HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
531 
remained firm, and perfectly composed; and was put to 
death by spearing on the 14th of August, 1837. She had 
said repeatedly by letter to her friend, Mrs. Johns, 44 Do 
not fear on my account. I am ready to die for Jesus, if such 
be the will of God.” She was most wonderfully supported 
to the last moment of her life. Her age at the time of her 
death was thirty-eight years. No feature in her Christian 
character appears to have been more distinctly manifested 
than her steadfastness and fidelity even to the death. Many, 
even of the old people, remarked they had never seen any 
one so 44 stubborn’’ as Rafaravavy, for although the queen 
forbade her to pray, she did pray, even when in irons; and 
continued to preach Christ to the officers and to the crowd 
that followed her for nearly three-quarters of a mile, from 
the place of public condemnation to the place of common 
execution. Here she continued to pray and to exhort all 
around her to believe in Jesus Christ, even till the execu¬ 
tioner’s spear, thrust through her body, deprived her of the 
power of utterance. 
In relation to her death, Mr. Baker justly remarks:— 
44 Never in the annals of the Church did a Christian martyr 
suffer from motives more pure, simple, and unmixed with 
earthly alloy. She had never heard of any after-glory of 
martyrdom on earth. No external splendour had been cast 
around the subject in her mind, by reading any lives of 
martyrs. All was to her obloquy and contempt. Her own 
father and relatives, to the very last, accused her of stubborn¬ 
ness. The people generally regarded her as stubborn , and 
worthy of punishment even on that account. She had no 
earthly friends to support and cheer her. She was not poor 
in outward circumstances; and by recantation, and by 
humbling herself to beg pardon of the queen, she might 
very probably have saved her life. But her whole heart, 
