for a shilling in the city: in the country they had a fancy price and were a penny each. A large turkey cost a shilling: a fat fowl, twopence. Wages are of course low in a country like this: they are lower even than in India: but food is also much cheaper. In one district we found that sixty lbs. weight of maize was sold for threepence: rice was equally cheap and plentiful. With improvements, expenses are increasing, and prices are slowly rising: security, honesty, diligence properly demand higher wages; and they furnish in abundance those increased resources by which such wages are paid.
With increase of civilisation, production and sales there has naturally arisen an increased demand for money. The Malagasy have no coin of their own: and the want is supplied by a constant importation of French silver. Theonly coin which passes current with the people is the five-franc piece, which has the value of a dollar, i.e. four shillings. The whole piece represents what is a large sum to a Malagasy. To provide therefore for small payments the dollars are cut into halves, quarters, eighths, and smaller pieces. Some men can get six hundred pieces out of a dollar, each piece having a portion of the stamp on it. This broken money is sold or paid by weight: and every household, English or native, has its little weights and scales for the purpose. Coins of the Malagasy government, both silver and copper, of various values, will be a great improvement on this inconvenient system. But it will take time to introduce them. I learned in India that on no subject are natives so sensitive as on that of coined money.
The European community live principally in the northern parts of the city: a goodly number reside near the earliest seat of the mission in Análakély: a large group again occupy the upper part of the Faravohitra hill, among whom the Friends are conspicuous. Three of the public roads were in constant use amongst us, as they united the various houses and settlements together. The road along the top of Faravohitra going south climbs a steep part of the city-hill and terminates in the Andohalo plain. Close by its termination a road runs westward: it passes the Girls’ Central School, the Normal School and the London Society’s Press: then turns down the hill at the head of the Analakely valley, and passes the Norwegian Church to Ambátonakanga. Turning north under the walls of the Memorial Church there, it descends into Analakely, then keeps up the side of the Faravohitra hill, until it joins the first ofthe roads at the north end of that hill. I was anxious to see these three roads well paved: to see them made a model of what the city roads and paths should be. But difficulties were suggested and it was thought that the expense would be heavy. Nevertheless a good beginning would have been worth something; and I yet hope to hear that the project will be carried out. At present all the city roads are in a bad way, even at their best. At Ankadibevava, the road which enters the city on the east has a yawning gulf at its side, which would not only swallow one Curtius and his steed, but would bury a dozen enterprising young Malagasy similarly mounted. A strong stream of water from open drains pours into this gully, which year by year is growing deeper. The heavy torrents of rain which fall in a single thunderstorm cut up the ground badly wherever they are permitted to run uncontrolled. And it is because so little is done both to check them in their fall, and to repair the damage when once produced, that the city roads are in such an uncivilised condition. If once put right, they must also by constant care be kept right. But the need of that care is no reason why they should not be repaired at all.
In moving about during the day my Indian experience led me to be careful of exposure to the sun. I wore a light woollen dress: my Indian helmet of pith proved most useful; and I carried a large double umbrella. We had all to guard against the morning mists and the strong east winds: and there was a constant tendency to get chilled by changes of temperature in the pure, thin air. Such chills, I found, were far more frequently the cause of fever in our native bearers, than anything else. We walkedas much as we could without suffering fatigue: or were carried by four men, in the usualfilanzan; which is the back and seat of a chair hung on to a pair of well-fitted poles. We observed with interest that after sunset the streets of the city are completely deserted by the natives: and in moving about we always carried lanterns.
THE QUEEN’S RESIDENCE.
THE QUEEN’S RESIDENCE.
THE QUEEN’S RESIDENCE.
Beyond Andohálo, proceeding south, we rise to the highest part of the city-hill: and here in a cluster stand the Queen’s Palace and many houses of the Prime Minister and the chief nobles of the country. The Great Palace is growing a more conspicuous object than ever; owing to the verandah of stone pillars by which Mr. Cameron is now strengthening it. When finished it will be a handsome building: but it has been a heavy tax upon the people’senergies. The Queen’s residence is a smaller palace of wood just behind. Close to it is the Royal church, a handsome building also, erected after an English pattern by Mr. Pool. These various buildings have often been sketched by writers on the city; they are shown in the frontispiece to this volume; and I need only refer to them. The many improvements introduced into them in recent years, as well as into the churches and dwelling-houses in their neighbourhood, give striking indications of the great advance made by the upper classes in the island.
