Madagascar

“ Next morning, on waking, the Malagasy might read on the walls of their city the proclamation of the General announcing the suppression of royalty in Madagascar.... If what is declared is true, I only half pity the poor queen after all. ”

“ We all felt much out of the world in Madagascar. To 145the great world which we had left, the trade, the government, and the people of the island, are linked by very slender ties. The Malagasy know very little of foreign lands: few understand the English language and the condition and affairs of England. Those who have been to England have not felt free to tell what they saw: in former days it would have been dangerous to tell it: for to depreciate Madagascar by showing the superiority of other countries was neither more nor less than high treason. Knowledge is increasing among them ”

“ If Madagascar should once obtain a well-ordered, civilized government, and should be visited by missionaries who, instead of busying themselves with political intrigues, would devote their energies to imparting the Christian religion, in its true sense, to the people, a happy and flourishing kingdom may be founded in this beautiful land: the materials of prosperity are certainly not wanting.
Of our return journey to the Mauritius I have little to tell. ”

“ As it was in our Lord’s time, and is at home now, the rich do not crowd into the Kingdom, and it is left chiefly to the common people to hear the Gospel gladly, and press into it; so, with few exceptions, it has been in Madagascar. The higher the social scale the more profuse was the profession, the less the real practice. From many points of view both the capital and the country districts might have been compared to a stagnant pond, on which the green slime of ages had gathered thickly. ”

“ It begins by casting reflections upon our work in Madagascar. We are told that the British missionaries have never done anything for the Malagasy, except to teach them to sing a few hymns and make hypocrites of them! We are seriously asked to believe that the Malagasy owe all their knowledge of civilization, and of the various arts and handicrafts of civilization, to a French sailor, who was wrecked on the coast of the island, found his way up to the capital, and there became the very intimate friend (or more, as some French writers maintain) of Rànavàlona I, the persecuting queen. ”

“ The colonisation of Madagascar by the Malay tribes is a topic full of interest: but we know almost nothing about it. It is singular that in the very first mention made of the island, the celebrated notice of it by Marco Paolo, he should have made a strange mistake and mixed it with information which belongs to the Somali country around Cape Gardafui. Madagascar has neither elephants nor hippopotami; neither leopards nor bears nor lions. ”

“ Madagascar, with an area of 229,820 sq. m., is, after New Guinea and Borneo, the largest island of the world. It lies off the S.E. coast of the continent, from which it is separated by the deep Mozambique channel, 250 m. wide at its narrowest point. Madagascar in its general structure, as in flora and fauna, forms a connecting link between Africa and southern Asia. East of Madagascar are the small islands of Mauritius and Réunion. Sokotra lies E.N.E. of Cape Guardafui. Off the north-west coast are the Canary and Cape Verde archipelagoes. ”

“ Nobody can very long reside in Madagascar, or in the central parts of it at any rate, without occasionally observing little companies of the natives bending eagerly over some mathematical-looking diagram rudely scratched on a roadside stone, or on the top of a rock, or, more roughly still, on the sun-baked clay of the wayside. ”

“ In Madagascar I saw and heard more marvelous things than had come under my notice in any other country; and if little can be said to the advantage of the people, it must be remembered that, under the cruel, insensate rule of Queen Ranavola, and in the entire absence of instruction in religion and morality, no great expectations can reasonably be formed. ”

“ The French have for centuries possessed a little island, called St. Maria, on the coast of Madagascar. In the time of the late king Radama they succeeded in obtaining a footing in Madagascar itself by acquiring a district in the Bay of Vanatobé. In this district there is a rich depôt for coals; and the French employ 180 colored workmen, Indians, negroes, etc., from the Mauritius, under the superintendence of three white men. On the accession of Queen Ranavola, after the death of Radama, the new sovereign ordered these people to evacuate the district. ”

“ That the import trade into Madagascar has been active to the present time we can ourselves testify. Not seldom were pure African slaves, knowing but little of the Malagasy tongue, met with in the Capital and other parts of Imerina. The people in general know them as “Mójambíkas.” 327Still more numerous did we find them in the seven garrison towns in the north-west. Several came round us in Mevatanána. Márovoay was full of them. In Mojangá they form a large portion of the population in the lower town. ”

“ It is well known to residents in India, that low, hot, saline and malarious districts tend to darken the olive complexion; while dry, open, cooler plains, tend to bleach it and render it fair. Now it is the coast tribes of Madagascar, inhabiting the hot, feverish provinces, which have the dark skin: while those which occupy the central plateau with its bracing air, are, in general, fair. Other considerations must be looked to: and I find them in the dialects spoken; and in the course taken by the movements and migration of the tribes as they gradually occupied the island. ”

“ We give a comparison between a few Madagascar and Malay words, so that the reader can judge himself of their resemblance and affinity:
There are many dialects spoken in the island, but that of the province of Ankova, the country of the Hovas, may be regarded as the standard one. The inhabitants of this province are industrious, ingenious, and comparatively wealthy. It is the center of the empire, the seat of the government, and the scene of the principal efforts hitherto made in the country to introduce education, European improvements, arts and sciences, and to promote civilization. ”

“ This difference of opinion terminated in a resolution to abandon the sea, and to settle on some convenient spot on shore; and the island of Madagascar was chosen. Tew, however, and a few others, in a short time went for Rhode Island, and obtained a pardon.
The natives of Madagascar are negroes, but differ from those of Guinea in the length of their hair and in the blackness of their complexion. They are divided into small nations, each governed by its own prince, who carry on a continual war upon each other. ”

