The introduction and perpetuation of the Christian religion in Madagascar has been attended with vicissitudes, hopeful, discouraging, and finally permanent. The Catholics were the first to attempt to gain a footing on the southeast corner of the island. A French mission settled and commenced to instruct the natives in the Roman Catholic faith, and maintained a mission in spite of many discouragements for twenty years, and then came to an end. Protestants who a century and a half later carried the Gospel to Madagascar found it virgin soil. They found a people without a written language or knowledge of the Christian faith. Both in their literary and evangelical labors they had to revive a work that was not dying out, but to start de novo, and the London Missionary Society had to seek its own way to carry out its objects.

The men to whom it appears that the Madagascar people are indebted for their written languages and the first translation of the Scriptures were two Welshmen.

David Jones and David Griffiths—these two men were the pioneers of Protestant missions in Madagascar—the first in 1820, the second a year later. The main strength of these early missionaries was devoted to educational work, in which they were vigorously supported by King Radama I, and Mr. Hastie, the British agent. Besides this they began very early to make a translation of the Scriptures, and in ten years after the arrival of Mr. Jones in Antananarivo the first edition of 3,000 copies of the New Testament was completed, in March, 1830. At this time much progress had been made in the translation of the Old Testament. The account of the completion of it is interesting. Soon after the death of King Radama I, in 1828, the missionaries saw clear indications of the uncertainty of their positions; ominous clouds began to gather until the storm burst.

The edict of Queen Ranavalona I against the Christian Church was published March 1, 1835. A portion of the Old Testament translation was uncompleted. The missions were deserted by their converts, and they could procure no workman to assist; so with trembling haste they proceeded with their task, and at the end of June they had joy in seeing the first bound copies of the completed Bible. Most of these were secretly distributed, and seventy remaining copies were buried for safety in the earth—precious seed over which God watched and which in due season produced a glorious harvest. The translators were driven away, but the book remained. Studied in secret, and at the risk of life, it served during more than a quarter of a century of persecution to keep alive faith in the newly received religion; for, during all this time, to use the familiar native phrase, "the land was dark." At its commencement Queen Ranavalona (the Queen Mary of Madagascar), with all the force of her strong will, set herself to destroy the new religion. "It was cloth," she said, "of a pattern she did not like, and she was determined none of her people should use it."

The victims of her fury form a noble army of martyrs, of whom Madagascar is justly proud. The causes that led to the persecution are not far to seek. On the one hand, they were intensely conservative, clinging to ancestral customs; and on the other hand, a suspicious and jealous fear of foreign influence. The zealous work of the missionaries was believed by many of the Queen's advisers to be only a cloak to conceal political designs. The teachings of the foreigners were proving so attractive that their chapels were crowded, and the influence of this new religion was making itself felt in many families. Whither would all this lead? Was it to pave the way to annex the island to the English Government? The word "society" to a native ignorant of English would suggest a phrase of their own which sounds alike, viz: "sosoy-oty"—"push the canoe over this way." This to the ingenuous or suspicious mind of the hearers suggested the idea of pushing over the Government of Madagascar to those across the ocean who were supposed to be greedily seeking to seize it. This is seemingly absurd, but not too ridiculous to obtain credence with a people excited and suspicious.

The former King Radama showed his shrewdness in giving permission to the missionaries to reside in his country, for he expressly stipulated that some of them should be skilled artisans, so that his people might be instructed in weaving, smith-work, carpentry, etc. To this the society wisely assented, and a number of Christian artisans were sent out. The influence of these were of immense value, and to them is to be attributed much of the skill of the Madagascar workman of today.