Our social life in Antanónarivo had few excitements. More than twenty families are now stationed in the city, connected with the different missions; and constant and most friendly intercourse takes place between them. My colleague and myself were made most welcome in their pleasant homes, and the friendship extended to us did much to lighten the burden of what would otherwise have proved a somewhat lonely life. Social gatherings frequently took place. But the most pleasant of all was the regular Friday-evening prayer meeting, held at the different houses in succession; at which thirty or forty were present; and which was felt to be a constant stimulus to spiritual life and power, where external aids were so largely wanting. Our English service on Sundays in the Andohálo school-room furnished similar help. By common consent my colleague was installed as principal chaplain during our visit: and his wise counsels and the ripe Christian experience embodied in his discourses, were not only a present help and pleasure, but will be long remembered now that he has returned home.
We all felt much out of the world in Madagascar. Tothe great world which we had left, the trade, the government, and the people of the island, are linked by very slender ties. The Malagasy know very little of foreign lands: few understand the English language and the condition and affairs of England. Those who have been to England have not felt free to tell what they saw: in former days it would have been dangerous to tell it: for to depreciate Madagascar by showing the superiority of other countries was neither more nor less than high treason. Knowledge is increasing among them; the pictures and sketches of theIllustrated London Newsand theGraphic, are teaching them many things: and the monthly periodical,Tény Soa, issued by the Mission, systematically describes many others. Perhaps it is well that, where they are so far behind the great world, the knowledge of that world should not be brought to bear upon them too fast or too far. The mass to be lifted is broad and heavy: power may well be applied to it by degrees and steadily: it is rising now and will be lifted more rapidly in due time.
Meanwhile the vis inertiæ around them exercises a most depressing influence on the English community. Its tendency is to weary out the efforts of the enterprising, to damp the spirits of the cheerful, and to produce languor in the earnest. We could not but notice this immediately when we arrived. There was a stillness in the air which was in strong contrast to the active life which we had just quitted. There seemed a want of cohesion, of the active co-operation, which we naturally looked for. The diligent were working earnestly, but alone. The stillness had doubtless been intensified by the fact that the mission were waiting for those final rearrangements, which hadbeen in preparation for some time, but the details of which had yet to be shaped out in consultation with ourselves. We also felt the influence of the quiet. The quick, electric life of London, in politics, in scientific discussion and religious thought was gone. We had only one mail a month, which at its best brought us a limited supply of news. Even this mail was irregular. The postmaster at Bourbon through whose hands the bulk of it passes, occasionally detained the mail till next time; or suddenly began charging us sixteen shillings postage on some newspaper; or was guilty of other vagaries inscrutable by an ordinary mind. We received a few periodicals, and there reached us indistinct echoes of parliamentary discussions, of startling addresses by Huxley or Tyndall; of the Indian famine, and of the revival commencing in Scotland. The mail which should have brought us intelligence of the great break-up of the Liberal Party and the election of the new House of Commons, never came at all, till its successor reached us.
Such things greatly affect the English communities abroad. Who can wonder that as years go by they fall somewhat behind the age: and that the more isolated they are, the less complete is their knowledge of the society which they quitted and their sympathy with the progress which it has made. This is a point to which the attention of English missionaries in all countries should be carefully directed. Their function and their work are of the loftiest kind. They are the sources of spiritual power to tribes and nations destitute of it. The converts and their churches look to them for counsel and instruction in regard to things present, and for stimulus and suggestionsin respect to future progress. So long as their zeal and self-denial are fresh, their enterprise will be fresh and spirited also. If they lack spring and energy, they will fall into routine; their watchfulness will give place to dullness: and continued advance will be slow, if not impossible. I used to feel these things when in India: and was glad that in a city like Calcutta the external aids to the maintenance of freshness and vigour in our work were numerous and powerful. We had frequent mails, a good supply of the latest English literature, discussions in the Calcutta Missionary Conference, and friendly counsel and co-operation not only amongst ourselves but in the different Societies. Such aids will ever be of high value, but the greatest help of all will be found in a continued and lofty self-consecration to that high aim which above all men on earth the Christian missionary professes to follow; will be found in the rule “One thing I do,” “looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of faith.”
