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VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. VI. 
CHAP. VI. 
Domestic Slavery in Madagascar. — Prices of Slaves. — Modes of Punishment. 
Numbers of Slaves. —Native Manufactures. — Rofia Cloth. — Native Bas¬ 
kets. — Fondness of Natives for Barter. — Conversations with the People. —■ 
Desire after Education. — Historical Notice of the Persecutions of the Chris¬ 
tians. — Simple Scriptural Character of their Faith. — Testimonies in their 
Favour. — Scriptural Basis of their Religious Organisations and Observ¬ 
ances.— Social Gatherings. — Perils to which they have been exposed.— 
Public Confessions. — Constancy unto Death. — Nature and Severity of 
their Punishments. — Numbers who have suffered on account of their Re¬ 
ligion. — Executions in 1849. — Latest Edict against Christian Observances. 
— Opinions of the Natives which render Christianity peculiarly criminal in 
the Estimation of the Heathen. — Claims of the Christians to Sympathy and 
Compassion. 
In the domestic arrangements of the Malagasy, most of the 
employments connected with providing and preparing food 
are performed by slaves. Slavery, in fact, is one of the “do¬ 
mestic institutions ” of the country. It involves the buying 
and selling of men and women, sometimes in the public 
markets, and at other times, by taking them about from place 
to place, and offering them like any other goods for sale. 
I was walking one day on the beach with my companion, 
when a man approached us, followed by a boy about eleven 
or twelve years old. The man stopped, and asked an officer 
standing near if he wanted a slave, and, pointing to the boy, 
said he was for sale; the price, he added, was ten dollars. 
The party appealed to declining to purchase, the man made 
a sign to the boy and then walked on, the slave following at 
the distance of a few paces. On another occasion, as I was 
sitting at breakfast, my servant came to say that some one 
wished to speak to me, and, on going out, I found two 
