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MADAGASCAR. 



M 



MADAGASCAR, a kingdom, coextensive with 

 the island of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean, 

 east of Africa. The rights of sovereignty over 

 Madagascar and the adjacent islands were con- 

 ceded by letters patent of the French Govern- 

 ment to a French commercial company called 

 the Eastern Company when Cardinal Richelieu 

 governed France. Since then many attempts 

 have been made by the French to make them- 

 selves the military masters of the island. 

 French traders and missionaries were successful 

 in gaining the confidence of the people and es- 

 tablishing relations with them. In 1816, when 

 France ceded Mauritius to Great Britain, the 

 island of Reunion was retained in order to 

 guard the historical rights over Madagascar. 

 When the French trade in the South Seas dwin- 

 dled, Americans and Englishmen obtained a pre- 

 ponderant share of the trade of Madagascar, and 

 Congregationalist missionaries from Great Brit- 

 ain supplanted the French Jesuits. They were 

 favored and encouraged by the Hova Govern- 

 ment, which since the conquests of Radama I, 

 in the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 has claimed dominion over all the tribes of the 

 island. When the European powers began the 

 scramble for Africa the French Republic found 

 it necessary, in accordance with the new princi- 

 ples laid down in regard to sovereign rights over 

 uncivilized countries, to render more effective 

 its historical protectorate over Madagascar. A 

 naval force was sent, in 1883, to enforce the 

 French claim to a protectorate over the Saka- 

 lava country in virtue of a treaty made with its 

 chief in 1841, and to punish the Hovas for vari- 

 ous wrongs alleged to have been committed 

 against French citizens and the Sakalavas. The 

 port of Tamatave and other points on the coast 

 were occupied. The Hovas, however, in their 

 kingdom of Imerina (or Emyrna), in the ele- 

 vated interior, were safe from attack, protected 

 by what Radama 1 called his best generals the 

 fever of the marshy coast district and the belt 

 of virgin tropical forest, intersected by numer- 

 ous deep rivers. After two inconclusive and 

 costly campaigns the French concluded a treaty 

 at Tamatave on Dec. 17, 1885, in accordance 

 with which the Hova Government agreed to pay 

 a war indemnity of 10,000,000 francs, to receive 

 a French resident general with a small mili- 

 tary escort at Antananarivo (their capital), who 

 should advise the Government in foreign affairs, 

 and to cede to the French Government the dis- 

 trict of Diego Suarez, at the northern extremity 

 of the island, for a colony. The French Govern- 

 ment acknowledged the sovereign rights of the 

 Hova Government over all the rest of Madagas- 

 car. England (in the Anglo-French agreement 

 of Aug. 5, 1890) and Germany recognized the 

 French protectorate over Madagascar; but the 

 Hova Government refused to acknowledge that 

 the treaty, which spoke only of the " high guar- 

 antee " of France, conferred the rights of a pro- 

 tectorate. The English and German consuls 

 applied to the French resident for their exequa- 



turs, but. the native Government would issue 

 none through his agency, and issued one direct 

 to the American consul, the United States not 

 having recognized the French protectorate. 



The Government of Emyrna is an unlimited 

 despotism, exercised in the name of Queen R;i- 

 navalona III by her Prime Minister. Rainilairi- 

 vony, who is also her husband, and was the hus- 

 band of her aunt and predecessor, Ranavalona 

 II. The Queen, who is thirty-two years of age, 

 succeeded to the throne in 1883. She is held 

 in the greatest reverence, as are also the chiefs 

 among some of the other tribes, but she does 

 not interfere in politics. Rainilairivony, who 

 was born in 1826, has exercised autocratic powers 

 since 1864. There are ministers who have charge 

 of the Departments of Education, Justice, the In- 

 terior, and Foreign Affairs, but they are only his 

 deputies and are removable at his pleasure. 

 The Queen and most of the nobility and official 

 class are professed Christians, and Protestant- 

 ism of the Congregational type has been adopted 

 as the court religion, though the fandroana or 

 bath festival, ancestor worship, and other pagan 

 rites are kept up. About 40 per cent, of the 

 Hovas and a considerable proportion among the 

 other tribes of the central part of the island are 

 nominal Christians, the upper classes Protestant, 

 and the lower classes and slaves both Roman 

 Catholic and Protestant. In connection with 

 the churches schools have been established, and 

 the Government has endeavored to make at- 

 tendance compulsory. The extension of en- 

 forced labor and military conscription has en- 

 gendered gang robbery and crimes of violence, 

 from which French planters and settlers have 

 suffered. The French Chamber, in 1891, passed 

 a bill to establish French tribunals to try all 

 cases affecting Europeans. The Hova Govern- 

 ment refused to recognize the right of such 

 jurisdiction, and no courts were constituted 

 until late in 1893, when one was established at 

 Tamatave. 



The chief official source of revenue is the cus- 

 toms. The only other money tax is a small 

 head tax. The Queen has the right to exact the 

 personal service of any of her subjects, and the 

 property of any of them is liable to be taken for 

 the needs of the State. A large money income 

 has been obtained from mining licenses and 

 royalties paid by gold miners. The natives are 

 forbidden to dig gold on their own account 

 under pain of death. There is a debt of 15,000,- 

 000 francs, borrowed in 1886 from the Comptoir 

 d'Escompte of Paris, of which 10,000,000 francs 

 went to pay the war indemnity to France. The 

 revenue of the Government has been expended 

 largely in purchasing armaments and perfecting 

 the training of the Malagasy army, in expecta- 

 tion of another conflict with France. The regu- 

 lar army numbers about 14,000 men, who have 

 been drilled by English officers. The infantry 

 are armed with the Snider rifle of 0-577 caliber. 

 Antananarivo is fortified, and is defended by 

 100 guns of recent manufacture. Some 60,000 



