

MADAGASCAR. 



601 



asalama, the really legitimate heir, and the 

 known exponent of the late queen's policy, 

 sought to murder the young prince, Rakoto, 

 the voice of the people was so strongly in fa- 

 or of the latter, that he was, with but slight 

 'position, proclaimed king, under the title of 

 daina II. His first measures were such as 

 win general approval. He did not put his 

 val to death, as custom among the Hovas 

 ould have justified him in doing, but cou- 

 nted himself with banishing him to his estates, 

 e proclaimed toleration of all religions, and 

 e free admission of foreigners into the king- 

 om; made treaties of commerce with Eng- 

 d and France ; encouraged schools, and pro- 

 ibited the tanguin, and seemed destined to 

 :new and improve the golden days of the 

 :ign of Radama I. But his best friends saw 

 ith pain that his intemperate habits were fast 

 nslaving him, and that under their baneful in- 

 uence he was developing a disposition to cru- 

 ty and superstition, which had not hitherto 

 en supposed to belong to his character. The 

 venturer Lambert was still a boon compan- 

 on, and had been created by him Duke of Im- 

 ana, and he had gathered around him a body- 

 ard of young debauchees, mostly his early 

 iociates, who were named mena-maso or 

 'redeyes," from the pretence that excessive 

 atchfulness in the king's interests had in- 

 flamed their visual organs. These young men 

 were from the southern portion of the island, 

 d were a different race from the old coun- 

 llors of Radama L, and thus the jealousy of 

 te was added to the prejudice to which their 

 epraved conduct gave rise. Early in the year 

 strange epidemic, akin to the tarantulism 

 f the middle ages, the convulsionary excite- 

 ent in France, or the jerks of Sweden and 

 ,pmark, a few years since, broke out in the 

 ,pital and the adjacent provinces. The per- 

 affected leaped, danced, howled, saw vis- 

 ns, and heard voices from the invisible world ; 

 ey brought to the king messages from his 

 other and from the late king, and announced 

 him that if he did not stop the praying, some 

 eat calamity would befall him. Radama II., 

 hough at first incredulous, soon gave heed 

 these professed revelations, collected the 

 nvulsed persons at his palace, sought to 

 'mmunicate with the dead through them, 

 :d demanded that they should receive idol- 

 .trous honors as they passed through the 

 reets. Under the dictation of these fanat- 

 cs, and the mena-maso, the king now began 

 :o entertain the idea of arresting the pro- 

 'ess of Christianity, by assaulting a number 

 if the Christians and the leading statesmen 

 who were opposed to him on political grounds. 

 On the 7th of May he announced to his minis- 

 ters that he was about to issue a decree, that 

 if any person or persons wished to fight with 

 fire-arms, swords, or spears, they should not be 

 prevented, and that if any one were killed the 

 murderer should not be punished. This was 

 something more than the recognition of duel- 



ling ; it was a declaration of civil war, with a 

 promise of immunity to all who took part in it. 

 The object of this strange decree was to protect 

 the perpetrators of the intended assassinations 

 from punishment. The ministers, after a day's 

 deliberation, came to the palace and besought 

 him, on their knees, in the name of the people, 

 not to issue the decree, but he insisted on doing 

 so. Finding all remonstrance vain, they with- 

 drew, and the foreigners having left the capital, 

 the officers and chief men met at the prime 

 minister's to concert measures for compelling 

 the king to change his purpose and give up the 

 mena-maso to punishment, for it was universally 

 believed that this was one of their projects. A 

 list of thirty-three of these dissolute young men 

 was drawn up ; ten of them were seized and 

 executed, and most of the remainder made their 

 escape to the stone house, a portion of the 

 king's palace. The officers sent envoys to the 

 king demanding the revocation of the decree 

 and the surrender of these favorites. Seven 

 times they presented these demands, and seven 

 times were refused; at last, terrified at the 

 gathering storm, he yielded in part, consenting 

 to surrender his favorites on condition that 

 their lives should be spared, and that their 

 only punishment should be perpetual imprison- 

 ment; but the concession came too late. The 

 mena-maso were seized and marched away to 

 be executed the next day, and the next morn- 

 ing the king was strangled by the conspirators. 

 The throne was offered to the queen with a 

 written constitution, by which she was to be 

 bound in ruling the nation. If she consented 

 to accept this, she would be their ruler; if she 

 declined it, it would be offered to another, and 

 her fate could hardly be doubtful. After re- 

 ceiving some explanations she gave in her ad- 

 herence to the new form of government, and 

 took the oath to observe the constitution. The 

 nobles then said : "We also bind ourselves by 

 this agreement: if we break it we shall be 

 guilty of treason, and if you break it we shall 

 do as we have done now." The constitution 

 was then signed by the queen, and by the prime 

 minister as the representative of the nation, and 

 Rabodo I. was proclaimed Queen of Madagas- 

 car. 



Rabodo is a niece of the late queen Rana- 

 valana, and it is said was, like her aunt, in favor 

 of persecuting the Christians. She is represent- 

 ed as a woman of great energy of character, 

 and though she pleaded earnestly for the preser- 

 vation of the life of the king, and to prevent 

 bloodshed, she had not. been on good terms 

 with him for some years. Another wife, a 

 slave, was his favorite, but he had threatened 

 to kill her if she became a Christian. 



The constitution thus summarily adopted as 

 the organic law of the nation, is a singular 

 document, but evinces a more extended knowl- 

 edge of constitutional governments than most 

 of the Hova nobles could well be supposed to 

 have possessed. One of its first articles is 

 that " her majesty shall not drink intoxicating 



