164 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR 
chap. yi. 
quarrying, or carrying stones for the erection of government 
buildings, or other equally severe labour. Several who, 
though of considerable rank, had for a long time thus 
laboured, and some amongst them who have since carried to 
their graves the marks of their punishments, were my frequent 
visitors; others, I learned, had been tortured with stripes. 
Some had been sentenced to imprisonment, and were then in 
confinement; some were wandering as outcasts from society; 
others, including men and women of rank and station, had 
been loaded with rude and cumbrous fetters, and a number 
had been put to death. 
I obtained a detailed and deeply affecting account, written 
in the native language, with the substance of it also in English, 
of the trials of the Christians in 1849, the period of the last 
severe persecution. Numbers were informed against, and 
apprehended by officers of government bearing a silver spear 
designated “The hater of lies,” and numbers, on the re¬ 
quisition of the government, acknowledged their having en¬ 
gaged in Christian worship. The nature of their offence may 
be inferred from the subjoined recital of the practices of which 
they were accused during the last persecution. When a 
number of them were then arraigned, it was asked by the 
chief officer, “What is this that you do? This that the 
queen hates—that which says believe in it or him and obey 
the Gfospel; refusing to fight and quarrel with each other ; re¬ 
fusing to swear by their sisters with a stubbornness like that 
of stones or wood; observing the Sabbath as a day of rest; 
the taking of the juice of the grape and a little bread, and 
invoking a blessing on the head, and then falling down to the 
ground, and when the head is raised, the tears running down 
from the eyes. Now, are you to do these things, or are you 
not?—for such things, it is said, are done by the praying 
people, and on this account the people are made to take the 
oath.” Then Ramary stood up before the people, and said,— 
