476 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR, 
him with grateful affection, and received with earnest 
attention and delight his instruction and encouragement 
to persevere in seeking to know and serve the true God. 
The son remained at this time a few weeks with his father, 
and during his stay, his parents and relatives, among the 
clans in the neighbourhood, consented to destroy the idol 
that had been for so many generations regarded with 
superstitious veneration. For this purpose it was delivered to 
the Christian officer, who having stripped it of its ornaments, 
buried it, but afterwards dug it up, and, accompanied by 
an elder member of his family, brought it to the Missionary, 
with a request that he would go and spend a few weeks 
in the village, and instruct them more fully in the doctrines 
of the gospel. 
The idol was sent to England, for the purpose of exciting 
affectionate sympathy and commiseration for those who still 
worship the work of their own hands, and put their trust in 
gods which cannot save, as well as to excite gratitude that 
some had been induced to cast away their lying vanities, and 
to call upon the name of the Lord. 
A representation of this idol, which was presented to the 
Missionaries in the early part of 1833, is given on the 
opposite page. 
The amiable and devoted Christian who had been the 
means of the idol’s rejection, persevered in his useful and 
consistent course, until the close of the year 1833, when 
he died during a campaign of the Hovas against the inha¬ 
bitants of St. Augustine’s Bay, and the countries adjacent. 
The Missionary was much gratified with his devout, 
cheerful, and humble state of mind before leaving the capital. 
His end was peace. Several of his relations also died in 
the faith; others remain among the most steadfast Christians 
in the island. t 
