Thirty years in Madagascar

by Thomas T. Matthews

The land to be Thine own.

All very simple to us, but to the Malagasy, the gracious Sovereign was none other than Queen Victoria. Her rightful throne was to be set up in Antanànarìvo; and we were asking Queen Victoria to come and take Madagascar to be her own! You see, they read between the lines, and saw meanings that were never intended. The hymn had to be disused for several weeks in consequence of this wide-spread suspicion.’

The event of that year was the opening of our new church at Fìhàonana, the Martyr Memorial church, at the home of the martyrs, where they lived and taught, and among whose rocks, ravines, and caves they hid themselves and the word of God during ‘the killing times.’

We had good opening services, and our people were delighted with them, as also with the number who came from the capital to attend them. We had twelve members of the mission present, three of the chief pastors, who were also royal chaplains, while Her Majesty sent £10, equivalent to £50, to the building fund! Fìhàonana was quite a scene of excitement, and all the houses and huts were full of visitors from all parts of our own and other districts, and from the capital, as were also the houses and huts in all the neighbouring villages. We had a special prayer meeting on the Saturday evening, as a finish to our work of preparation for the opening services, and to invoke a blessing on them.

By five o’clock on the Sabbath morning our people were waiting at the church doors to get in, and hours before the time of service, the church was crammed in every corner, while hundreds stood outside, listening at the open doors and windows. The morning service was from nine to twelve o’clock, and the afternoon from two to five. We had service again on the Monday forenoon. We had six sermons at the services, one each from the three pastors from the capital, and the same from three members of our mission. In them our people had a feast, especially in the magnificent sermon of J. Andrìanaivo, ‘The Spurgeon of Madagascar,’ and in the marvellous oration of Rainimànga, the ex-slave, one of the orators of the island.

After the service on Monday forenoon we adjourned outside, when Hàsina (the unbroken money tendered to Her Majesty’s representatives at all great gatherings, in token of allegiance) was presented, and we received the £10 sent by the queen to the building fund. Matiosy Mivàdy, Matthews, husband and wife, were publicly and profusely thanked in the name of the queen and the prime minister—much to the joy of our people—for all they had done and were doing for the good of the people of Vònizòngo. As I had to respond to that, I simply said we were only doing and had done what we intended when we came to the island, namely, our best and utmost for the good of the people, and the spread of the Gospel: and we purposed continuing in the future to do as we had done in the past.

The queen’s message with regard to education was then given, which flatly contradicted all the false reports that the old heathen party had set in circulation to the effect that Her Majesty had no longer any love or respect for religion, that she was about to put a stop to public worship, close all the schools, and had forbidden the people to pay any salary to the schoolmasters.

We then expected the bullock to be presented to the queen’s messengers and the pastors from the capital; but it had been stolen during the night by an uninvited official—one of the judges—who had turned up, and sent it off by one of his slaves at daylight to the capital to be sold there! I did not know all this till a fortnight afterwards.

As there was no bullock and none to be had (although there might have been, had the poor people had money with which to buy another one), the visitors had to be fed on pork, at which they were very displeased, and little wonder, thinking that Razàka, the chiefs, and our people were a very mean set of folks not to have provided a bullock for them.

Many years after, one of the city pastors present at the opening services, in speaking of them to me, brought the charge of meanness against Razàka, the chiefs, and the people of Fìhàonana because of the treatment they had received on that occasion, and I had to tell him, much to his astonishment, how it was that they were treated as they were, and had no bullock presented.