‘Saturday, April 10. The agents of the “fathers” were causing agitation at Andòhatànjona. The frightened Protestants no longer dared send their children to our school, and the Catholics boasted aloud that they were about to seize the chapel. Two or three times they had disturbed the services; in short, things looked very bad when, a couple of weeks ago, I went there myself. My visit had a very good effect. Seeing this, the Catholics were very vexed. They had the three chief members of the church arrested the day before yesterday, and yesterday I heard to my dismay that the pastor and teacher of Ampàngabè had been taken and led bound to Fènoarìvo! They are supposed to have said that the English would soon arrive to drive the French away from Madagascar. I was preparing to defend them when I heard they had been brought with their accusers to Tanànarìvo. I was reassured by this, especially as I heard their judge would be Colonel B., whose uprightness I know. This morning I heard they had been released. Not only have they not been condemned, but their accusers have been severely reprimanded. They have been warned that if they again attempt to disturb the Protestant congregation they will be condemned to six months’ imprisonment. The judge added: “The priest who led you on to act in this way is bad; beware of him.”
‘Jubilation of our people and confusion of the Catholics! they who thought they had only to raise their voices to get what they wanted! That is a verdict, and many more like it are needed. Nothing would convince our adversaries better that French justice is not an empty phrase.
‘Tanànarìvo, Monday, April 12. The religious situation is greatly improving, at least in certain parts. General Gallieni’s circular, dated March 26, forbidding the appropriation of religious buildings by the Roman Catholics, had produced a cessation. The Protestant congregations, hoping to be no longer disturbed in their worship, begin to take courage. On the other hand, the Jesuits, no longer able to intimidate the Protestant people by taking their chapels, have adopted another plan. More than ever (for the system has always been dear to them) they forge lying accusations against our most influential members (governors, pastors, teachers, deacons) in order to have them condemned. They know by experience that when the head has fallen the rest of the body does not offer much resistance.
‘From all sides they are begging me to go to Bètsilèo, and it would not be surprising if I did accompany M. Minault. There will be ample work for two, and more. I shall, of course, wait till my colleagues have quite got into the work. It is important that our brethren in Bètsilèo should have a helping hand, especially those of the London Missionary Society, whose work has been three-quarters destroyed.’
CHAPTER XVII
THE END OF THE MONARCHY
‘As troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way.’—Hosea vi. 9.
The French Protestants took a great interest in our work, and rose to the occasion, and came to the rescue of Protestantism in Madagascar in a noble way. The interest in foreign missions on their part, and on the part of French-speaking Switzerland, has been of the greatest service to their churches. It has been a means of blessing to them, and revived what was dying out under the ‘dry rot’ of Rationalism, Unitarianism, and Infidelity. The income of the Paris Missionary Society has risen during ten years from £15,000 to £45,000! Much of the money was given at first from motives of sentiment and patriotism, doubtless in the interests of ‘our latest colony,’ and the spread of the French language; but much also was given, and has been continued, from the highest and purest motives.
B. ESCANDE. P. MINAULT.
The Paris Society sent out a deputation to confer with us, see the work, and report on it. Then the late devoted and lamented Pasteur B. Escande came out to take charge of the portion of the work which the Paris Society took over, until reinforcements should be sent from France. During two years twenty-two missionaries were sent out to help us to save Protestantism. They did a noble work in taking charge of our 800 village schools and saving them from the enemy. They worked remarkably well under the rather peculiar circumstances in which they were placed. They were handicapped in ways that British missionaries had never been: their nationality, the time of their arrival, following as it did in the wake of the army, the conduct of their compatriots, their connexion with the government—for they in common with the Jesuits received a government subsidy—these all tended to hinder their usefulness. They could not speak the language, and had to work with the aid of interpreters—a most unsatisfactory way of doing mission work. Fever too struck down some of them very quickly. Three couples were invalided home during the first two years, another couple the year after.