Thirty years in Madagascar

by Thomas T. Matthews

There can be little doubt now that the interpreter was even then a traitor in the pay of the enemy, and he interpreted nothing of importance communicated to the prime minister. The Jesuits boasted after the war that they won Madagascar for France, and, however foolish in their own interests with the people such a statement made publicly may be, it was generally believed that for once they had told the truth. They had had a grant of 15,000 f. a year for many years (previously, I believe, it was very much larger), which was greatly increased after the war, and they earned their wages by their political intriguing.

An agent and protégé of theirs had long been at work in the palace. He received a handsome salary which he also had infamously earned; for he succeeded in seducing some of the chief officials from their allegiance, forming a party in the very cabinet itself, by whom the country was sold, and the people who trusted them basely betrayed. Hence the poor show the Malagasy made in fighting for their fatherland, until they found that they had been betrayed, and then they rose in rebellion against the French rule when it was too late. Madagascar and its people were betrayed, sold, bought, and paid for, and then the chief intriguer, who was also one of the arch-traitors, when he had done his infamous work was flung aside, while it is said that the other arch-traitor and some of his confederates had to pay large sums for their worthless lives.

We returned to Madagascar in 1882, but not to our old station, which had been filled up. There was, however, need for some one to take charge of the city church of Ambàtonakànga and the large country district during the furlough of its missionary, and after the way that we had both suffered from fever in Vònizòngo the Directors thought that it would be wiser for us to be in the capital for the first two years to become reacclimatized. The missionary did not return after his furlough, and we were accordingly appointed to take permanent charge of the city church and country district of A-kànga[31], and remained in charge of it for twenty years.

MEMORIAL CHURCH, AMBATONAKANGA.

INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH.

The interest created in our work, deepened by the many services I had conducted and by my pamphlet, took a very practical form; for the ladies of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches in Aberdeen sent us four boxes of remnants, patches, sewing-material, and some good cast-off clothing, all of which were of the greatest service to us; for by means of these my wife, assisted by six Malagasy sewing-mistresses, held, for six years, sewing-classes in connexion with the city Congregational school and the village schools for some 700 girls. By that means an immense service was done to the girls in the village schools, such as we could never have done for them had it not been for the efforts of these good and warm-hearted friends. Even such a good work had some drawbacks, however; for as it could not always be carried on some felt aggrieved, and when my wife and daughter came out in 1894, as that work could not be taken up to the same extent, many thought that they were being defrauded of their rights.

It was by no wish of our own that we went to the capital; for we had never taken to it, or to the spirit that then reigned in it and its churches, and we wanted to return to our old station, where we had spent so many useful years. We afterwards found, however, that God had work for us to do at A-kànga and in the district, although certainly not all of it work which we would have taken up by choice, and that the Directors had been wisely guided in placing us there. We found the work at the capital somewhat different from Vònizòngo, and the state of affairs at A-kànga very different from that of our old station. Some of the mischief at A-kànga we found to be the outcome of causes over most of which my predecessor had had little or no control, as they had been at work years before he went there.

The church at A-kànga had been formed by a nucleus of good people, some of whom had suffered for their faith during the ‘killing times,’ and the late Rev. William Ellis was the first to take charge of it. A number of officers, judges, and palace officials afterwards joined it, few of whom were ever any help or credit to it. When the palace church was formed many of them left and joined it. By the time of our settlement most of those who first formed the church had passed away, and, although there was still a nucleus of good people, they were greatly in the minority, while they occupied a lower social position than the majority of the so-called members and adherents. Most of these were very haughty, conceited, and self-righteous, and as destitute of real religion as the stone pillars of the church wherein they worshipped.

The senior pastor was in keeping with this part of his flock; he was the judge already mentioned who stole the ox which our people at Fìhàonana had provided for the queen’s messengers and the others who came to the opening services of the church. He had entered into the joint pastorate in the time of Mr. Ellis, whose successor had skilfully shelved him; but he had joined it again during the time of my immediate predecessor. There was much therefore that was most unsatisfactory in the mother-church and the country district when we took charge in 1882. Mr. Ellis, like other good men, often made the mistake of taking the Malagasy for their own profession, and at their own valuation, with the result that he was imposed upon and deceived, and by none more than by the relations or professed relations of the martyrs, towards whom his heart was very warm. It is better to be sometimes cheated than never to trust, but if a man trusts every one he will be certain to trust mere pretenders and in the end be deceived as Mr. Ellis was.