THE SPEARING AT AMBOHIPOTSY.
THE STONING AT FIADANANA.
THE BURNING AT FARAVOHITRA.
(From Native Sketches.)
Ràmitràha’s younger brother, Andrìampàrany, also visited him while in prison, and I asked him whether his brother seemed daunted at the prospect of death. ‘Not at all,’ he replied, ‘he seemed rather to rejoice.’ I had in my possession Ràmitràha’s New Testament and some of the books of the Bible which had belonged to him; they were given to me by his widow, who was a member of my congregation at Fihàonana. To my intense regret they were lost by a friend in Scotland to whom I sent them. Her husband’s death was a life-long sorrow to her till, in 1876, pneumonia brought her release, the deaconesses and other Christian women soothing her last moments with hymns of faith and hope. Their only son, Rakòtovào, has been for many years pastor of one of the churches in the Fihàonana district. There was also a daughter, Rànàhy, who lived with a relation in the village of Fihàonana—a grey-haired, fine-featured, good old lady of one of the chief families of the district, ‘an old disciple,’ known as Rafàravàvifòtsivòlo—grey-haired Miss Last-born.
It was about this time at one of the midnight prayer-meetings, held in the house of Rafàravàvy Maria in the capital, that Razàka and his wife were baptized and received into the church. He had been a pupil of the missionaries, had been expelled from his father’s house for his adherence to the New Religion, and had his first wife (the wife his father and friends had provided for him) taken from him by her parents. They refused to allow their daughter to live with an outcast! He wrote his story for me, on condition that I should not publish it during his lifetime. After his death, in 1884, it appeared in the Malagasy Good Words, and was afterwards issued in the form of a booklet, many copies of which have been given as school prizes. He told me that during the persecutions many of the Christians fled from the capital to Vònizòngo, and there remained in hiding for many a day.
After the martyrdom of Ràmitràha, Razàka secured the Bible which belonged to the small Christian community at Fihàonana, and with it carried on the midnight prayer-meetings, which Ràmitràha had begun. He once said to me: ‘You know, sir, that often at those midnight prayer-meetings, when we read the Bible, we came upon parts we did not understand. We had no missionary to explain them.’ ‘What then did you do?’ I asked. ‘We read and re-read them,’ he replied, ‘prayed and re-prayed over them until we thought we understood them.’ They used often, he said, to long for the rainy season, for a thunderstorm with its torrential rains, that they might be free to refresh their hearts with a hymn. In the central provinces of Madagascar some five months of the year pass without rain; but when the rains do come they descend in a deluge. Terrific thunderstorms usher in these tropical rains. In an hour and a half I have known three inches of rain to fall. In the lap of such storms the persecuted found freedom to worship God. The Malagasy are fond of singing, and sing well. Their language lends itself to musical expression. It has been called the ‘Italian of the Southern Hemisphere.’ It is soft, liquid, flexible, and rich in vowels.
‘In 1853 the Rev. William Ellis, sent out by the London Missionary Society, and Mr. James Cameron from the Cape visited the port of Tàmatàve, but they were not allowed to journey to the capital. In June, 1854, Mr. Ellis again went to Tàmatàve, and during a stay there of some weeks saw many Christian refugees; and was enabled to do something to sustain the courage and the hope of the persecuted natives.
In July, 1856, Mr. Ellis visited the island again, was allowed to visit the capital, which he reached on August 25, and where he stayed until September 26. He saw much to confirm the constancy of the disciples, tidings of which had reached England from time to time. While aware of the dangers to which the Christian natives were exposed, he and other friends of Madagascar were hopeful that matters would now improve, especially as the prince royal was known to be favourably disposed towards Christianity. But these hopes were speedily overclouded. In July, 1857, a renewed and even fiercer outbreak of persecution occurred[18].’