‘As troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way.’—Hosea vi. 9.

The French Protestants took a great interest in our work, and rose to the occasion, and came to the rescue of Protestantism in Madagascar in a noble way. The interest in foreign missions on their part, and on the part of French-speaking Switzerland, has been of the greatest service to their churches. It has been a means of blessing to them, and revived what was dying out under the ‘dry rot’ of Rationalism, Unitarianism, and Infidelity. The income of the Paris Missionary Society has risen during ten years from £15,000 to £45,000! Much of the money was given at first from motives of sentiment and patriotism, doubtless in the interests of ‘our latest colony,’ and the spread of the French language; but much also was given, and has been continued, from the highest and purest motives.

The Paris Society sent out a deputation to confer with us, see the work, and report on it. Then the late devoted and lamented Pasteur B. Escande came out to take charge of the portion of the work which the Paris Society took over, until reinforcements should be sent from France. During two years twenty-two missionaries were sent out to help us to save Protestantism. They did a noble work in taking charge of our 800 village schools and saving them from the enemy. They worked remarkably well under the rather peculiar circumstances in which they were placed. They were handicapped in ways that British missionaries had never been: their nationality, the time of their arrival, following as it did in the wake of the army, the conduct of their compatriots, their connexion with the government—for they in common with the Jesuits received a government subsidy—these all tended to hinder their usefulness. They could not speak the language, and had to work with the aid of interpreters—a most unsatisfactory way of doing mission work. Fever too struck down some of them very quickly. Three couples were invalided home during the first two years, another couple the year after.

Their local president, his wife, and an unmarried missionary had to be recalled. Two of their best men (Pasteurs Escande and Minault) were basely and barbarously murdered. Most of them were very friendly and brotherly with us of the London Missionary Society at the first; but pressure of some kind, from some quarter, seemed to have been applied, and they drew off from us, and became less friendly, until their directeur, M. Boegner, came out to visit the mission, and greatly helped to put things on a more satisfactory footing. Some who had brought letters of introduction to us from friends in France, and were most friendly at first, cut us afterwards when they met us, from fear or prejudice, or for some unknown reason.

There is a temptation to all young missionaries and ministers to forget that other men have laboured, and they have entered into their labours, and are reaping what they have sown. They are prone to underestimate the labours of their predecessors. Most of the young French Protestant missionaries ignored all that had been done by the London Missionary Society and its agents, in a way that was hardly in keeping with Christian courtesy or creditable to their Christian profession. We felt very hurt by their conduct, because it was so different from what we had expected, judging from the behaviour of the deputation sent out from Paris, and of M. Boegner, the secretary of the Society. It is only fair to them, however, to say that they may have been, and very likely were, deeply disappointed with the state of things they found in some of the districts handed over to their charge; partly, perhaps, because they had expected too much.

Three of those districts were the furthest behind, and most unsatisfactory in the island. The largest of them had been for years under the thraldom of five or six Palace Church evangelists, which meant Christianity by coercion. When they were removed the people returned—and they had not a long journey—to their old heathenism. The rising, the doings of the Jesuits, and the feelings generated while under coercion, brought them into a condition which was worse in many respects than their original heathen state.

On the morning of Sunday, Feb. 28, 1897, the capital was startled by the news that the queen had been arrested the previous evening, and carried off into captivity during the night. The plea afterwards advanced for such a harsh measure towards a helpless and inoffensive woman was that her presence in the island prevented those who had risen against the French from surrendering. This step was severely censured in France by the best and most merciful of the French people; but they were unable to prevent it.

‘The last and crowning act in the annexation of the island by the French was the deportation of the queen to Bourbon. Though it is impossible for those who knew her best to believe that she was in any way implicated in the rebellion, it seems certain that the rebels made use of her name as a battle-cry. The presence of a sovereign, moreover, in a French colony was an anomaly which sooner or later would have to disappear. Rànavàlona III, like her predecessor, had always had the interests of the people at heart, and was in entire sympathy with the educational and religious work carried on in the island. All detractions notwithstanding, she will be remembered as a good Christian queen, but one who, unfortunately, was under the influence of ill-advisers among her courtiers and relatives. And so she passed away into private life with a character unsullied, and in her retirement she doubtless enjoyed, though an exile, a peace and a freedom which formerly she could have scarcely experienced.

