Twelve months in Madagascar

by Joseph Mullens

We spent a pleasant Sunday at Mevatanâna. The little chapel was well filled: our own bearers making a considerable addition to the usual congregation. Some twenty of them presented to the native pastor their tickets of membership in churches in the Capital and joined with the local members and ourselves at the communion of the Lord’s Supper. Mr. Jukes, who speaks Malagasy well, preached an excellent sermon, from the text, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” &c., which was listened to with deep attention. We had a second service in the afternoon, with sermons from our two chaplains. But we were not impressed with the spiritual life of the people. They seemed very ignorant, very dead. There was no leader among them; no man of real, spiritual force, who by his example and his teachings could stimulate his brethren. The native pastor could scarcely read and seemed in other ways an ignorant man. I do not think there was any school in the town. We could not but regret that things were so backward.

At times it has been thought and said, that by the route of the Ikopa, boats and steamers could reach to within sixty miles of the Capital. The student of the Map, which represents our route, can form his own opinion on this subject. Near the sea at certain seasons there are shallows. All about Mevatanána and above the influence of the tides, the shallows are more numerous and more formidable. Above Mevatanána the river is full of rocks and islands. And above Nósifito come the great cataracts, from which upward to the Fárahántsana, the entire bed of the Ikopa, so far as we have heard, is a series of rocky rapids. Now Mevatanána is one hundred and fifty miles from the Capital: and as we shall see is ninety miles from Mojangá. From Mevatanána at least all the upward trade must go by land.

We now hired canoes for our whole party. We could only find three, though they were long and spacious: and I felt rather nervous. We had to stow in them all our baggage and just a hundred men. One canoe was about forty feet long and over three feet broad. It carried forty-three men. But we were tight-packed: and it required great care to change the rowers from time to time, while the canoes were still afloat. Our trip down the stream was delightful. We left the bank at ten o’clock, the men in high spirits at having nothing to carry. The river was about three hundred yards broad; and was shallow and full of islands. Three miles onward, the islands ceased and we had two long reaches to the north and west. The banks were fair and green: profusely covered with the bamboo cane, with its long lithe stalk and its white feathery flower. We soon began to see crocodiles; and were astonished at their numbers. They appeared in groups; they lay on the banks in the hot sun, lazy and asleep: and when awoke by the shouts of our men, quietly went and hid themselves beneath the water. There was one enormous creature, full twenty feet long, with a huge body and vast jaws. These reptiles were visible all the way down. After resting for tiffin at the village of Ambinány under a noble tamarind tree, we pitched our camp upon a broad bank of sand. There was abundance of drift wood lying about, and the men lit large fires and maintained them all night to keep the crocodiles away.

The spot which we had reached was to us full of interest. Opposite to the camp was the Betsiboka river coming up from the south-east, and here the two rivers joined together. The Ikopa is a quarter of a mile broad: the Betsiboka is much broader and in the rainy season comes down in great flood, so as to throw the Ikopa waters far into the western bank and produce the broad sand on which we stood. High up in the moors of Imérina and among the roots of Angávokely, we had seen the fountains of numerous streams from which these rivers take their rise. At Ambatomena and Anjozorobe we had seen the Mananára, the Zábo, the Manánta: near Mantasóa we had seen the beginnings of the Ikopa and the Varáhina: at Andramásina and under Ankárat, the Sisaony, the Andromba, the Katsáoka and many more: all the waters of the Anátivolo, of Lohavohitra and North Vonizongo find their way hither; and now the united streams, keeping the name of the larger, the Betsiboka, will bear us to the sea.

Four miles up the stream of the Betsiboka and on its eastern bank is the flourishing town of Amparihibe “the town of the big lakes.” We could see it plainly from our camp, standing out prominently on its clay hill. Mr. Jukes had paid it a visit by land and told us about its people. The town is well built: its people are unusually intelligent and amiable. On Sunday afternoon when he arrived, they gave him a most hearty reception. This morning at the monthly missionary meeting, five hundred people were present. He gave them our salutations and preached to them; and then for two hours, answered their questions about the Word of God. He found them most anxious to learn, most anxious to do right. The service concluded, they all walked down to the river with him and said good-bye. They loaded him with presents, and sent us most kind messages. They expressed the deepest regret that they had not met us: and they begged Mr. Jukes on his return to spend a Sunday with them.

