chap. vi. PRESENT STATE OF CHRISTIANITY, 167 
“ She is an idiot and does not know what she says. Take 
her away;” she was then taken from the place and afterwards 
sent to a distant part of the country. 
These fearful deeds of blood and fire were perpetrated in 
the month of March, 1849, and I did not learn that since that 
period persecution had been so violent as before, or that any 
had been put to death. 
Such appear to be some of the more prominent outlines of 
the progress of Christianity in Madagascar down to the period 
above specified. Of its present state all that is suitable to 
say is, that there is much to call forth sincere sympathy with 
the sufferers, to stimulate the prayers and encourage the hopes 
of those to whom its progress is an object of interest and soli¬ 
citude. The hostility of the higher powers to the Christian 
religion did not, from all I saw and heard, appear to be so 
active and determined as formerly. This might be in part 
accounted for by the combined influence of several events, 
which, in the course of Divine Providence, have, since that 
period, occurred. Amongst these might be mentioned the 
adoption of the Christian faith by the young prince, the 
queen’s only son, and the heir apparent to the throne. This 
important event took place ten years ago, and has been fol¬ 
lowed by the conversion of another member of the royal 
family, who has since become a sincere and devoted Christian. 
Death also has removed some high in authority and influence, 
who were unfriendly to the Christians, and their places have 
been filled by others differently minded; in reference to one 
Of whom it is said that, when it was subsequently urged to 
impose a second period of labour as a penalty upon those who 
had already endured their sentence, he expostulated and said, 
“ They have acknowledged that of which they were accused, 
they have been sentenced to punishment and have borne the 
suffering inflicted, why should they be punished again?—the 
thunderbolt does not strike twice? It does not appear that 
