July 8. Our prison is closing more straitly around us, and our position really begins to be very critical. We have just learned that, since yesterday evening, every one has been prohibited, on pain of death, from entering our house. Mr. Laborde now no longer ventures to appear in the streets. I marvel much that our slaves are still allowed to go to the bazar, and make the necessary purchases; but doubtless this will soon be stopped; and I am much mistaken if the moment is not at hand when the queen will throw off the mask, and, openly denouncing us as traitors, cause our house to be surrounded by soldiers, and thus completely isolate us. Nobody can tell what this woman purposes to do to us, and her character gives us no reason to expect any thing good. If we are once made prisoners, she can easily get rid of us by means of poisoned food or by some other method.
Our slaves tell us that more than eight hundred soldiers are employed in searching for Christians; they not only search the whole town, but scour the country within a circuit of between twenty and thirty miles; but, happily, it is said they do not take many prisoners. All flee to the mountains and forests, and in such numbers that small detachments of soldiers, who pursue the fugitives and seek to capture them, are put to flight.
July 9. To-day we received fresh news of the persecution against the Christians. The queen has heard that until now very few prisoners, comparatively, have been brought in; she is stated to be extremely enraged at this, and to have exclaimed in great anger that the bowels of the earth must be searched, and the rivers and lakes dragged with nets, so that not one of the traitors may escape his just punishment. These inflated expressions, and the new and strict orders she has issued to the officers and soldiers charged with the duty of pursuing the Christians, have, however, I am thankful to say, had no great result. Her majesty will doubtless be enraged when she hears that the inhabitants of whole villages have succeeded in escaping from her vengeance by flight. Thus it happened, a few days ago, in the village of Ambohitra-Biby, nine miles from Tananariva, that when the soldiers arrived they found nothing but the empty huts.
To-day at noon another great kabar was held in the market-place; the queen caused it to be announced that all who helped the Christians in their flight, who did not stop them, or sought to conceal them, should suffer the punishment of death; but that those, on the contrary, who brought them in, or hindered them in their flight, would gain the especial favor of the queen, and in future, if they committed any offense, should either be pardoned or subjected to a very mitigated punishment.
A corps of soldiers one thousand five hundred strong was also dispatched to-day to a large district, situate on the eastern coast. This extended region is inhabited by Seklaves, and is only partly subject to the sway of Queen Ranavola. In a village in the independent portion, five Catholic missionaries have been living for the last three or four years, and have established a little congregation. The queen is naturally much enraged at this, the more so as, boasting that she was queen of the whole island, she issued an edict some years ago to the effect that all white men should be killed who landed in Madagascar, or made any stay in a place where none of her Hova soldiers are stationed. In pursuance of this law, she intends to have these missionaries captured and executed.
I hardly believe that the attachment of the Seklaves toward the missionaries will be sufficiently strong to make them refuse to surrender the latter, and expose themselves to a war against such a powerful enemy as Queen Ranavola, and even if they risked it there would not be the slightest prospect of a good result. Yet we cherish the hope that before the troops can reach the spot the missionaries may have got off safely, for Prince Rakoto has some time since sent a reliable messenger to them to warn them of the impending danger.
Though Prince Rakoto is to all intents and purposes a prisoner, and unable to visit us, a day seldom passes without our receiving news from him, and he informs us of all the schemes of the queen and her ministers against us. Like Mr. Laborde, the prince has confidential slaves. These trusty servants on either side meet, apparently by chance, in the bazar or elsewhere, and exchange intelligence. Thus he let us know to-day that the queen had given orders to have our house searched on the morrow, upon the pretext that it was generally asserted there were Christians concealed therein, but in reality to obtain possession of our papers and writings. Of course we immediately concealed these as well as we could.
We have also learned that the queen has in the last few days occupied herself much about us, and has held long sittings with her ministers, in which the question of our fate was discussed. If she had consulted only her own fury, she would long ago have dispatched us into the next world; but to kill six Europeans at once seems almost too bold a stroke; and she is said to have told her prime minister, who voted for our death from the first, that the only reason which deterred her from the measure was the probability that such severity against persons of our importance might induce the Europeans to wage war against her. Two fortunate mistakes for us! The first, in her considering us to be important personages; the second, that she should suppose the European powers would take so much trouble in a matter involving only a few human lives instead of more weighty interests. But, be this as it may, our lives are certainly in great peril, for they are in the hands of a woman so governed by her passions that she may at any moment cast aside all considerations of prudence or policy. Even if our lives are spared, I fear we shall undergo a long imprisonment; merely to banish us from the country will not satisfy the queen, or she would have done it long ago.
July 10. To-day our gates were suddenly opened, and about a dozen officers of high rank, with a large train, came into the court-yard. We thought they were coming to make the search of which the prince had warned us; but, to our great astonishment, they explained to Mr. Lambert that they had been sent by the queen to receive the costly presents which he had brought with him for her and her court.
Mr. Lambert at once had the chests brought out and unpacked; the contents were placed, according to their various destinations, in great baskets, which the slaves who accompanied the officers at once carried off to the palace. A few of the officers went away with the bearers; the others walked into our reception-room, conversed for a few moments with Mr. Laborde and Mr. Lambert, and then very politely took their leave.