Shortly after our return from Ambátovóry, in the beginning of January, it was arranged that aGeneral Conferenceof the English missionaries should be held in Antanánarivo, to consider the present position and needs of their missionary work in the island. The place chosen for the meeting was the Memorial Church at Faravohitra: and it was impossible not to associate the present prosperity of the mission and its consequent demands, with the uncompromising fidelity of the martyrs from which they have sprung. Mr. Pillans and I took the deepest interest in all the details of that great day of suffering, which the Faravohitra Church specially commemorates. We heard the story from men who had witnessed theevents: we trode every step of the ground which the feet of the sufferers have made evermore sacred: and from the platform on which the church stands, every spot connected with it from its beginning to its close was before our eyes. It was patiently rehearsed for us: the crowded assembly on the Análakély plain beneath: the booming of the cannon; the agitation of the people: the sentence pronounced by the judges on the noble four, of death by fire. There (we were told) they mounted the red clay road, singing: “There is a happy land, far, far away:” here they crossed the bare granite rock: there they rounded the old tombs: here they reached the weird, waste ground, whereon the brushwood was already piled. Around them were the silent crowd, that wondered and trembled but could not understand them. We stood on the spot where they died; where they died joyous, triumphant, singing and apparently without pain. In the first meeting of the Conference we sang their dying hymn: a hymn which is now used as their dismission-hymn by more than a thousand Christian congregations in Madagascar every Sabbath-day. It is always sung to the tuneMariners.
“Grant us, Saviour, royal blessings,Now that to our homes we go;Fill our hearts and lives with gladness,Make us love divine to know:Gladden us with joys of heaven,In this desert world below.“Thanks we give Thee, Holy Spirit,Who hast taught us words divine:May we learn the holy lesson,Let Thy face upon us shine:Dwell in us, enlighten, lead us,Nothing would we be but Thine.“And when earth no longer keeps us,When shall end life’s little day,Bear us to the upper heaven,Father, in Thy house to stay:Joy unspeakable our portion,There, for ever and for aye.”
“Grant us, Saviour, royal blessings,Now that to our homes we go;Fill our hearts and lives with gladness,Make us love divine to know:Gladden us with joys of heaven,In this desert world below.“Thanks we give Thee, Holy Spirit,Who hast taught us words divine:May we learn the holy lesson,Let Thy face upon us shine:Dwell in us, enlighten, lead us,Nothing would we be but Thine.“And when earth no longer keeps us,When shall end life’s little day,Bear us to the upper heaven,Father, in Thy house to stay:Joy unspeakable our portion,There, for ever and for aye.”
“Grant us, Saviour, royal blessings,Now that to our homes we go;Fill our hearts and lives with gladness,Make us love divine to know:Gladden us with joys of heaven,In this desert world below.
“Grant us, Saviour, royal blessings,
Now that to our homes we go;
Fill our hearts and lives with gladness,
Make us love divine to know:
Gladden us with joys of heaven,
In this desert world below.
“Thanks we give Thee, Holy Spirit,Who hast taught us words divine:May we learn the holy lesson,Let Thy face upon us shine:Dwell in us, enlighten, lead us,Nothing would we be but Thine.
“Thanks we give Thee, Holy Spirit,
Who hast taught us words divine:
May we learn the holy lesson,
Let Thy face upon us shine:
Dwell in us, enlighten, lead us,
Nothing would we be but Thine.
“And when earth no longer keeps us,When shall end life’s little day,Bear us to the upper heaven,Father, in Thy house to stay:Joy unspeakable our portion,There, for ever and for aye.”
“And when earth no longer keeps us,
When shall end life’s little day,
Bear us to the upper heaven,
Father, in Thy house to stay:
Joy unspeakable our portion,
There, for ever and for aye.”
The Conference commenced its sittings on Tuesday, January 13th, and with a brief interval sat till Thursday, the 22d. There were present during those sittings some sixty members, including the missionaries of the Friends’ Association, our brethren in the country stations of Imerina, and two brethren from the Betsileo. One half the members were ladies, who took much interest in the discussions, and attended the meetings with great regularity. The daily devotional service proved very pleasant and profitable to all. The harmony that prevailed was delightful; the discussions were active and lively: the papers read were full of information, and the conclusions reached were all but unanimous.
