540 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



" The Rev. Dr. Joseph. Mullens has just returned from an official visit to 

 Madagascar. In company with the Rev. J. Pillans, he went forth in name 

 of the London Missionary Society, of which he is the Secretary, to explore the 

 island, and to return with such an account of the state of the people as his 

 observation would enable him to give. The deputies explored the island, 

 went to its capital, visited its villages, crossed some of its solitudes, sailed 

 down some of its rivers, penetrated where no European was residing, and 

 into some places where a European face has scarcely ever been seen ; and every- 

 where they found little churches and Christian pastors, the most of whom are 

 natives. They found Bible-reading as well as preaching ; they found psalm 

 and hymn singing ; they found children learning to read and learning to sing. 

 In some cases they penetrated into remote regions, where native churches, 

 under the pastorate of native teachers, had never been visited by an English 

 missionary. They visited, for example, Mojanga, a place on the coast where 

 Sir Bartle Frere, when passing through those seas on his noble anti-slavery 

 cruise, landed and found (where but a little time before only savage islanders 

 could have been seen) Christian society, a Christian church, and Christian 

 worship. He found them observing the Sabbath and public Christian worship, 

 and partaking of the Lord's supper, with a decorum and propriety like what 

 might have been seen in an evangelical church in London or in Edinburgh. 



"Mr. Pillans says: Sir Bartle Frere has told you something of the two 

 churches in Mojanga, and of their young pastor. He fully deserves the 

 honourable mention Sir Bartle makes of him. He is a true man, a diligent 

 teacher, and most careful of the purity of the churches. The attendance — the 

 ordinary attendance — in one of the churches is about three hundred, in the 

 other two hundred and thirty. There are fifty-six members in the two. 

 They unite in the communion. They have six preachers and six deacons. 

 There are sixty children in the school, of whom thirty can read well. About 

 thirty adults can read. Six or seven Sakalavas attend worship: one was a 

 member for a time, but went astray. In receiving members they follow the 

 rule at the capital, of two months' probation ; then the case comes before the 

 whole church. In a similar way, if a member goes astray, he is visited and 

 counsel given him ; if unrepentant, he is dealt with by the whole church. 

 Rakotovao, the pastor at Mojanga, told us that he had occasion to visit all the 

 twelve churches in the district in 1871, and he found schools in them all. 



" Speaking of another district, Mr. Pillans observes : We came to a line 

 of country near the coast, where there were large towns and some exceed- 

 ingly interesting churches. One of these towns, Trabonjy, is about five or 

 six miles from the junction of the Ikiopa and the Betsiboka rivers. We went 

 in the evening to the chapel — a large building, capable of holding one 

 thousand two hundred or one thousand five hundred persons. The people 

 began to flock in, and a short time afterwards the governor came in. After 



