HISTORY OF EUROPEAN COLONIZATION 
III 
organise a systematic persecution of the Christians, and the 
Hova converts were either put to death or despoiled of 
their goods and made slaves of. They were the victims 
of the intrigues of Lambert and Ellis. 
The Queen died on the 14th of August, 1861, and Prince 
Rakoto succeeded her on the throne under the name of 
Radama II. He immediately summoned to the capital 
his former friends Laborde and Lambert, and named the 
latter his representative in Europe. The notorious Lam¬ 
bert Charter was drawn up in his favour, empowering 
him to form a great company for the utilization of the 
resources of Madagascar. By this the Erench protectorate 
was abandoned in form, but its influence remained as 
strong as ever. 
The young King, badly advised by his friends and 
without consideration for the feelings of the grandees of 
his Kingdom, allowed himself to be drawn into a venture¬ 
some and hazardous course by his reforming zeal and his 
unpractical idealism. He abolished forced labour and 
suppressed the custom-houses. He thus deprived him¬ 
self of the necessary means of maintaining the State, and 
deprived many influential Hova of their positions. He 
openly quarrelled with the most eminent Andriane families, 
and even the English found the politics of the new 
sovereign in the highest degree inconvenient for their 
aims. The venture had a fatal issue: it was not quite 
by accident that the Rev. W. Ellis again made his 
appearance on the scene. In May 1863 a regular revo¬ 
lution broke out in Antananarivo; the rebels went to 
and from the house of William Ellis with noteworthy 
activity. They demanded of Radama II. that he should 
break with the French, and when he refused, he was 
strangled in his palace (May 12th). His wife succeeded 
to the throne, but a prime minister was given to her, a 
scion of the Hova family Rainiharo, and immediately 
after his nomination she had to marry him. Since then 
