292 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
of putting them into the rice-holes, and then concealing 
their suffocation and death by charging the Missionaries 
with haying kidnapped them.” 
Whatever extravagance there might be in such proceed¬ 
ings on the part of the people, or in the suggestion of the 
judges, the circumstance showed the importance of acting 
with the utmost caution, and the difficulty of obviating the 
jealousy of the natives. 
On the first Sunday in Sept., 182*2, the members of the 
Mission, though they had been connected prior to their 
leaving England with different denominations of Christians, 
formed themselves into a holy fraternity, or church, at 
Tananarivo, celebrating for the first time the ordinance of 
the Lord’s supper. This took place within the court-yard 
of the palace. Although the church was formed on the 
Congregational plan, it was arranged as a fundamental rule 
in the Society, that the same liberal principles of admission 
and communion should be adopted, which characterise the 
parent institution; so that Christians of other denomina¬ 
tions, walking in the faith and purity of the gospel, who 
might afterwards visit or reside on the spot, should feel 
themselves welcome to a participation of the privileges 
which the fellowship now formed was designed to secure. 
During the absence of Radama from the capital, the 
Missionaries continued to enjoy the friendly protection of 
his mother; this was the more important to their safety 
and comfort, as in her person the supreme authority was 
then vested. On one occasion she invited them to an 
entertainment at her country residence, where she was 
superintending the erection of an embankment, to prevent 
the rice-grounds being overflowed. She conducted her 
visitors to see this work, on which nearly five thousand per¬ 
sons were employed, and having received and returned the 