‘The following is the translation of an extract from the proclamation published by General Gallieni at the time of her banishment:—

‘“Since the government of the Republic has declared Madagascar a French colony, royalty has become useless in Imèrina. I have therefore invited the queen to resign her functions, and, at her request, have authorized that she retire to the island of Bourbon, where she will receive the greatest hospitality from the French authorities. The last few months have shown you what the words ‘Madagascar, a French colony,’ mean. They signify that France is henceforth the sole sovereign power in Madagascar, and that it cannot share its power with any one. It alone is mistress over the entire island. They signify also that France will bring to you its civilization, and will endeavour to introduce among you the principles which govern it, that is to say, justice, peace, and equality for all[34].”’

The evening before the queen was arrested it was reported, that about 7.30 a French officer was seen to enter the palace yard, along with the arch-traitor. They were joined there by a Malagasy connected with the government press. The three entered the queen’s private house, and sent in to inform Her Majesty that an officer from the Governor-General wished a private interview with her. She received them in her private apartments. The officer informed her that he had been sent to communicate a message of the gravest importance to her, and handed a paper to the Malagasy printer to read. The paper was an order for her arrest, and informed her that she was to be exiled to the island of Réunion, as a political prisoner, giving her four hours to pack her things and prepare for the journey! Unless she was ready to start by that time, she would be removed by force.

The Malagasy printer had not been in the secret, and hence had no idea what the paper contained. He read it until he came to the part in which Her Majesty was ordered to prepare in four hours for exile. Then the whole purport of the paper flashed upon him. He faltered, began weeping, and finally broke down so completely that he could not proceed with his task. The arch-traitor had to take the paper, and finish his treacherous work, by reading to his sovereign, to whom he had sworn allegiance, the order for her banishment from her fatherland and kingdom!

The queen was so thunderstruck by the order, that she failed at first to realize its meaning; but when she did, she threw herself at the feet of the officer, it was said, and grasping his legs begged for mercy. He informed her that he had no power to alter a word of the order, his instructions were simply to see it carried out. She then wanted to go to the General and appeal to him for mercy; but was told that that could not be allowed. She then became violently hysterical, laughed and cried by turns, and, afterwards sinking into a sullen and sulky mood, she refused to prepare for her journey or give instructions for preparations to be made.

In the meantime, when the order for Her Majesty’s banishment was made known to the members of her household, there was great consternation; but some of them recognized the inevitable, kept their heads, and began making preparations for the journey. As the hour fixed for departure drew near, and the queen still remained obdurate and refused to move, the officer informed her that, ready or not ready, when the hour came she would be put into her palanquin; and this was what had to be done.

Rànavàlona III was committed to the care of another officer and carried away into exile. Thus the queen was hurried out of her capital during the darkness of midnight to a life of exile. And why? What had she done to deserve such treatment? Nothing whatever; absolutely nothing, except that she was the lawful sovereign of an island, which the French coveted and determined to appropriate. For notwithstanding that it was in a great measure through her own folly that her kingdom was lost (in following traitorous advice, and refusing to follow the counsel of her husband, the prime minister, or to give him a free hand); yet she had a passionate love for her fatherland, as most Malagasy have, and would rather have lived in poverty and obscurity there, than anywhere else in the world. Poor queen! hers has been a hard fate. Like Pomare, the late Queen of Tahiti, she was robbed of her lovely island home, treated as a captive, and will in all likelihood die an exile.

The murder of Pasteurs Escande and Minault was a great shock both to the European and the native communities. Pasteur Escande had been nine months in the capital with us, and had greatly endeared himself to all. Pasteur Minault had not been six weeks in the island. He had been appointed local president of the Paris Mission in Fianàrantsòa in the Bètsilèo country, and Pasteur Escande was accompanying him south to see the mission there, and get him properly settled. After this M. Escande was to return to France, and to his own work in Senegal; for he had only come out to Madagascar as a temporary substitute. He had seen and known more than any other European of the persecution of the Protestants at the hands of the Jesuits, knew more about the wholesale shooting of Protestant pastors than any one else, and had saved more from being shot than all the rest of the community. He was about to return to France, and intended to make known there what had been going on. It looks as though some were determined to prevent this at any cost.

