HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
501 
be required to learn writing on the Sabbath-day; this was 
the only way in which it was distinguished • and this was 
out of deference to the customs of the Europeans, who were 
thus relieved from what they regarded as a secular duty. 
On that day the Europeans might meet for public wor¬ 
ship, but God was not to be worshipped by any native, and 
the name of Jesus was not to be invoked, excepting in con¬ 
nexion with the national idols, the sun, moon, &c. Trans¬ 
gression of this law was to be punished by the death of the 
offenders, the confiscation of property, and, if married, 
the slavery of their wives and children. The names of 
Jehovah and Jesus Christ at first were only prohibited, but 
afterwards the devil was added, and his name not allowed 
to be mentioned. 
The malignant spirit of the enemies of the Bible, and 
at the same time the comparative impotency of their rage, 
was manifested in the extent to which they foolishly 
attempted to enforce their hostility to the doctrines of the 
gospel. They not only required the natives to cease from 
reading the Scriptures, attending public instruction, or 
engaging in prayer, but prohibited their even thinking of 
any of the instructions they had received, and required 
that they should obliterate from their recollection all the 
religious knowledge they had ever received. It is needless 
to add, that though numbers appeared willing to act upon 
the prohibition of the queen, others would have pre¬ 
ferred death to a denial of their faith, or a renunciation of 
their hopes of mercy through Jesus Christ. Obvious 
reasons prevent any detail, at present, of the number, 
character, and proceedings of those who, under the severe 
affliction that now overtook them, and the darkness that 
veiled the future, remained, as in the days of Elisha, unpol¬ 
luted by the abominations of the land, and faithful to that 
