SOME three hundred miles off the eastern coast of South Africa, from which it is separated by the baffling Mozambique Channel, and between the parallels of 120 and 260 south latitude, lies the Island of Madagascar. Its length from north to south is

a little more than a thousand miles, with an average breadth of about two hundred and twenty-five miles; the area being about 230,000 square miles-more than twice that of the Island of Great Britain. If we consider Australia to be a continent, Madagascar will be in size the second or third island of

the globe, being exceeded only by Borneo, and, perhaps, by the double Island of New Guinea or

Papua. The present population of Madagascar is estimated at 2,500,000; but there is little doubt that formerly it was fully twice as great. In any case, it has always been, as it now is, thinly peopled.

In one respect Madagascar possesses for us an interest beyond that arising from its area and population. If we except the Hawaiian Islands, it is the only considerable part of the earth's surface any large proportion of whose native inhabitants have, during the last five centuries, abandoned Paganism for Christianity. It

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Minister, were baptized; and there is good reason to believe that before the close of the present century the great mass of the people will have become, at least nominally, Christians. The story of the planting of Christianity in Mada

is within the bounds of truth to say that, within the last ten years, more apparent converts from Heathenism to Protestant Christianity have been made in Madagascar than in all the rest of the world for a quarter of a century. Not quite ten years ago the Queen and her husband, the Prime VOL. IV. No. 6.-41.

gascar, and the persecutions to which the early disciples there were subjected, is one of absorbing interest. Before we come to this, we must touch briefly upon the general features of the island and its people.

From time immemorial Madagascar has been visited by Arab and Persian traders, by whom it was called "Serendib" or "Magaster." From these traders the credulous old Venetian, Marco Polo, who flourished six centuries ago, received marvelous stories, which he duly noted down. Thus

he says:

"A thousand miles southwestward from Sokotera is Magaster, one of the greatest and richest isles of the world, three thousand miles in circuit, inhabited by Mohammedans, and governed by four old men. The people live by traffic, and sell great stores of elephant's teeth. They feed on camel's flesh, as most delicious of all other. Much ambergrease is driven here upon the shores. The island abounds with wild beasts, such as lions, camelopards, wild asses, and other game. Silks, cloth-of-gold, and other rich goods, are brought hither from foreign coun

tries. Vessels seldom sail southward to any of the numerous islands except this and Zenzibar, by reason of the violent currents, for there is no returning northward; and the ships, which from Malabar make the voyage in twenty or twenty-five days, are three months going back. At a certain time of the year there comes hither from the south a wonderful bird, called the Rukh, like an

eagle, but so large that it takes up an elephant in its claws, and, soaring aloft, kills him by letting him fail, then feeds upon him. His wings, when spread out, extend fifteen paces; the feathers being eight feet long and proportionately thick."

The open-eared old Venetian was never himself within several hundred leagues of Magaster. Quite likely he was more or less imposed upon by his informants; and not impossibly he added from his own fancy to the accounts which he actually received; or at least intermixed in his narrative many things which belonged to quite different regions. Thus, the Mohammedan population of the island, and the four old men who ruled it, are probably pure myths. It is, moreover, quite certain that elephants, lions, giraffes and camels never existed in Madagascar, although from its neighborhood to the African coast one might have expected to find them there. But the story of the Rukh-the most marvelous of all-is not in some respects without incidental confirmation. We are told in the "Arabian Nights" that it was in Serendib that Sinbad the Sailor found that wonderful valley of diamonds, from which he was rescued by a Roc. It is quite true that the name "Serendib" was also given to the island of Ceylon, and some grave authorities will have it that Sinbad's diamond valley must be looked for in that island, if anywhere. But Marco Polo clearly thought otherwise; for it is in "Magaster" that he locates his Rukh, and he clinches his statement by the averment that the Great Khan, whose court he actually visited, once sent a messenger to Magaster, who returned bringing back with him an actual feather of the Rukh, "which measured ninety spans in length, the barrel having a circumference of two palms." It is also quite certain that birds, of a size far exceeding anything which we now know to be living, once lived in Madagascar. Some fossil remains have been discovered there, consisting of the bones of the foot and fragments of an egg, six times as large as those of the ostrich. To this probably extinct bird naturalists have given the name of Diornis, "Terrible Bird," and declare it to have been something like the ostrich, only much larger. But if a bird, of such size, were really taloned and pinioned "like an eagle," although it might not have been able to carry off an elephant, it would have been quite competent to have rescued our friend Sinbad.

