248 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR 
CHAP. IX. 
views: assurances which have since been most honourably 
and generously acted upon. 
The conversion of the natives to Christianity, though the 
primary and paramount object of the missionary, had un¬ 
avoidably involved attention to many secular matters con¬ 
nected with their temporal affairs and social progress, and 
the more prominent indications of their present state in 
these respects could scarcely fail to attract observation. I 
am fully aware that the brief period of little more than five 
months, during which I remained in the country, and the 
comparatively hurried visits which I made to the several 
stations, could but ill qualify me for forming very strong or 
definite opinions on the actual condition of the people. Yet 
there were several points connected with these which re¬ 
peatedly forced themselves on my notice. Prominent and 
most important among them was a general and earnest soli¬ 
citude on the subject of personal religion. The missionaries 
at most of the stations testified that, notwithstanding the 
ungodliness existing amongst many portions of the coloured 
people who made no profession of religion, and the defections 
of those who did, there appeared to be at the present time 
a growing and more than ordinary desire after religious 
instruction, and an increasing sense of its necessity and 
its value. This feeling, it was stated, was not confined to the 
coloured people, but prevailed in some cases amongst the 
white inhabitants; and not the least pleasing feature in many 
of the public services which we attended was the presence of 
a number of white persons, residents in the neighbourhood. 
These were sometimes sitting in the same seat with the 
natives, or in pews standing side by side, and often inter¬ 
mingled with those occupied by persons of colour. Should 
this state of feeling continue, it may be justly regarded as 
one of the surest foundations of both temporal and spiritual 
advancement. 
