On the death of the queen, Razàka and other worthy men who had been sold into slavery, put in chains, or banished to distant provinces for their faith, were set free, and they set to work to build up what had been broken down, and spread anew the Word of God. Much was done in that direction in the province of Vònizòngo, mainly by the labours of those men.

The dire persecution, which had lasted from 1835, came to an end with the death of Queen Rànavàlona I, in August, 1861. Her son became king, as Radàma II, and the cruel laws against Christianity were repealed.

‘Rànavàlona I was the wife given to Radàma I by his father, Àndrìanàmpòinimèrina, the founder of the dynasty, with the express injunction that a child of his, of whom she should be the mother, should be his successor. Rànavàlona was neither the wife of his choice nor the mother of his children.’ Her only child, Radàma II, had been born a year after her husband’s death. It has been said that, cruel and heartless as Rànavàlona was, she was not incapable of acts of personal kindness. She had climbed to the throne over the murdered bodies of the lawful heirs to it, and ‘her position as a despotic queen called into exercise her fiercest passions and her indomitable will—both being fostered and intensified by the superstitions of her country and her time. She was declared to be the divinity incarnate, invested with absolute rule and resistless power. In the overruling providence of God, this woman became the means of testing, purifying, and strengthening in her country that divinely implanted faith which the chief energies of her life were employed to destroy.’

CHAPTER III
FROM DARKNESS TO DAWN

‘The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.’—Isaiah ix. 2.

‘With the accession of Radàma II a new era in the history of Madagascar began. For although not himself a Christian, he had long been recognized as the friend and protector of the persecuted Christians; and one of his first acts, as King of Madagascar, was to proclaim religious liberty, a blessing so earnestly desired by hundreds of his subjects, but so persistently denied by his mother[20].

‘The reopening of Madagascar to the Gospel stirred up in other churches a strong desire to share in Christian work. Even before the arrival of the Rev. William Ellis (who had been sent out by the Directors of the London Missionary Society to reopen the mission), Roman Catholic priests and workers had reached the capital. From the first these agents pursued the invariable policy of Rome. They denounced Protestantism, they attempted to secure the direction of affairs, and they showed no scruples in the means they used to secure their ends.

‘French political agents were also already on the spot, and active in their efforts, only too successful, to gain an influence over the king, and to aggrandize France. The French Consul was M. Laborde, and in close association with him was M. Lambert, who, in 1857, had been banished along with M. Laborde and others by Rànavàlona because detected in a plot to dethrone her. Mr. Pakenham, the English Consul—“the degenerate son of a noble sire, married to a low French-Creole woman”—contrary to all reasonable expectation, took the side of the French as against Mr. Ellis, and did all in his power to lower the missionary’s influence and weaken his authority[21].

‘On September 23, 1862, in the presence of an immense gathering of natives, and a fair number of Europeans, including the English and French embassies, Radàma II was crowned. At that time he appeared to be almost the idol of his people; and little did those present at the ceremony of September anticipate that within eight months the reign that had been begun under such favourable auspices would come to a tragic and melancholy end. Had the weakness and instability of Radàma’s character been better known and more fully considered, and had his dissoluteness and licentiousness been better known, the sad termination of his short reign would have produced far less surprise. His steady friendship for the persecuted Christians, his hatred of bloodshed, and his desire to stand well in the estimation of Europeans are well known. But the darker side of his character seems never to have been known or understood by those most interested in his career. A halo of romance was consequently thrown around the youthful king in the imagination of many; and hence the violent shock and bitter disappointment caused by his death. A juster estimate of his character has probably long since been formed by those most interested in Madagascar. Probably, however, there still lurks in the minds of some the idea that the character of Radàma underwent a more rapid deterioration than was actually the case; and that during the early part of his short reign he was one of whom it might have been said that he was “not far from the Kingdom of God.” Such a favourable view of his character is, however, utterly opposed to facts but too well known in Madagascar.’

While the above statements from the pen of my friend the Rev. W. E. Cousins are no doubt accurate, and it is also true that the Rev. William Ellis was greatly deceived as to the real character of Radàma, and grossly imposed upon, it is nevertheless a fact that the ruin of the unfortunate king was accelerated, and his untimely end much hastened, by the conduct of some who went to the capital to be present at his coronation and remained there, and aided and encouraged him in his downward course, and in the orgies practised in his palace. Things were brought to a crisis by the king insanely throwing all Malagasy law and tradition to the winds, and wishing to introduce and legalize the custom of duelling. It is said that the prime minister, the commander-in-chief, and the officers of the palace besought him on their knees with tears not to introduce such a practice; but he would not relent. The prime minister deliberately asked him: ‘Do you mean to say that if two men quarrel, they can go out and fight with swords or pistols, and if one kills the other the murderer shall not be punished?’ To which the king replied: ‘that’s it, that’s exactly what I mean.’ The prime minister then said: ‘But we cannot have that.’ To that the king replied: ‘But I will have it; I am the king, and I shall have what I please.’ ‘That is enough,’ said the prime minister. ‘It is time for us to see to our own interests,’ and left the palace. The obnoxious order cost the king his life.