It was reported in Europe at the time, that Pasteurs Escande and Minault had been murdered by fàhavàlo (enemies), and this was quite true. But the enemies were not the so-called rebels, or brigands, ordinary fàhavàlo. Among the seven men tried, found guilty, and shot for this murder, there were only two known bad characters, who had been among those who had murdered the Johnsons. The other five were Malagasy officials—a village governor, his secretary, a village schoolmaster, and two other officials. The schoolmaster had actually received them into his hut in the village, had spread clean mats for them, had procured white rice for them, and had then gone off to inform the others, who were in waiting a little south of the village, of their arrival. In the European community there was little doubt as to who compassed their removal, and among the natives there was none whatever. Strange to say, some of the Malagasy knew that certain Europeans were to be killed that day, although few probably knew who they were. That some of them did know is perfectly certain.

The two pasteurs were murdered on a Friday afternoon, at a place some sixty miles from Antanànarìvo. The news did not reach the capital till the Sabbath morning. On the Friday afternoon, about six o’clock, a native called at the house of Dr. B., and asked Miss A., who was in charge of it, if Dr. and Mrs. B. were among the Europeans that were to be killed that day. Miss A. was horrified at the question; asked the man what Europeans were to be killed, and where. But he could not tell; he only knew from others that there were Europeans to be killed somewhere to the south that day, and, knowing that Dr. and Mrs. B. had gone south, he wanted to know if they were safe.

How did that man come to know that there were Europeans to be killed in the south that day? It was quite impossible that he could have heard of their murder an hour and a half after it took place, some sixty miles away. He himself belonged to the Norwegian Mission, and hence his anxiety to know if Dr. and Mrs. B. were safe. It was afterwards found out that he had relatives and friends who were factotums in another mission. A Jesuit priest near Betàfo told his people the Sabbath before that troublers were coming to that part of the country, but God would meet them and stop them! How did he know that, and why did he mention it?

After their murder Pasteurs Escande and Minault were blamed by the French état major for not having asked for an escort; but they did ask for one, and were informed that there was no need for one, as there were no fàhavàlo (rebels) in that part of the country. This indeed was quite true. It came out at the trial that the murderers had surrounded the hut in which the two pasteurs had slept the previous night, but as it was not known whether they had firearms, they were not attacked.

I had a long talk with Pasteur Escande’s horse-boy after their murder, and from what he told me I felt quite convinced that if either of them had possessed firearms, even if they had never used them, their lives would have been saved. He told me that they were fired at several times by the murderers with old flint-locks—old Malagasy government guns. They were such bad shots that they could not hit the horse even at a hundred yards! The bearers threw down Pasteur Minault’s palanquin at the first shot, and bolted, as they knew the Europeans had no firearms. The murderers drew nearer, and kept on firing. At last Pasteur Minault was hit and fell, and when these ruffians saw they had no firearms, they rushed on them and dispatched them with their knives. The horse-boy caught Pasteur Escande’s horse—he had dismounted when he saw his friend fall, and gone to his assistance—mounted, galloped off, and gave the alarm.

Madame Escande published a selection of her husband’s private letters to her while he was in Madagascar, under the title ‘Nine Months in Madagascar.’ The first edition was sold out in a short time, and all who wish to understand the condition of Madagascar at this time should carefully read this book.

A change gradually came over the policy which had been pursued towards us and our adherents up to this time. The eyes of the General had been opened to the true state of affairs, and to the fact that we were missionaries pure and simple. About the same time, the Jesuits received rebuffs they little expected. They had received a check from even the government of M. Milne. A letter was sent them by the colonial secretary, reminding them that the law for the expulsion of the Jesuits from France had not been repealed, and that as Madagascar had become a French colony, and so a part of France, if they did not alter their tactics and behave better, it might be applied to them even in Madagascar, and they would be expelled.

The late action of the government of M. Waldeck-Rousseau with regard to the Jesuits and other Roman Catholic institutions in France was another blow to their influence and power even in Madagascar. This has been followed up by the action of the present government, so that while the work of all the Protestant missions is flourishing, the Roman Catholic Mission does not flourish. There are fewer adherents, and the Jesuits have less power to-day than they had before the war. The Malagasy have had their eyes thoroughly opened with regard to them and their aims. For this the Jesuits have themselves to blame. Boasting of their services to France in procuring the new colony of Madagascar, they have alienated the good will of the natives, whom they have taught to regard them as the robbers of their fatherland. Of course the Jesuits were furious at the proclamation of religious liberty.