There is no doubt that the manifest utility of their work did much to win for the mission a measure of tolerance from the heathen rulers of the country. One of the missionaries with great mechanical skill, in his "Recollections," states that Queen Ranavalona in 1830 was beginning to feel uneasy about the growing influence of foreign ideas and wished to get rid of the missionaries. She sent officers to carry her message, and the missionaries were gathered together to meet the messengers, and were told that they had been a long time in the country and had taught much, and that it was time for them to think of returning to their native land. The missionaries, alarmed at this message, answered that they had only begun to teach some of the elements of knowledge, and that very many more remained to be imported, mentioning sundry branches of education, among which were Greek and Hebrew languages, which had already been taught to some. The messengers returned to the Queen, and soon came back with the answer: "The Queen does not care much for Greek and Hebrew. Can you teach how to make soap?" (And if cleanliness is akin to godliness she was evidently groping in the right direction.) This was an awkward question to address theologians; almost as much so as "Do you know enough to come in out of the rain?" to some college graduates; but after a moment's pause Mr. Griffith turned to Mr. Cameron and asked him if he could answer it. "Give me a week," and it was given, and when the messengers again met at the close of the week a bar of tolerable good white soap, made from materials found in the country, was presented. This was entirely satisfactory, and the manufacture of soap was forthwith introduced, and is still continued to the present day. This bar of soap gained the missionaries a respite of five years, the Queen tolerating their presence on account of material advantage derived from the work of the artisans. In believing that industrial training, the knowledge to make things in demand, was the first necessary step for the elevation of her people, the Queen was eminently correct.

During the fifteen years (from 1820 to 1835) the mission was allowed to exist it was estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 children passed through school, so that when the missionaries were compelled to leave the island there were thousands who had learned to read, and thereby raised far above the mass of their heathen fellow-countrymen.

Dark Days—January, 1835, a formal complaint was presented to the missionaries by one of the Queen's officers against the Christian religion under six different heads. Excitement increased and opposition to the new teaching grew bolder. The Queen, in passing a native chapel and hearing singing, was heard to say: "They will not stop till some of them lose their heads."

On the first of March, 1835, the edict publicly prohibiting the Christian religion was delivered in the presence of thousands of people who had been summoned to hear it. The place of meeting was a large open space lying to the west of the long hill on which the city of Antananarivo is built, and large enough to contain two or more thousand people. In the middle of the plain crops up a large mass of granite rock, on which only royal persons were allowed to stand; hence probably the name "Imohamosine," which means "having power to make sacred." There from time to time large public assemblies have been held, but never one of greater significance or of more far-reaching issues than that. Of this great "kabary," or meeting, notices had been sent far and wide. All possible measures had been taken to inspire the people with awe and to make them feel that a proclamation of unusual importance was about to be published. Queen Ranavalona seemed anxious to make her people feel that her anger was burning with an unwonted fury. It is stated that morning had scarcely dawned when the report of the cannon intended to strike terror and awe into the hearts of the people ushered in the day on which the will and power of the sovereign of Madagascar to punish the defenseless followers of Christ was to be declared. Fifteen thousand troops were drawn up, part of them on the plain and the rest in two lines a mile in length along the road leading to the place. The booming of artillery from the high ground overlooking the plain and the reports of musketry of the troops, which was continued during the preparatory arrangements, produced among the multitude the most intense and anxious feelings. At length the Chief Justice, attended by his companions in office, advanced and delivered the message of the Sovereign, which was enforced by Ramiharo, the chief officer of the Government. After expressing the Queen's confidence in the idols, and her determination to treat as criminals all who refused to do them homage, the message proceeded:

"As to baptism, societies, places of worship, and the observance of the Sabbath—how many rulers are there in the land? Is it not I, alone, that rule? These things are not to be done. They are unlawful in my country," said the Queen, "for they are not the customs of our ancestors."

As a result of this "kabary" 400 officers were reduced in rank and fines were paid for 2,000 others, and thus was ushered in a persecution which lasted a quarter of a century.

The Rev. William Ellis, on English missionaries, in his book entitled "Madagascar Revisited," states that the first martyr for Christ who suffered there in 1836 was "Rosolama." She was a Christian woman, between twenty and thirty years of age, bearing no common name, for Rosolama signifies peace and happiness. She was imprisoned at Ambotonakonga, the site of the first house built exclusively for Christian worship in the country. A memorial church has been erected on the spot. When brought to the place she knelt down and asked a few minutes to pray. This was granted, and then her body fell, pierced with the spears of her executioners.

