PREFACE
For the facts of the historical introduction I am mainly indebted to the writings of earlier writers and missionaries, and to unpublished native accounts of the earlier years of the mission and of the persecutions; for mine would have been almost impossible had it not been for the labours of those other workers in the same field, and for the native sources I have mentioned. Without such knowledge as this introduction gives no correct conception can be formed of Madagascar and the Malagasy, of the work done for and among them, the present condition and future prospects of the people, and of the future of Christian work in the island.
I have been also indebted to a long course of reading on mission work at large, and on the work in Madagascar in particular. Much of this has become so mingled with my own thoughts that I cannot now possibly trace all the sources of it; but I have tried, as far as I could, to make acknowledgement of all the sources of information to which I have been indebted, and special acknowledgement of those more recent sources of information not alluded to in any other book on Madagascar. There are many things in this book derived from native sources that have not been utilized before.
Believing that ‘a plain tale speeds best being plainly told,’ I have tried to tell my story in plain and pointed language, and I hope I have also been able to tell it graphically enough to make it interesting. My great difficulty has been condensation; very often paragraphs have had to be reduced to sentences, and chapters to paragraphs.
One who has spent thirty years in the hard, and often very weary, work of a missionary in Central Madagascar—not to mention the arduous and exhausting duties of deputation work while on furlough—with all the duties, difficulties, and anxieties involved in the superintendence of large districts, with their numerous village congregations and schools, could hardly be expected to have much spare time to devote to the cultivation of the graces of literature or an elegant style. I have tried to tell my story in a warm-hearted way, being anxious only that my meaning should be clearly expressed, whatever might be its verbal guise. I have never been able to understand why, without flippancy or irreverence, religious topics may not be treated at times ‘with innocent playfulness and lightsome kindly humour.’ Why, too, should the humorous side, and even humorous examples, be almost entirely left out of records of foreign mission work? Such incidents sometimes help to relieve the shadows by the glints of sunshine, and for this reason I have ventured to describe the bright, and even humorous, as well as the dark side of missionary work. I have tried to set forth the joy and humour as well as the care, the sunshine as well as the shadow.
John Ruskin says: ‘A man should think long before he invites his neighbours to listen to his sayings on any subject whatever.’ As I have been thinking on the subject of missions for forty years, and have been engaged in mission work for thirty, if my thoughts are not fairly mature on the subject now, and my mind made up on most points in relation to missions and mission work, they are never likely to be. At the same time, when an unknown writer asks the attention of the Christian public upon such an important theme as foreign missions, he is at least expected to show that he has such a thorough and practical acquaintance with them as fairly entitles him to a hearing. I hope the following pages will prove my claim to this consideration. If they help to create interest in the great cause of foreign missions in some quarters, and to deepen it in others, I shall feel well repaid for all the trouble the preparation of them has cost me.
I am deeply indebted to friends for their valuable help and advice, and render them my very hearty and sincere thanks.