The Directors of the London Missionary Society sent out in 1897 the foreign secretary of the Society, the Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson, and Alderman Evan Spicer of London, L.C.C., as a deputation to visit Madagascar, to have an interview with the General, and to talk over the situation and the work of the Society. The result was most satisfactory. The change that had gradually been coming over the spirit of the General’s policy before their arrival was still more apparent after their advent. The deputation were able to save the girls’ central school for the mission, to lead the General to understand, as he had never done before, the ends and aims of the Society’s work, and to convince him that the Society had no connexion whatever with the British government, and had no ulterior motives for being in Madagascar. They were able to get the fullest concession of religious liberty for all London Missionary Society agents, and the contract has been faithfully carried out, while the General shortly afterwards wrote to H.B.M. consul acknowledging, and even praising, the good work that had been, and was still being done in the island by the Society’s agents.

On our return from our first furlough in 1882, we had been greatly disappointed at not being allowed to return to our old station in Vònizòngo; but after the severe way in which we had both suffered from fever there it was not thought advisable. Instead we were located in the capital. Some had always had the greatest anxiety to get located there, and never rested until they were. We, on the other hand, never felt drawn towards it as we did to our old home. Still, as years went on, it became plainer to us that there was work for us to do in the capital, some of it of a kind that I could not have done in Vònizòngo. By giving up my evenings mainly, and most of my spare time, to desk work, I was able to prepare and publish a number of translations, compilations, and books I had written, as I could not have done at Fìhàonana.

In 1883 I was able thoroughly to revise the third edition of my translation of the Shorter Catechism, with proofs. I published my Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, Religious Tales and Anecdotes, Scientific, Monumental, and Historical Illustrations of the Truth of the Old Testament Scriptures; A Digest of the Books of the Bible with Notes; The Life and Times of Razàka, Pastor at Fìhàonana; A Short History of the Scottish Covenanters; A Short History of the French Camisards; Booklets I and II, The Children’s Portion; a translation of Hodge’s Outlines of Theology; and Dr. John Laidlaw’s Foundation Truths of Scripture with regard to Sin and Salvation; and When the fullness of Time was come, and other Sermons, being the eighth small volume of sermons, the series representing 60,000 copies of ninety-six sermons.

During our last year I had to undertake the editorship of the Malagasy monthly, Good Words. This was done to save it from extinction, and as no one else would do it. During that year I was able to do the magazine some service, if in no other, from a commercial point of view. I persuaded our own people connected with the mother-church and country district of A-kànga to take 650 copies a month; the Paris Missionary Society missionaries to take 500, and others to push the circulation among theirs, and thus the circulation rose from a thousand to nearly four thousand monthly.

All these books, and also the magazines, were printed on paper granted by the Religious Tract Society of London. During the last thirty years that Society has made liberal annual grants of printing paper, and occasional grants of electrotypes to the missionary press in Madagascar. This timely aid has greatly assisted the important work of building up a Christian literature for the Malagasy.

It was of great encouragement to note the progress of our people during the time we had known them. They had grown in grace and in the knowledge of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and had been building themselves up in their most holy faith, by adding to their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge the graces that go to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, and by a life and conversation becoming the Gospel. There had been some sad changes in these later days—by the rising some 500 village churches had been more or less destroyed. A large number of villages had been burned, many pastors, evangelists, and church members had lost their little all, and some their lives. A large number of the people were carried off captive to the rebel camp, where they were kept prisoners, some of them for nearly two years. Some few escaped, some were shot for attempting to escape, while others were ransomed by their relatives.

When the rising had been put down, the captives returned to their homes, and the first thing they did was to re-thatch or rebuild their own huts and then their village churches. They recommenced their Sabbath services. Many had met for worship within the roofless walls of their old buildings for months. The children were gathered into the day-schools again. They sent on to me for Bibles and hymn-books, to replace what the rebels had torn up, or burned, and during three months I sold to the people of one section of our country district 300 Bibles and 500 hymn-books.

The people who returned from captivity came back in a state of absolute destitution. And it refreshed one’s heart to witness the way in which the Christian people of the A-kànga district received them and helped them. They made collections of money, manioc, rice, clothing, &c. for them. They helped to dig and prepare their rice-fields—a thing that many of them, poor creatures, were far too weak to do for themselves. They helped them to rebuild or re-thatch their huts and churches, and in many ways showed such practical sympathy with them in their distress as won the hearts of numbers of the merely nominal adherents to Christianity, and outsiders, for they said: ‘If this is a sample of the fruits of the “New Religion,” it must be a good thing.’