Leaving the domains of ancient myth, we come to those of actual history. Lorenzo Almeida, brother of the Portuguese Viceroy of the Indies, was the first European who sighted the Island of Madagascar. He sailed past it in 1602, and named it St. Lawrence, in honor of his patron saint. Six years later a company of Portuguese landed on the island, of which they took formal possession in the name of the King of Portugal. This idle ceremony has subsequently, at various times, been gone through by the French, Dutch and English; but as yet no European Power has acquired any large and permanent foothold there, although its manifold attractions were, from time to time, loudly heralded. Thus, in 1644, Master Richard Boothby, a London merchant who had visited Madagascar, published an account of what he had seen, or wished it to be believed that he had seen. He averred the island to be one "which without question, far transcends and exceeds all other countries in Asia, Africa and America, planted by French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish; and it is likely to prove of far greater esteem to any Christian prince and nation that shall plant and secure a sure habitation there, than the West Indies are to the Kingdom of Spain." He goes on, in flowery terms, to compare Madagascar with the land of Canaan, "that flows with milk and honey," and describes it as 66 a little world of itself, adjoining to no other land within the compass of many leagues or miles; the chief

paradise this day upon earth "; and much more to the like purport.

Passing over various attempts made by Europeans, between 1642 and 1825, to plant colonies in Madagascar, we touch upon an incident, in 1696, which, although apparently trifling in itself, has in its results some special interest for us. In that year a Dutch brig bound from Bombay to Charleston, South Carolina, was so long becalmed in the Mozambique Channel that provisions ran short. The skipper accordingly put into a port in Madagascar to replenish his supplies. He obtained good store of rice, and proceeded on his long voyage. When he reached Charleston a few quarts of rice still remained, which he presented to Thomas Smith, the Governor of the Province. The grain was found to be so excellent, that the idea struck the Governor that it might be worth while to find out whether or not it could be cultivated in the Carolinas, and he gave portions of it to several of his friends. A few seeds planted in a garden, in what is now the heart of Charleston, sprang up. The new plant found a soil and climate even more congenial than that of its own native country. From this small beginning grew up the great rice-culture in the Carolinas and Georgia, the product of which is incontestably the finest in the world.

About this time, or perhaps a few years later, the bays of Madagascar became the haunts of the pirates and buccaneers, who lay in wait for the richly freighted India merchantmen of all nations. Our own Captain Kyd made his chief resort at one of the Comoro Islands, just off the northern end of Madagascar, and the ruins of a fort which he built there still exist. In time the French and English broke up these piratical haunts. But some of the crews escaped inland, where they ingratiated themselves with the petty native chiefs, and before long established a system of slave-hunting not unlike that which now exists throughout Southern Africa. Before many years slave-hunting came to be the chief occupation of the people near the coast. The forests were filled with man-stealers, and every house of a chief was converted into a trap. A chief would invite his neighbors to a feast at his house, just before which a huge pit was dug, slightly covered over with a frail floor. The hapless guests fell into this pit and were sold to the awaiting slave-traders. The islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, then in possession of the French, were the chief markets for the slaves from Madagascar; and it was commonly believed that the slaves were sent there to be eaten by the European cannibals. A high hill is still known as the "Weeping-place of the Hovas"; for it was from this point that the captives on their way to the coast caught their first glimpse of the ocean over which they were to be borne.

Madagascar is certainly very far from being the terrestrial paradise pictured by Master Richard Boothby. Of the interior our knowledge is even yet but scanty. Several travelers have landed at Tamatave, the principal port on the eastern coast, and thence made their way to Antananarivo, the capital, some one hundred and fifty miles in the interior. Mr. Ellis in his four visits to Madagascar, between 1853 and 1861, saw little more of the island than that between those two points. In 1873 the Rev. Dr. Mullens, Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society, went to Madagascar and remained a twelvemonth at and near the capital, and made some trips into the adjacent districts. M. Grandidier, a Frenchman, spent the years between 1865 and 1870 in Madagascar, and traveled quite extensively. He has, however, as yet published only a meager account of his explorations, but promises a complete narrative, which will extend to ten or twelve volumes For the present we must rely almost solely upon the four large volumes of Mr. Ellis, and the small one of Mr. Mullens.

The

In general it may be said that, with the exception of a moderate strip of coast land, the island is mountainous. Several ranges run parallel to each other nearly through the whole length of the island. The central and loftiest chain, which is of igneous origin, though there are now no active volcanoes, has an average height of some 4,000 feet, with summits of 8,000 or 9,000 feet above the sea. plains and the lower slopes of the mountains are mostly covered with dense forests, generally so thickly grown up with underwood as to be almost impenetrable. One of the most common trees of this region is the famous "Travelers' Tree," a picture and description of which are given in the SUNDAY MAGAZINE for January, 1877. Except in the immediate vicinity of the capital, there are no roads. Wheeled vehicles are of course absolutely unknown, and there are no beasts of burden. All transport, whether of goods or persons, is performed by means of porters. Travelers, even between the coast and the capital, are borne in palanquins. And not unfrequently the path is so difficult that, as the Bishop of Mauritius found a few years ago, the traveler is obliged to quit his palanquin and make the best of his way on foot.

