490 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
apprehending some expression of their sovereign’s displea¬ 
sure. An unusual seriousness was visible in all their 
public and social meetings during the early part of the 
year; and seldom had larger or more deeply attentive con¬ 
gregations been gathered than those which crowded the 
places of worship, especially on each of the Sabbaths in the 
month of February. “ Few families,” observed one of the 
members of the Mission, “ were to be found, from the imme¬ 
diate connexions of the sovereign to that of the humblest 
slave, who could not number among their near relatives some 
who were the disciples of the Saviour. Many, there was 
reason to believe, were truly converted, others were desirous 
of knowing the way of salvation, while numbers were merely 
seeking general knowledge, or influenced in their atten¬ 
dance on the means of religious instruction by, inferior 
motives.” 
Such was the interesting state of the native Christians 
in Madagascar when their enemies discovered that they had 
gone far towards the accomplishment of their designs. They 
had succeeded in exciting the displeasure of the queen 
against the doctrines and truths of Christianity, as well as 
against those by whom these were professed, and by invest¬ 
ing their ground of complaint with a religious and personal 
character, as effecting the supremacy of the sovereign, 
and the stability of the government, had successfully 
appealed to her strong and long-cherished prejudices, her 
pride, and that impatience of the least resistance to her will, 
which is possessed alike by all despots, savage or civilized. 
Besides the events which had occurred at the capital, 
reports were almost daily brought to the palace, of the 
increasing numbers, who, notwithstanding all the restric¬ 
tions hitherto imposed, were attaching themselves to the 
Christians, of the extension of the knowledge of reading 
