THE PAST AND THE FUTURE. 
285 
able energy and enterprise of those English and 
other firms who have for years been engaged in 
opening np the country and in developing its 
resources. Their chief object, of course, has 
been material advantage and commercial suc¬ 
cess in establishing agencies around the coasts 
of the island; but they have gladly recognised 
at the same time their responsibilities as the 
representatives of a higher condition of civilisa¬ 
tion, and have often proved themselves the true 
and unflinching friends of the Hova Government 
and of the native tribes. 
It is satisfactory to record this fact here, as 
too often the aims and proceedings of traders 
have been antagonistic, and in the highest degree 
embarrassing to the local authorities of small and 
obscure states. It is hardly necessary to dwell 
upon the question of the Churches. A large and 
daily increasing literature upon the subject of 
the progress of Christianity amongst the Hovas 
and some of the outlying tribes is in existence, 
by means of which the various societies at work 
in and about Im^rina keep their special efforts 
before the various sections of the religious world 
at home. 
Madagascar can never rightly estimate the 
debt it owes to these. All that it has achieved, 
and all that it will achieve in the future, which 
lies before it so full of hope, indirectly or directly 
