MADAGASCAR. 



341 



convention as the official visitor of the General 

 Council. 



The work of the convention consisted chiefly in 

 considering and acting on the reports of the vari- 

 ous boards. The Board of Missions and Church 

 Extension has charge of the work of home and for- 

 eign missions, and employs a general secretary, 

 with headquarters at Atlanta, Ga. The board 

 supports 21 missions, of which 6 are in Virginia, 

 1 in West Virginia, 4 each in North Carolina 

 and Tennessee, and 3 each in Georgia and Mis- 

 sissippi, for the support of which $7,531.23 was ex- 

 pended in the past two years. In these missions 

 there are 1,500 communicants and 1,300 Sunday 

 school pupils. The church property belonging to 

 these missions is valued at $82,900. At present 15 

 missionaries are employed and 2 mission points 

 are without pastors. The board say : " The work 

 continues to increase on our hands more mission- 

 aries are needed, more churches are to be built, 

 more territory is to be occupied than ever before. 

 As a consequence, more money is needed to carry 

 on the work successfully. We fully appreciate 

 the faithfulness and liberality of many pastors 

 and congregations and societies as manifested by 

 the continued contributions to our home mission- 

 ary treasury. If, however, this work is to be in 

 the future what it ought to become, we feel that 

 some means must be devised to secure from the 

 synods a larger part the entire amount, if possi- 

 ble of the apportionment asked from them by the 

 ~ T nited Synod. 



The report of the board concerning its work in 

 Japan shows encouraging progress. The mission, 

 begun only a few years ago, is in a flourishing 

 condition. A congregation has been established 

 at Saga, and in 1898 work was begun in Kuma- 

 moto, one of the largest cities in the Kyushu 

 district, with a population of 80,000, and in 1899 

 work was begun in the city of Kurume, midway 

 between Saga and Kumamoto. Since the last 

 report of the board 2 natives have been ordained 

 to the office of the ministry. The board now 

 employs 3 ordained missionaries, 2 native pas- 

 tors, and 4 unordained helpers in 4 stations and 

 3 out stations. The mission force in Japan has 

 organized 4 Sunday schools, in which 150 pupils 

 are taught. The mission has 82 baptized mem- 

 bers. 



On the territory of this general body there are 

 7 educational institutions and 1 orphanage, sup- 

 ported either by the general body or by the dis- 

 trict synods. Among these is Roanoke College, 

 Salem, Va. 



The committee on the common service and co- 

 operation with other English-speaking Lutheran 

 bodies reported progress in the work of securing 

 a common book of worship and ministerial acts. 

 The translation of Luther's Small Catechism, pre- 

 pared by the joint committee with a view of 

 making it the standard English translation for the 

 entire Church, was adopted in the form in which 

 it had been adopted previously by the General 

 Council and the General Synod. 



M 



MADAGASCAR, an island colony of France 

 ear the southeast coast of Africa, formerly a 

 ingdom, proclaimed a French protectorate in 

 885, when a French force occupied Diego Suarez. 

 "he protectorate was denied by the Hova Queen 

 ntil, after a French expedition, a treaty of peace 

 as signed on Oct. 1, 1895, and as the result of 

 ;other expedition to suppress an insurrection 

 hich occupied the capital the island was declared 

 French colony on Aug. 6, 1896. Queen Ranava- 

 ona III was deposed on Feb. 27, 1897, in conse- 

 uence of fresh disturbances. Great Britain rec- 

 nized the French protectorate in 1890 in return 

 r the renunciation by France of consular juris- 

 iction in Zanzibar. A dispute subsequently arose 

 bout the application of the special French tariff 

 British goods, Great Britain claiming most- 

 vored-nation treatment under a treaty made with 

 e Hova Queen in 1865 by virtue of an assur- 

 nce, asked for and received from France in con- 

 iection with the British recognition of the pro- 

 ictorate, that none of the rights and immunities 

 njoyed by British subjects in Madagascar would 

 be affected. The French Government took the 

 view that the assurances applied only to the pro- 

 tectorate, and that when it exercised the right of 

 changing the status of the island to a French 

 colony all treaties made by the Hova Government 

 became void. The French claims to Madagascar 

 date from the earliest period of French transma- 

 rine colonization, and were first asserted in 1642 

 by a company that obtained a charter from the 

 King of France. Trading settlements were planted 

 on the coast, and viceroys were appointed at dif- 

 ferent periods, but the factories were abandoned 

 and French authority was ephemeral and disap- 

 peared entirely after the King of the Hovas, the 

 part Malay tribe in the center of the island, re- 

 duced the greater part of Madagascar to his sway 

 bout 1810. In the semicivilized kingdom that 



about 



was developed English Protestant missionaries ac- 

 quired great influence, and American and British 

 traders controlled the commerce of the island until 

 at the beginning of the new era of colonial expan- 

 sion the French revived their ancient claims and 

 established their authority by means of a series of 

 armed expeditions. The deposed queen was de- 

 ported to Reunion in March, 1897, in consequence 

 of continued intrigues against the French Govern- 

 ment, and in March, 1899, for a like cause, she 

 was taken to Algiers. The Governor General rules 

 the island with the assistance of an Administra- 

 tive Council sitting in Antananarivo, and of resi- 

 dents in the coast towns and the principal mili- 

 tary stations. He is commander in chief of the 

 troops. Gen. Gallieni is Governor General, and 

 during his absence Gen. Pennequin has acted in 

 his place. 



The area of the island is estimated at 228,500 

 square miles and the population at 3,500,000 or 

 upward. The females are considerably more nu- 

 merous than the males. Creoles from Mauritius 

 and Reunion, Chinese, and East Indian Banyans 

 are settled as traders in the coast towns. The 

 Hovas formerly kept garrisons among the other 

 tribes, and appointed governors over them. Their 

 language is generally understood throughout the 

 island. They number between a quarter and a 

 third of the total population. The Sakalavas are 

 more numerous. The Betsileos are the third 

 largest tribe, and after them the Betsimisarakas 

 and Baras. Many African blacks interspersed 

 among the people were originally brought over 

 and sold as slaves by the Arab traders, who are 

 still numerous along* the coast. The slave trade 

 was declared illegal by an edict of the Hova Queen 

 in 1877, but was not suppressed. Since the French 

 introduced a colonial administration they haVe 

 abolished slavery wherever their authority is ex- 

 ercised; in the central province of Imerina, the 



