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CHAPTEE XVIIL 



THE MADAGASCAR OF TO-DAY: — ITS PROGRESS AND PRESENT 

 POSITION, SOCIALLY AND RELIGIOUSLY. 



]\Iadagascar lias for many years past been regarded witli 

 deep interest by the Christian people of England, especially 

 by those connected with the Congregational Churches of this 

 country. It is now (1879) a little more than sixty years 

 ago since the first Protestant missionaries set foot upon its 

 shores ; and since that period its religious history has been 

 one of remarkable changes, and often of startling and painful 

 interest. The earliest efforts made by the London IMissionary 

 Society (in 18 18) to evangelise the Malagasy people were 

 soon interrupted by disease, and by the death of almost all 

 who were engaged in the work, so that it was not until the 

 year 1820 that the mission was resumed, and Christian 

 teaching was commenced in the interior of the island, at the 

 capital city of Antananarivo. 



Eor sixteen years the small body of earnest men who 

 laboured there were permitted to continue their efforts to 

 benefit the people. And it was a noble work which they 

 accomplished in that space of time : they reduced the lan- 

 guage to writing, and gave the Malagasy their own tongue 

 in a written form; they prepared a considerable literature, 

 both educational and religious ; they founded a school system, 

 through which many thousands of the natives received the 

 elements of a good education ; they introduced many of the 

 useful arts of civilised life ; they translated and printed at 

 their own press the whole Word of God ; and they gathered 

 several Christian congregations, of whom not a few had 

 received the good seed in an honest and good heart. " Their 

 works do follow them," and in Madagascar the names of 



