MAURITIUS.-MISSION COMMENCED.

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in possession of Great Britain, it is probable that much earlier efforts would have been made in introducing a mission into Madagascar, than those at which it actually commenced. These remarks are intended to show that the importance of Madagascar as a missionary station had never been overlooked, but there "lacked opportunity." When, during the late continental war, Mauritius capitulated to the British arms, and was subsequently annexed to the British crown, the desired opportunity presented itself and was embraced. A mission was commenced there in 1814, with a view to the formation of one in Madagascar; and thus war itself, one of the heaviest of human calamities, became instrumental, as in the history of Providence it often has done, in affording facilities for introducing that religion of peace and love, which, in its ultimate triumphs, is destined to "make wars to cease to the ends of the earth."

In the spring of the year 1818, two married missionaries, Messrs. Jones and Bevan, were sent out by the society to Mauritius, from whence they proceeded to Madagascar, and found immediately on their arrival at Tamatave, in the course of the autumn, ample encouragement to commence their exertions. Having deemed it prudent to visit the island in the first instance by themselves, and having obtained sufficient local information for the guidance of their future measures, they returned to the Mauritius for their families, and again, early in 1819, reached the coast of Madagascar. Here the hand of God soon arrested them on the very commencement of their career. Mr. and Mrs. Bevan, Mrs. Jones, and their children, were removed by death within

a very limited period, and the only surviving member of the mission, Mr. Jones, was utterly disabled by a serious illness from prosecuting the mission, and was obliged to re-embark for Mauritius, as the only probable means of recruiting health. The mission was then wholly suspended for about a year and a half.

It would seem, that there must have been some want of prudence in attempting to reside on that part of the coast at the season of the year when the mission families went down in 1819, it being the rainy and most sultry part of the year, and when the fierce diseases that prevail in that part of the island assume their most virulent character. Correct information respecting the season and the climate could have been obtained, and must have been offered, at Mauritius, and it may be reasonably supposed would have formed subjects of inquiry during the first visit of our zealous friends to the island. Their zeal exceeded their prudence, and therefore ceased to be that zeal on which the friends of missions can look with perfect satisfaction. No man can disregard the voice of God in his providence, with impunity. Many missionaries, it is to be feared, have sacrificed their health by an overweening conceit in its stability. They have fancied themselves capable of sustaining any amount of fatigue, even where others have made the trial and failed; and then, improvidently neglecting timely admonitions, have found and confessed their mistake only when too late to correct it, and have sunk lamented into a premature grave. The early termination of the holy career of Henry Martyn is not without its solemn warning. In all new and untried ground, a medical practitioner should, if possible,

TANANARIVO.-NATIVE FEARS.

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be attached to a mission. Many anxieties might thus be superseded, the time of the missionary be saved from avocations foreign to the more legitimate objects of his office, and, beyond a doubt, many valuable lives would be spared for honourable and extensive usefulness. Fresh missionaries entering on a field already occupied cannot be too strongly urged to listen, as wise men, to the cautions of experience, (and it is only wise men that will profit by the lessons of experience,) given them by their brethren familiar with the duties and the dangers of the position.

The recommencement of the mission at the latter end of the year 1820, by the Rev. D. Jones, was attended by several propitious circumstances. The site of it was now fixed at Tananarivo, the capital, in the district of Ankova, in the interior of the island, at once the most salubrious and populous part of the country, under the express sanction and encouragement of the chieftain of that part of the island, since more generally known by the somewhat ambitious title of Radama, king of Madagascar ; and where it also enjoyed the warm, steady and enlightened support of the late James Hastie, Esq., British Resident at the court of Radama, a gentleman whose liberal and persevering efforts for the improvement of Madagascar, and on behalf of the mission there, as the great instrument of effecting that improvement, are above all praise. From that period the mission continued its labours during rather more than fifteen years. It had to proceed, in its early stages, amidst many jealousies on the part of the natives, whose intercourse with Europeans, having been almost exclusively limited to the slave traffic,

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TEACHING CHILDREN.

had led them to regard the measures of white men generally with suspicion, as essentially involving some selfish and sinister policy. Many of the natives, whose profits had arisen from the part they had taken in the horrible traffic, opposed, as strongly as they durst, the whole proceedings of the sovereign, in forming a treaty with the British Government for the suppression of the slave trade, and for the part he took in encouraging the residence of Europeans in his country, and the instructions they gave. Not a few people expressed their fears, that the schools of the missionaries were only nurseries to render their children more valuable when sold afterwards into slavery, and more acceptable, in some way, to the European palate, strangely fancying, and horribly believing, that their offspring were purchased by the merciless white men as articles of food!

The principal efforts of the mission were directed, as it would seem, by the very necessity of the case, in the first instance, and for a considerable time almost exclusively, to the instruction of children and the establishment of schools, under the immediate sanction of the government. This mode of proceeding has appeared to some minds altogether questionable, and as being at variance with the practice of the Apostles in their early efforts to convert idolatrous nations to the Christian faith. But the cases are by no means analogous, and cannot fairly be brought into comparison with one another. It should be remembered that no footing at all could be obtained in Madagascar, nor in any country similarly circumstanced, for labours of any kind, without the permission of its native and independent government; and then, in affording that

NATIVE VIEWS.-LEARNING THE LANGUAGE. 71

you to

permission, to say nothing of protection or encouragement, it could only be granted for certain defined objects that appeared to such governments deserving of the permission. To ask an idolatrous government to allow reside among them, in order that you may teach them another and better religion, makes neither an appeal to their judgments nor their hearts; they cannot appreciate the reasoning employed, nor do they give credit to the motives by which you profess to be actuated. An uncivilized people require that some tangible and sensible objects be presented to them, in addition to the arguments in favour of a superior religion. The offer to convey to them the knowledge of letters, to improve their agriculture, to teach them the art of building better houses, or houses instead of huts, to make them acquainted with various manufactures, these things they can more easily appreciate; and hence may readily concede to the request of the missionaries to reside among them. Besides this, few,

if

any missionaries go out prepared to commence at once the work of an evangelist among the people they design to teach. A knowledge of the language is to be attained; and this, which was miraculously imparted in the apostolic age, and qualified those devoted and inspired heralds of the cross to enter forthwith on their labours, wherever Providence guided their steps, demands laborious application on the part of the modern missionary, and long residence among the people. Of course the latter would not give him permission to live among them, just to learn the language, that he might afterwards apply it in teaching them a foreign religion. The latter, as we have already intimated, would be to them no reason at all, and the