“ I am happy to acknowledge that there are some residents and officers who are prompted by sentiments of justice and kindness, and who are in no wise desirous of making Madagascar into a settlement of Capuchin friars. That is how the district of Ambòhimànga, in spite of the efforts of the Jesuits, remains attached to Protestantism. Our schools there have fifteen times the number of the Catholics; three thousand against two hundred. Let us guard ourselves against despair; there are more than seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. ”

“ It is only fair to say, however, that we saw Central Madagascar for the first time at its worst—in the middle of the cold season, when all is bleak, bare, and desolate-looking. In the early months of the year, after the first rains have fallen, when the young rice is appearing in the rice-fields, and the downs and hill-sides are covered with the fresh dark green grass, it is very different. ”

“ At a moderate computation, it is reckoned that from twenty to thirty thousand people perish annually in Madagascar, some through the continual executions and poisonings, others through grievous labor purposely inflicted, and from warfare. If this woman’s rule lasts much longer, the beautiful island will be quite depopulated; the population is said to have already shrunk to half the number that it comprised in King Radama’s time, and a vast number of villages have disappeared from the face of the land. ”

“ Malagasy slaves supplied the islands of Mauritius and Bourbon, while shiploads were conveyed to North and South America, and even to the West Indies. Slaves could be bought on the coast of Madagascar in those days at from six to twelve pounds, and sold at from thirty to sixty pounds for a man, and at from forty to eighty pounds for a woman ”

“ The chief physical feature of Madagascar is the central mountain mass, which commences with lofty mountains at the north end of the island, and retains them till within a moderate distance of its southern cape. The entire central line is high ground and only its two sides are level plains along the east and west sea-coasts. ”

“ THE NEW SCHOOL, AMBATONAKANGA.
GROUP OF SCHOLARS, TEACHERS, AND CHRISTIAN WORKERS.
Hugh Miller says: ‘There are two periods that are favourable to observation, an early and a late one. A fresh eye detects external traits and peculiarities among a people, seen for the first time, which disappear as they become familiar; but it is not until after repeated opportunities of study and a prolonged acquaintance that the internal characteristics of a people begin to be rightly understood.’ This is especially true with regard to Madagascar and the Malagasy ”

“ The inhabitants of Madagascar are only partly connected with those of the neighbouring continent, for a portion of the population is certainly of Malay origin. Like the local plants and animals, it bears witness to the geographical independence of the island. ”

“ Louis thanked him; and afterward read as follows:
"The population of Madagascar consists of a mixture of Africans, Arabs, and the aboriginal inhabitants. These latter occupy the kingdom of the Anas, and are governed by a queen. The Malagasys differ widely from the Ethiopian race, both in their physical and moral characteristics. They are hospitable and humane, but extremely warlike, because a successful foray furnishes them with slaves. It is a mistake to believe that the Malagasys worship the devil, and that they have at Teintingua a tree consecrated to the Evil One. ”

“ But Madagascar also possesses some indigenous species of palms, amongst others the sago-tree, a variety of the hijphmna akin to the dum-palm of the Nilotic regions, and the raphia, noted for its large, thickset trunk, its masses of minute foliage, and enormous bunches of fruit, weighing as much as three hundred pounds and upwards. The pandanus (rakoa) , with its spiral sword-shaped leaves, thrives on the more arid tracts along the seaboard, while the muddy estuaries and coast lagoons are everywhere overgrown with the widely diffused mangrove. ”

“ It reflects lasting honour on the British nation that no sooner had Madagascar come, to some extent, under the influence of Great Britain, through her possession of Mauritius, than a series of efforts were put forth to annihilate this vile traffic in human flesh. The attitude of British officers, consuls, and other officials towards man-stealing has ever been most uncompromising. ”

“ Population of Madagascar. The results at present produced show at least three independent movements in the settlement of the island. 178The Betsimisárakas have lived a quiet life on the east coast, quite independent of the other tribes, and have quietly spread up the hills into the Tanála, the Sihánaka and Ankáy. And they have preserved in simple fashion the rough tongue of their forefathers in Sumatra. Whether the Sakalavas are one people, or have sprung from more than one colony, north and south, we know not. ”

“ The recent attempt of the French to obtain the upper hand in Madagascar, by creating a revolution in that island, has resulted in the most humiliating failure, and has given to the British interest that preponderance which it is sure to maintain with a noble race like the Malagasy [196] people, as long as our relations with them are conducted on just and honourable principles.
A. M. Lambert, of the late firm of Minon, Lambert, & Co., of Port Louis, Mauritius, visited Antananarivo in 1855, avowedly with commercial intentions ”

“ Circular forest zone Madagascar. soil washed down by the running waters has been deposited in thick layers, and where the peasant receives a tenfold return for his labour. The geological constitution of Madagascar is revealed, so to say, by the distribution of its woodlands, which are disposed in a continuous belt round the periphery of the island, either on the low-lying coastlands or in the zone of the outer escarpments. On the east side the belt of forests is twofold, divided by an intermediate depression. ”

“ Hence the poor show the Malagasy made in fighting for their fatherland, until they found that they had been betrayed, and then they rose in rebellion against the French rule when it was too late. Madagascar and its people were betrayed, sold, bought, and paid for, and then the chief intriguer, who was also one of the arch-traitors, when he had done his infamous work was flung aside, while it is said that the other arch-traitor and some of his confederates had to pay large sums for their worthless lives. ”

“ It is an ancient institution in the island: and as in other lands, for the sake of a present and temporary advantage, it has done, and is still doing, deep and permanent harm. It has been fed from two sources, without and within. From abroad there have been imported into Madagascar a multitude of pure Africans, who have to some extent been absorbed into the community, and have tainted the pure Malagasy blood. Many individuals in the highest Hova families have crisp woolly hair and thick lips, even with the high forehead and straight nose of the Malay races. ”