162 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. \n. 



fluence than has yet been apparent over the future of that 

 people, if not on other nations. 



More than twenty years have passed since the profession 

 of the Christian faith was publicly prohibited in Madagascar, 

 and during this period every available means have been em- 

 ployed, often with subtile ingenuity and great severity, to 

 enforce the prohibition. Death has not only been inflicted, 

 but, in the preliminary treatment of the condemned, and in 

 the manner and circumstances of their punishment, it has 

 been an object to augment the agony of their sufferings, and 

 to render the prospect of death most frightfully appalling. 

 The first Christian martyr in Madagascar suffered in 1837, 

 the second in the following year. Three or four years after, 

 nine at least were put to death in such a manner, and with 

 such accompanying circumstances, as were intended to involve 

 the si^pposed criminals in the deepest ignominy. In the year 

 1846 the sufferings of the people appear to have been great; 

 but the severest persecution to which they were subjected, 

 and in which the greatest number fell, occurred in the year 

 1849. At this period a few saved their lives by escaping 

 from the island. Some of these visited our country*, and all 

 eventually found an asylum in Mauritius. Others, I was in- 

 formed, who had been either sentenced to die, or who had 

 too much reason to fear that if seized their lives would be 

 forfeited, escaped, and either remained in concealment or 

 became homeless wanderers in the country. 



But besides these, multitudes, probably amounting to 

 thousands, and including those of every rank and age, from 

 the unconscious infant who, with its parents, had been sold 

 into slavery, to the venerable sire whose long life had been 

 spent in the service of his country, — or from the noble, whose 



* An interesting and deeply affecting narrative of the eai'ly persecutions of 

 the Christians in Madagascar, published in London in 1840, by the late 

 Messrs. Freeman and Johns, formerly missionaries in the island. 