The second martyr, Rayfarolahy, a young man, suffered on the same place some time after. At the request of Rosolama when she was taken forth to death he had walked by her side to the place of execution and offered words of encouragement to her to the last. When brought to the place himself the executioners seized him and were about, as was their custom, to forcibly throw him down, he said to them calmly, "There is no need to do that; I will not cause any trouble." He also asked to be allowed to pray, and then gently laid himself down and received the executioners' spears. The measures taken to destroy Christianity were not at all times equally severe. The years that stand out with special prominence are 1835, 1837, 1840, 1849 and 1857. Of what took place in 1840 was depicted at the time in a letter written by Rev. D. Griffiths, who was then residing at Antananarivo. The nine condemned Christians were taken past Mr. Griffiths' house. "Ramonisa," he says, "looked at me and smiled; others also looked at me, and their faces shone like those of angels in the posture of prayer and wrestling with God. They were too weak to walk, having been without rice or water for a long time. The people on the wall and in the yard before our house were cleared off by the swords and spears of those leading them to execution. That we might have a clear, full and last sight of them, they were presented opposite the balcony on the road and at the entrance of the yard for about ten minutes, carried on poles by the executioners, with merely a hand breadth of cloth to cover them, they were then led away to execution. The cannon fired to announce their death was shattered to pieces, and the gunners' clothes burnt, which was considered ominous, many whispering 'Thus will the kingdom of Ranavalona Manjaka be shattered to pieces.'"

In 1849 what may be called the great persecution took place; not less than 1,900 persons suffered persecution of various kinds—fines, imprisonment, chains, or forced labor in the quarries. Of this number 18 suffered death, four, of noble birth, by being burned, and 14 by being thrown over the great precipice of Ampomarinona. It is not easy to estimate exactly the number of those who suffered the punishment of death in these successive outbursts of persecution. It is most probable the victims were between seventy or eighty. But these form only a small portion of the total number of sufferers. Probably hundreds of others died from their heavy irons, chains, or from fevers, severe forced labor, or privations during the time they were compelled to hide in caves or in the depths of the forests.

Notwithstanding the severe persecution much quiet Christian work was carried on in the lulls between storms—sometimes on hilltops, sometimes in caves, or even in unfinished tombs. Thus the story of the Covenanters was repeated, and the impossibility of destroying the Christian faith by persecution again shown. Through these long years of persecution the Christians were constantly receiving accessions to their ranks, and the more they were opposed "the more they multiplied and grew."

The year 1861 will ever be a period from which date results momentous in behalf of civil and religious liberty for the Negro. It was the beginning of the end of Negro slavery in the United States and the permanent establishment of religious freedom in Madagascar. Queen Ranavalona had a long reign of thirty-three years, but in that year it became evident she could not reign much longer. Natives give details of her last days. The aged Queen had for some time been suffering in health; diviners had been urgently consulted, charms and potent herbs had been employed, with no avail. Late in the summer of 1861 it became generally known that the fatal moment could not long be delayed. Mysterious fires were said to be seen on the tops of mountains surrounding the capital, and a sound like music was rising from Iatry to Andohalo. The Queen eagerly questioned those around her as to the meaning of these portents. But while the dying Queen was anxiously praying to the idol in which she placed her trust, there were those who whispered to the prince that the fire was the sign of jubilee to bring together the dispersed, and to redeem the lost, and so the event proved.

The aged Queen passed away during the night of August 15, 1861, and early on the morning of August 16 the news spread rapidly through the capital, and her son was proclaimed as Radama II. One of the first acts of the new sovereign was to proclaim religious liberty. The chains were struck off from the persecuted Christians and the banished were recalled. Many came back who had long been in banishment or in hiding, and their return seemed to friends who had supposed them to be dead like a veritable resurrection.

The joy of the Christian was intense. The long season of repression had at last come to an end. Now it was no longer a crime to meet for Christian worship, or to possess Christian books. On that first Friday evening some of the older Christians met and spent the night in prayer, and Sunday services were begun in eleven private houses; but these were soon consolidated into three large congregations. Radama II eagerly welcomed intercourse with foreigners and gave Christians permission to write at once, urging that missionaries be sent out, himself writing to the London Missionary Society making the same request. The society responded promptly with a large band of men and women missionaries, twenty or thirty thousand copies of the Bible, New Testament and tracts.

The result of three-quarters of a century of Christian work in Madagascar has been that the Christian religion has taken firm hold on the people. Manifest and noticeable are the number and prominence of church buildings in and around the capital. There are four stone memorial churches, built by the friends of the London Missionary Society to remind coming generations of the fidelity of the martyrs, and a very fine and well situated Roman Catholic cathedral in Ambodin Andaholo. Prominent as Christian agencies in Madagascar are "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," who sent out Bishop Kestel Cornish and James Coles; "The Norwegian Missionary Society," "The Roman Catholic Missionary Society," and "The Society of Friends in England."