I need not enter into detail respecting the important questions considered during this Conference. There were six points, however, lying at the very centre of the present system of operations, on which considerable advance was made, to which I must make brief reference.
a.In Education, it was desired that the Theological Institution should take men for short courses as well as the long, full course; that it should be enlarged so as to be a “College” for general instruction, with good English classes; and that the best congregational schools should teach English to their topmost classes in order to feed it. Great anxiety was expressed to improve the congregational schools.
b.It was resolved, that it would improve Pastoral and Episcopal work, to concentrate it more fully at certain points; to establish a good Central Station in every district, with three or four Sub-Centres: that it would be well to make preaching at those centres more full and systematic; and to have Bible Classes, few but taught with great regularity.
c.New districts in the country were desired on all hands: and that the men appointed to them should leave the capital and occupy them without delay.
d.Great anxiety was evinced to watch over the admission of members to the native churches; by firm discipline to reduce the present excessive numbers; to enlighten the churches as to their responsibilities; and to improve the present forms of worship.
e.While desirous to secure the voluntary gifts and willing service of the churches, as hitherto, the Conference were fully of opinion that the local gifts are not sufficient, and the true zealous Christians are not numerous enough, to sustain the well-trained evangelists and native missionaries needful for the mission; and that additional money help is needed from England, to be employed on the healthy conditions laid down by our Directors.
f.All were anxious that the mission should seriously take up new work at definite points among new tribes, as the churches also need an outlet for their zeal.
There yet remained to apply our discussions to the actual improvement of our own mission in detail. Hence naturally followed a District Committee Meeting, which with its sub-committees, sat five days. The meeting was a thoroughly good one and got through a great amount ofsolid work. The brethren in many respects placed the mission in Imerina on a broader basis than before; they adopted some important principles as elements of the system on which it shall be instructed; and they agreed so to locate themselves in country stations, as both to spread their influence over a wider area, and to make the labours of each co-operate with the efforts of all around him. And now that the Directors in London have carefully reviewed, extended and confirmed their recommendations, the great purpose had in view in the recent enlargement of the Madagascar Mission, and the fuller scale of expenditure for which the Society’s friends made provision, will speedily be carried into effect.
The Conference meetings were concluded with a little entertainment to which Mr. and Mrs. Pillans and myself invited all the members. It was held in the Andohalo school-room and proved a great success. Tables, tea-trays and crockery were willingly lent on every hand; the ladies of the various missions were exceedingly kind, both in superintending previous arrangements, and aiding the tea at table: our English stores proved most serviceable and popular. In addition to the sixty members of Conference, we had present six of the principal officers of Government, and seven of the chief native ministers: we were seventy-eight in all. After our little feast was over, we had some capital speaking and some good singing, for about three hours. The native guests liked this part of our entertainment extremely; at their own feasts they simply eat for a couple of hours or so and then go home. But here there was much cordial fellowship; the singing was inspiriting; the speaking dealt with lofty topics and was full of lifeand power: they were quite stirred by it and did their own part well. Eloquently did Andriambelo contrast the present with the “dark days” gone by. And heartily did Ravonináhitriniarivo (the head of one of the recent expeditions) express his thanks to their friends “over the sea” for the great things which they had done for Madagascar.
Soon after these consultations an event occurred which threw strong light on the inner life of the people generally and on the religious feelings and principles lying below its surface. After long waiting there arrived in the capital a consignment of the reprint of the Malagasy Bible, just prepared by the British and Foreign Bible Society. It proved a neat, handy volume, and there were six thousand copies. Looking at the value attached to a shilling by the Malagasy, it was resolved to sell the Bible for that sum. The people were greatly excited by the news of its arrival: the Depository was besieged by applicants from the Queen downwards: and in a fortnight they were gone. Mr. Grainge felt sure that if he had had six thousand more, every copy would have been sold. Many of these Bibles were purchased by people in the capital for their friends in distant parts of the country.
In the four churches erected in memory of the Christian martyrs, and on the places where they were put to death, the Directors and friends of the Society in England have taken a deep interest. In that interest my colleague and I heartily shared, and it was a peculiar pleasure to us to visit these buildings and to hear over again from the lips of preachers and friends the story of the fidelity and the suffering of which they are a memorial. Our first Sabbathservice in Antanánarivo was in the Ambátonakánga church in the centre of the city. We joined the meetings of the Congregational Union of Imérina in the church at Ambóhipotsy. The general Conference was held at Fáravohitra. And we were privileged to share in the opening services of the church at Ampamarínana which was completed during our visit. All these buildings are of stone; they are great ornaments to the city; and they do great credit to the three gentlemen who have superintended their erection. They are much admired by the natives: and they have exercised a most powerful influence in stimulating those improvements in building, which have distinguished the city during the last ten years. A fifth Memorial Church, which will render the list complete is now in course of erection. The Norwegian Missionaries have also erected a large church near Ambátonákánga, with a highly original spire. But these are not the only churches of importance in the city. So far as the congregations are concerned there are five other churches whose members are as numerous and influential as these: while in the immediate suburbs some five or six more exist, whose congregations are large. Including the Royal Chapel in which there is now a fully organised Christian Church, there are not less than sixteen churches in the city, which have sprung from the Mission and gather large congregations of sincere and faithful worshippers every Sabbath-day. All the principal families of the Imerina province are directly or indirectly connected with them: while others will be found in the churches of Náméhana, Ambohimánga, Ambátománga, and other flourishing towns: and there are two congregations even in the old idol town of Ambohimánambola. Nonecan look upon the great transformation which the city and province have undergone in recent years without exclaiming “What hath God wrought?”