In stating how these young Malagasy church members behaved towards their fellow members and others in their distress, I am but making known the grace of God bestowed on them. They had had great trials themselves, had suffered much, and had been robbed by the heathen rebels. Moreover, many of them who were formerly affluent had been reduced to poverty by the abolition of household slavery. But still they rose to the occasion in a way that was eminently to the credit of their Christian profession. Their zeal was an object-lesson such as many have never witnessed before; a great contrast to the selfishness of heathenism to which they had been accustomed. Many were thus led to take a much deeper and kindlier interest in the ‘New Religion.’

I managed to engage a very clever young fellow, a French corporal, and a Bachelor of Science, who was freed from military duty, to teach French in the A-kànga High School for Girls. He came to our house two afternoons a week to read French with me. We read through the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistle to the Romans together. When we came to the account of the Crucifixion in the Gospels, that young fellow broke down, burst into tears, and weeping, said: ‘Was it really like that?’ I asked, what? When he answered: ‘The Crucifixion of our Lord.’ ‘Have you never read about that before?’ I asked. ‘No,’ he answered, ‘I have not; for I have never seen a Bible before in my life until I saw this one of yours!’ As I have mentioned, that soldier was a Bachelor of Science, a German scholar, and a fair English one, and yet he had never seen a Bible in his own or any other language before. He was a Roman Catholic, but by no means a bigoted one.

When any of the French Protestant missionaries preached for me at A-kànga, he was always there to hear them, and seemed to enjoy their discourses very much. When he told me that he had never seen a Bible before I said I would be very pleased to make him a present of one if he would accept it. He said he would only be too delighted to get it. I gave one to him and also to his companion. I often asked him if he read his Bible, and he said he always read it at night, when he could find it; but he explained that he could not always find it, as his comrades, when off duty, took it, read it, and were deeply interested in it. He told me that they thought that we British missionaries could not be such bad men as the Jesuits said, or we would not give such good books to the ‘niggers’ to read. They thought, of course, that it was vain and foolish labour, as nothing could ever be made of the ‘niggers’! I afterwards gave my friend a copy of a small volume of Mr. Spurgeon’s sermons in French, and some other booklets; and I heard from him several times after he left the island.

Some time after the war and annexation of the island, a consignment of Malagasy New Testaments was sent out by the British and Foreign Bible Society. They were being passed through the custom house, in the presence of the Society’s agent. The late Malagasy government had allowed all copies of the Bible into the island duty-free; but the French authorities demand duty on them. One of the French officers took four copies out of one of the boxes. The agent asked him why he did so, and he answered: ‘To have them translated to see that there is nothing in them against the French!’

In a sermon once I told of an old friend of mine in Scotland, who, I said, made clothes for Jesus Christ. One of my local preachers present was very much impressed by what I said, and he retold what he had heard, when preaching in one of the village churches in the neighbourhood of the capital. A shoemaker, a member of that church, was struck by what he heard, it seems, and said to himself: If that European tailor can do his work for Jesus Christ, why can’t I do mine for Him; if he can make his clothes for Him, why can’t I make my shoes for Him? and he determined he would.

Some months afterwards he called on the local preacher and told him the following story. He said: ‘I have been a church member for some years, but it never struck me that my religion should have any bearing on my daily work. I thought if I went to church twice on the Sabbath, and to the Communion once a month, gave a little money to the collection, and read my Bible and prayed sometimes, that was all that was required of me. But that story you told of that European tailor has impressed me, and threw such a flood of light upon my duty as a Christian man, that I at once saw that I had been all wrong in the past, and that I ought to do all my work for Jesus Christ.

‘Formerly I used to buy the cheapest leather and thread I could get, rush home, make my shoes as quickly as possible, and then off to the market to sell them for as much as I could get—my only anxiety being to get as much money as I could, and as quickly as possible, however badly my work was done—that did not trouble me at all. That story, however, quite startled me; I saw how mistaken I had been, and what my duty was for the future; and I determined to do all my work for Jesus Christ, and I have done so. I now buy the very best leather and thread I can find, and I put the best work I can into all the boots and shoes I make. I make them now just as if Jesus Christ had ordered them, and was standing by watching how I made them, and waiting to put them on as soon as they were finished. I don’t make so much money by my work as I did formerly, but I am very much happier, and the people are coming to know the kind of boots and shoes I now make, and I have as much work as I can possibly do. I can’t preach or teach, but I can make boots and shoes; and that I do as well as ever I can for Jesus Christ’s sake, and in the hope that in that way I may adorn the doctrine of God, by a life and work such as will do credit to my profession of Christianity.’