The people of Madagascar, called collectively by Europeans the Malagasy, appear at first sight to consist of two quite distinct races-the olive-colored and the black. But the similarity of the language spoken by all induces those best qualified to judge to believe that, with some slight admixture of Arab and negro blood near the coast, the Malagasy all belong to one kindred stock, of Malay origin. They are, however, divided into three tolerably well-defined tribes: the Hovas, occupying the northern portion of the central plateau; the Betsimisarakas, on the eastern coast and hill-slopes; and the Sakalavas, who hold the broad plains of the western coast. The Hovas, in their various divisions, have within a century come to be the predominant race, and are now supposed to comprise fully two-thirds of the entire population. In color they are a light olive, not darker than the people of Southern Europe; their hair is black, but soft, straight, or sometimes curling. In stature they are, as a rule, considerably below the common European standard, but erect, lithe, and muscular. The Sakalavas and Betsimisarakas are quite as dark as the majority of the African races; their features, though somewhat flat, are regular, and their hair is black, crisped or curling. In stature they considerably exceed the Hovas.

The cor

The native costume is neat and simple. It consists, for the males, of the salaka, a piece of cloth a yard wide, and twice as long, fastened around the loins and passing under the body, the end in front reaching to the knees. responding garment of the females, called the kitanga, is considerably broader and longer; it is passed around the body just below the breasts, the ends reaching nearly to the feet in front. Over this both sexes wear the lamba or mantle, a piece of cloth usually three or four yards long and twice as broad. It is worn over the shoulders in loose folds, falling nearly to the ankles, the ends being drawn together in front. The men usually adjust it so that it hangs mainly from the left shoulder; the women from the right. Of late, however, European costumes, not always of the very latest fashion, have come into vogue among the higher classes.

Antananarivo, the capital of the Hovas, and the only considerable town on the island, has a population of about 75,000. Its name, according to Mr. Ellis, signifies "The Thousand Towns." Its aspect is striking. In the centre of a large, almost treeless plain, four thousand feet above the level of the sea, rises an irregular, rugged hill two miles long, with three main summits, the loftiest having a height of eight hundred feet above the plain. The illustration

on page 648 represents the city as it appeared in 1856, the date of Mr. Ellis's third visit. The highest summit is crowned by the royal palace, built of wood, sixty feet high, with a double veranda, and a lofty roof, not unlike our own familiar Mansard roofs, having three rows of projecting dormer-windows. It is surmounted by the gilt figure of a huge bird with outstretched wings. By its side are the similar but lower palaces for various members of the royal family. Below this, clinging to the sides of the hill, tier above tier, are the houses of the people, almost uniform in size and structure, all with high, thatched roofs. The drawing was made when the Prince Royal-—afterward the unfortunate King Radama II.—and his family were setting out in procession to his country house, a few miles distant. This royal progress, which is characteristic of Madagascar, is thus described by Mr. Ellis :

"The procession occupied fully half a mile. There were a dozen or more officers on horseback; the horses, though not wellgroomed, being strong and spirited. There were fourteen palanquins, ornamented with variously colored drapery. When the procession moved, eight or ten officers on horseback led the way, and others rode by the side of the palanquins. Then came the officers of the palace, in palanquins or on foot; and after these the Prince's band of nineteen musicians, preceded and followed by two officers with drawn swords. Then came the Prince's palanquin, with three or four officers walking on each side with drawn swords. Next came the Princess, her palanquin covered with scarlet cloth, ornamented with gold lace, and bordered with rich gold fringe, the inside being lined with pink satin. By the side of the Princess a man carried a large umbrella of pink silk, surmounted with a gilt ball; and immediately behind her palanquin a dozen or more female slaves, clothed in broad-striped blue and white cotton lambas. Four other palanquins followed with the ladies-in-waiting or attendants on the Princess. After them a few officers, and then the crowd."

North of the palace is Imahamásina, the "Place of Consecration," the Champ de Mars of Antananarivo. This is a natural amphitheatre capable of holding fully 80,000 people. In the centre of this rises a huge granite boulder upon which no one save of royal blood may set foot; upon this boulder the Hova sovereigns are crowned. On the western side of the palace is what may be called the Place of Justice, a piece of level ground on the crest of the hill, where the laws are usually promulgated. Close by it is Ampamarinana, the "Place of Hurling," a precipice sinking sheer down a hundred and fifty feet, over which great criminals were hurled. This spot is hallowed for evermore by the blood of many a Christian martyr.

