The children of Madagascar / by Herbert F. Standing.

  • Herbert Standing
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The children of Madagascar / by Herbert F. Standing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/182 (page 11)
    But there is one tribe living in the hilly country in the middle of the island who, as you have probably heard, have burnt all their idols, and whose rulers have agreed to trust in the one true God and to accept the religion of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of men. These are the Hovas; and it was among them that the early English mission- aries, who first came to the country in the year 1818, laboured so devotedly, sowing the seeds of that religion which not all the bloody persecution of the heathen Queen Ranavalona I. could crush out or uproot, but which has ever spread and gained strength, till now the people professing the religion of Christ are to be counted by tens of thousands. More than 52,000 children were present last year at the examinations of the 935 schools under the care of the London Missionary Society and the Friends' Foreign Missionary Association alone. A century ago these Hovas differed little from the other tribes surrounding them ; they were scarcely more than barbarians, divided into a number of petty chieftaincies constantly at war with each other; and their sway extended no farther than their own little province of Imerina. Now, however, all this is changed ; for about the beginning of this century there arose a powerful king, with a long name—Andrianampoinimerina—who, after subduing the rival chief- tains of Imerina, began the conquest of the neighbouring tribes. His successors continued this work of subjugation, until now the young Queen Ranavalona III., who rules at Antananarivo, is considered sovereign of the whole island, though as yet many of the more distant tribes render her a very grudging and partial allegiance, and a few are still quite independent. Hitherto comparatively few English missionaries have settled among the coast tribes, for as yet sufficient work has been found in teaching and enlightening the people of Imerina: very many of whom are still really heathen at heart and only follow 'the praying' because it is fashionable and the Queen approves of it. So you will see that much of what I shall have to say about the children of