To summarize, approximately there are now 110 foreign missionaries on the island; over 2,000 congregations, with a total of 400,000 adherents, which include 100,000 church members; while the Protestant schools contain 150,000 children. No statement of the Christianizing agencies and influences would be just or correct that did not include that of the Roman Catholic Church. "No one," it has been truly said, "can be long in Madagascar without learning to admire the self-denial, patience and heroic fortitude with which its work is carried on." It has been thus fittingly described, a few years ago, by an English visitor: "In 1861, when Catholic missionaries landed on the shores of Tamatave there was not a Catholic on the island; but little by little, by dint of unwearied labor, suffering and preaching, they won over not hundreds but thousands of pagans to the love and knowledge of our Lord and His truth, so that their pagan converts number over 130,000. They have built a magnificent cathedral, which is the glory and pride of Antananarivo. They have also 300 churches and 400 or more Catholic stations scattered over the island, where 18,000 children are taught and trained by a large and elevated staff of Christian brothers and sisters of St. Joseph, and 641 native teachers. They have also created industrial schools, where various trades are taught by two devoted brothers, Benjamin and Arnoad, and at Ambohipo they have a flourishing college for young Malagash. They have also on the island four large dispensaries, where thousands of prescriptions are distributed gratis to all who seek to relieve their sufferings. They have also established a leper hospital at Ambohivoraka, where the temporal and spiritual wants of 150 poor lepers are freely administered to, and have already opened another such establishment, in Betsilio land. Prison visitation, dispensing rice, clothing, and spiritual instruction to half-starved and naked prisoners under the Madagascar rule; their catalogue of books devotional, literary and scientific; a dictionary, all of which have been edited and published in the Madagascan language, are among the golden contributions for civilization by the Catholics in this far-off island continent in the Indian seas."

In referring to their labors, and to which, comparatively, I have made but brief reference, Mr. Cousins says: "To much in the Roman Catholic system we may be strenuously opposed; but to their zeal, their skill, their patience, their self-denial, we render the homage of an ungrudging admiration."

The foregoing were the labors and results of missionary effort up to the date of the French taking absolute possession of the island. It is to be hoped there will be no retrograde movement lessening the efficiency of these civilizing agencies. Although it is alleged that French control and influence in Tahiti and other South Sea islands have been averse to both morality and evangelical Christianity, and hence there are not wanting those who predict incumbrances in missionary work, now French authority is established. But in this age of progress along all the lines of human endeavor the French Government will undoubtedly see the justice and utility of governing with a regard to the advancement of these wards that the prowess of its arms have committed to its care. It is not unreasonable to expect, and the promise should be flattering, that with the European ideas of the proper functions of government, the incipient steps for the mental culture of the natives, present evidence of large expenditure and introduction of the most modern applications for the physical development of the island, the Madagascan people will attain in the future a higher degree of human advancement from contact with the civilization of the French than it was possible they could have under "Hova rule." And in this connection it is gratifying to note that "The Native Race Protection Committee," headed by Mr. Paul Viollet, of the Paris Institute, in June, 1899, addressed an appeal to the Colonial Minister in behalf of the Malagash, entreating him to shorten the forced labor, to reduce the taxes, and to annul decrees, which greatly re-established slavery.

The appeal dwelt on the fearful mortality occasioned by forced labor on the roads, which threatened to reduce the most robust population of the highlands as to de-bar colonists from commercial and agricultural enterprises, and very pertinently asks "Is it not better to be without roads than without a healthy population?" The appeal also denounced arbitrary acts. "The native," it is said, "is arrested and imprisoned for months without a trial, and this with all the less forbearance, as the prisoner is always utilized as an economic laborer." The justice of this appeal and prompt reception and accord with the French conscience was evidenced in the public announcement to the natives by Gen. Gallieni, the Governor of Madagascar, a few months later, that forced labor would be discontinued after January 1, 1900, and thereafter they could work for whom they pleased, and if for government they would be paid wages agreed to.

It is needless to say that this proclamation was received by the natives with tumultuous rejoicing. Forced labor is now abolished, and the natives rejoice in a jubilee from a servitude the most galling.