Since 1869 significant changes have taken place in the aspect of the capital. The lofty wooden royal palace has been surrounded and strengthened by a veranda of stone pillars, which render it a still more imposing structure. Near it is the private residence of the present Christian Queen regnant, Ranaválona II., a pretty wooden structure, the counterpart of which may be seen almost everywhere in our country. The lofty cliff of Ampamarinana is crowned by a fine church erected as a memorial to the martyrs. This church and its surroundings is shown in the illustration on page 619. It was formally dedicated on the 28th of March, 1874, that being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the day upon which fourteen Christians were hurled down the rock, and four others burned close by. This is the fourth Memorial Church which has been erected in the capital.

The history of the introduction of Christianity into Madagascar, and of the persecutions which ensued, is of singular interest. Within the space of a single generation, and in our own days, there have been enacted on a smaller stage all the essential scenes of the great persecutions under Nero, Domitian, and Diocletian. The English Protestant martyrs who were burned under Mary, and the

Catholics who were hanged under Elizabeth, have their representatives among the Malagasy; and it would seem that the establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire through the conversion of Constantine is likely to have its parallel in Madagascar by the conversion of Queen Ranavolána II.

Toward the close of the last century King Iamboasaláma ascended the throne of the petty Hova Kingdom of Imerina. He made war upon his neighbors, whom he subjugated right and left, even down to the coast. Assuming the name of ImpoinImarina, "The Desire of Imerina," he established his capital on a hitherto uninhabited hill, to which he brought conquered subjects from all parts of his dominions. He died in 1808, and was succeeded by his son Radama, a youth of sixteen. The young mon arch extended still wider the bounds of his dominions, and was soon considered the sovereign not merely of Imerina, but of nearly the whole island of Madagascar.

The French from Mauritius and the Isle of Bourbon made some attempts upon Madagascar; but Radáma only laughed at them. "I have two generals," he boasted, "General Forest and General Fever, in whose hands I can safely leave any invading army." Still, he was well pleased when in 1810 Mauritius fell into the hands of the English; and when in 1816 the British Governor sent an embassy to him, the envoy was gladly welcomed, and he even sent his two young brothers to be educated under the eye of the Governor of Mauritius. He agreed to abolish the slavetrade upon condition that the English would annually supply him with a certain quantity of firearms and ammunition, two horses, and a complete suit of fine clothes for himself. He also induced an English officer to remain with him to instruct his soldiers in European tactics. The subject of Christian missions was broached; and to these Radáma had not the slightest objection. He sent a letter to

out by your Society have no. other object than to enlighten the people and show them the means of being happy after the manner E of European nations, I request you to send me as many mission

aries as you may deem proper, together with their families, if they desire it; provided that you send skillful artisans to make my

people workmen as well as Christians. The missionaries who are particularly required at present are persons who are able to instruct my people in the Christian religion, and also in various trades, such as weaving, iron-working, carpentering, and the like."

The Missionary Society had long had its eye upon Madagascar as a field of labor; and in 1818 two Welshmen, David Jones and Samuel Bevan, were sent thither, each being accompanied by his wife and child. Unfortunately, they established their station upon the unhealthy coast, where they were attacked by fever, and in a few weeks all were dead except Mr. Jones, and he was obliged to go to Mauritius to regain his exhausted strength. But his heart was upon the work to which he had been called, and in 1820 he returned to Madagascar, going straight to the capital, where he was warmly welcomed by Radáma. Before long he was joined by David Griffiths, like himself a Welshman. These two men were the pioneers of Christian missions in Madagascar.

A little later two other ordained missionaries, two mis

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sionary printers, and six skillful mechanics, were sent out, and to their combined labors is due much of the immediate success which attended the enterprise. Livingstone's cardinal idea, that for the success

established; the language was first practically reduced to writing, although the Arabs had long before expressed Malagasy words, after a fashion, in the cumbrous Arabic

characters, and Radama had already learned to read it. Before ten years had passed a Grammar and Spelling book had been compiled; the whole Bible was translated

and printed; and there were fully fifteen thousand native youth, many of whom were converts, who were able to read their own copious and flexible language.

Radama, as long as he lived, was a firm friend of the missionaries, although he never became even nominally a Christian, or abandoned the superstitions of his fathers. But he had a keen appreciation of the material benefits accruing from the work of the missionaries and artisans. In 1825 there was a public examination of the schools. Radama was present, and made a speech to the pupils. "The knowledge which you are gaining," he said, "is good-good for trade." And good for Radáma too; for as in Madagascar the labor of all men is the property of the sovereign, he had now at his command several thousands of men more or less instructed in such useful arts as ironworking, tanning, carpentering, and building.

Radama died July 27th, 1828, at the age of thirty-six. For some time his death was concealed from the people. He had no living son, and it was believed that he had named as his successor his nephew, Rakátoba, who was strongly inclined toward Christianity, and his accession boded ill to the ancient heathenism. Of what followed we know only the chief results. Two days after the

CARRYING A LOAD.