We were away early on Tuesday, and found the river broader, but winding and somewhat more shallow. The banks were beautiful with their light green: and here and there the trees were large. But nothing struck us like the crocodiles. They were more numerous than ever. We seemed never to lose sight of them: here there was a group of five, there of eight, six and ten. Sometimes they rose to twenty: and on one occasion on a broad spit of sand, we found no less than forty sleeping in the sun. When we took to counting this was the result: in the first hour we counted a hundred and five; in the next half hour, we saw one hundred and two. During the four days of our river trip, we must have seen not less than sixteen hundred crocodiles: indeed my opinion is that the number rose to two thousand. Some were babies, from twelve to eighteen inches long: others were strong and active; a few were old, of enormous size and very sluggish. The skins of the last were course and rough; and the studs and knobs along the back stood out prominently. Their colour was a brown yellow. I could not detect among them the gayál or fish-alligator, so common in the Ganges; they all seemed to belong to the magars or true crocodiles. The natives of the district told us that the river swarms with fish, which the crocodiles eat; they lie in wait to seize the cattle, when they come down to drink; and now and then some poor Sakaláve, crossing the river, half tipsy, in a frail canoe, falls into the water and is never seen again. A crocodile moves slowly on land, with his short legs and heavy tail: but once in the water, he is master, and his tail is an engine of great power.

Our course to-day was about north-west: and our speed down the stream about four miles an hour. The flow of the water was strong and in our favour. We were leaving behind us and on the south-east, a fine, lofty ridge, with a very conspicuous gap. The hill on the south of the gap is Namakía; and close to it is Tóngodrahóds. M. Grandidier, travelling from the coast by land, passed close to these points, and has inserted them in his map. Toward the north-west we were gradually approaching another ridge, the bearings of which, as of the former, we had taken at Mévatanána.

Early in the afternoon we passed a little Sakalava village, named Kárambíly; and at 3.25, reached the mouth of a small stream, the Kámona, near to which we knew was the important town of Trabonjy. We found it five miles inland, in an open basin upon a low hill. The hill was prettily covered by mango trees, in full flower, by fine tamarinds, and numerous palmettoes, the fruit of which is unhappily used to distil rum. The Sakalava town is on the west side of the Hova town. It contains a very large house, the residence of the princess and head of the tribe: and numerous simple dwellings of the Sakalava people. To us they had a singular appearance: they looked like huge bird-cages, being formed of split bamboo and reeds, and quite open to the winds. The houses of the Hova town are unusually large and built in rows with wide streets between: they are formed of wood, reeds and palmetto leaves. The people were on the look-out for us, met us in a crowd at the city-gate; and manifested unmistakeable pleasure at our arrival.

From the intelligent and able governor of Trabónjy, Ráinisóamánana, as well as from his intelligent wife and daughters, we received a peculiarly kind welcome. They could not make enough of us: and we had just to tear ourselves away, if we would reach our port in good time for the steamer that was to bear us home. With the governor we had abundance of serious talk on many things. He saw the importance of our visit; set before us the condition of the churches of the district; and sent an earnest request to the Directors that an English Missionary might be appointed to instruct and guide them. Both he and his people sent the most grateful and affectionate salutations to the Society which has so long been the friend of the Malagasy people.

We were invited to visit the family. We found that their house, built in Sakalava shape, was spacious and the roof was high. It contained but one room the portions of which were parted from one another by screens of cloth. On one side stood a table, covered with bright crockery, water decanters and glasses. Above it were hung two engravings of Queen Victoria and the late Emperor Napoleon. A large wardrobe contained, among other things, numerous bottles of medicine. One of the governor’s sons has been a medical student with Dr. Davidson and is exercising his gifts among his people here. The governor told us that the church in Trabónjy contains 250 members: that fifty of these are Sakalavas and 150 Sakalavas profess to be Christians and worship with the congregation. All the Sakalavas of this district, friendly to the Hova Government, burnt their idols, when those of Imerina were consumed. The independent Sakalavas worship their ancestors and keep to their idols still. There are two hundred houses in Trabonjy: in the neighbourhood there are quite two hundred more. And the entire basin must contain two thousand people.