The fourth Memorial Church was opened (as I have said) during our visit: and we held it a high privilege to share in the public services held upon the occasion. The 28th of March 1874, was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the terrible occasion on which the four nobles had been burned at Faravohitra, and fourteen others had been thrown over the cliffs of Ampamarinana: and it was resolved formally to open the church at the latter spot and dedicate it to purposes of public worship on that day. The church which, with the rocks beneath, appears in the frontispiece, is a handsome building; the campanile tower stands well out at the north-east corner, and the wheel windows with their stained glass add much to the beauty of the interior. Large congregations gathered to the services both on the Saturday and on the following day: and the people manifested the deepest interest in them. Indeed on the Sunday afternoon the church was crowded to its utmost. Many members of the martyrs’ families were present. Others were there who had seen them carried along the road. One was present who had officially shared in their condemnation. These faithful witnesses whom nothing daunted, whose peace nothing could disturb, occupied the first place in every one’s thought; and their fidelity, their patient endurance, the uses of suffering and God’s blessing on faithfulness were the topics made specially prominent in our addresses, hymns and prayers.
The treatment of the matter in these public services required care: and the members of the ruling family hadmany fears respecting it. The Queen is a Christian: the principal nobles are Christians: they could not but admire with us the principle and the faith of the sufferers whose death that day brought to mind. But the persecutor, through whose stern attachment to the national idols the martyrs had lost their lives, was the present Queen’s aunt, and was her predecessor on a throne, whose edicts have always been regarded by the Malagasy with profound respect. It could not but be painful to the Queen to hear that anything hard or harsh was spoken of her aunt, even on so sacred a matter as this. We felt the difficulty: and from the high regard in which the Queen and those around her are held, it was agreed that scarcely any reference should be made to the chief mover in the sorrows of the past: but that we should dwell prominently if not exclusively upon the martyrs themselves. The course pursued was privately reported to the authorities by some who were present at the services: and evidently gave them satisfaction. So great is the revolution in the nation, so completely has the rule of the idols and diviners passed away, that the injustice and the mistakes of the wrongdoers may well be forgotten and forgiven. As if to teach us this lesson, during the last few years, the rocks over which the sufferers were thrown, have been thickly overgrown with dense masses of the prickly pear cactus. And while their ashes rest in peace under the shadow of the Memorial Church, and the grass is green upon their grave, myriads of scarlet flowers bloom above the rocks once stained with their blood, and cover them with a mantle of beauty fresh from the hand of God.
CHAPTER VI.THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE OF MADAGASCAR.
CHAPTER VI.THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE OF MADAGASCAR.
CHAPTER VI.
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE OF MADAGASCAR.
The East Coast of the Island—The West Coast—Travels of M. Grandidier—Maps of Madagascar—Mr. Cameron’s Survey—Additions made by us—Size of Madagascar—The Mountain-mass along its centre—Terraces on all sides—The Malagasy people a single race—Their Three Tribes and their Sub-divisions—The Malagasy not an African race—Their Malay origin—Evidence supplied by their Language—New Words from Arabic, French and English—Reference to Madagascar by Marco Paolo—Early Navigation of the Eastern Seas very extensive—Phœnician, Hindu, Chinese and Malay—Madagascar colonised by Malays—Three independent Movements—Traditions of the Hovas—Their Arrival in Imerina—Conquest of the Vazimba—Increase in Imerina—Their recent History—Ralambo and his Descendants—Impóin and his consolidation of the Kingdom—Radáma—State of the Country, of Social Life and of the Sakalava Tribes in his day—The people still a federation of tribes—Their Institutions—Their steady growth in Civilisation, as well as in Religious Character.