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"You see it won't do to look as if we were indifferent to his hospitality," said the guide. "He would be greatly offended, for you must know that the Malagasy pride themselves on their hospitality. Come, we will go and have a look at the neighbouring woods while they are preparing breakfast for us, and I will tell you a story about the late King Radama."
My mother was a native lady, high in station, and a member of the court of King Radama the First, who was very favourable to Missionaries. I was an infant at that time; my little sister was not born. My father was an English trader, skilled in many handicrafts, and a great favourite with the king, who fostered the Christian religion and helped those who came to teach us.
Soon after the death of King Radama I, in 1828, the missionaries saw clear indications of the uncertainty of their positions; ominous clouds began to gather until the storm burst. The edict of Queen Ranavalona I against the Christian Church was published March 1, 1835. A portion of the Old Testament translation was uncompleted.
Soon after the father and mother of Rakotobe were murdered the last being starved to death. The brother of Radama was destroyed in like manner. He lingered eight days in agony before death came to his relief. Then Rakotobe's grandmother and other relations were slain by Ranavalona's orders, and thus the murderess waded through blood to the throne of Madagascar!
At the entrance to the place two enormous letters, "R R," formed in grass borders that surrounded flower-beds, indicated that Radama Rex, the first king of that name, had originated those gardens.
They carried their antipathy so far, that, rather than permit their little ones to enter the schools, they hid them in rice holes, where they were often suffocated. King Radama reigned at that time, and, being a convert himself, he naturally desired the conversion of his people.
He explained to his friends that Radama the First that wise king who had been so fond of the English, and had done so much to aid the missionaries, abolish the slave-trade, and civilise his people had, among other changes, remodelled his army after the British pattern, and had obtained the services of non-commissioned officers from the Mauritius to drill his troops.
They did not understand "moderate drinking"! Intoxication was the rule until the arrack was done. The wise King Radama the First attempted to check the consumption of ardent spirits by imposing a heavy duty on them, but his efforts were only partially successful.
King Radama, after considerably extending his dominions, died in 1828, when the policy of his successor towards the English considerably changed. The Malagasy government having resolved to impose their own laws on foreign residents at the port of Tamatave, an English and two French ships of war went there to try and settle the questions at issue.
Attempts were made from time to time to unite these petty chieftains into one Kingdom, but no one tribe succeeded in making itself supreme till the days of Radam I, who succeeded in bringing the whole of Imerina under his government, and to his son, Radama, he left the task of subduing the rest of the island.
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