the metropolitan province. This congeries of various mixed. races, the most civilised and prosperous in the whole island, should be termed more strictly the Antimerina, i.e., the people of Imerina; but the people of the tribe are popularly known— at all events to Europeans-as the Hovas, and it is most convenient to use that term when speaking of them. Of their ways, manners, and customs, no better guide can be found that Mr. James Sibree, who has resided amongst the Malagasy for over thirty years, and in his recently published work, Madagascar before the Conquest,* a quantity of useful information concerning the Hovas will be found accumulated, to which we can safely refer those of our readers who are curious on the subject. Whilst of the Hova administration at the capital city of Antananarivo during the latter days of its independent existence, additional information and a vivid description are afforded us by Mr. Bennet Burleigh, the indefatigable correspondent of The Daily Telegraph,† who clearly exposes the general "break-down" of Queen Ranavalona's government when put to the severe strain of a political revolution accompanied by a foreign armed occupation.

It is erroneous to ascribe the present embroiled situation of affairs in Madagascar altogether to the sudden removal of Rainilaiarivony, the Queen's late Prime Minister, from power, and his exile to Algeria; for, in fact, Rainilaiarivony's absolute power had waned and set throughout the provinces before the French were actually in Antananarivo. His personal influence had for some time been tottering, and, had the French failed to reach Antananarivo, or had the approaching column been delayed a little longer, the once powerful minister would not improbably have fallen a victim to the impending Palace revolution. The fate to which he had subjected the unhappy Radama thirty-two years previously, if not that which his elder brother had received at his hands, would almost certainly have

Madagascar before the Conquest. The Island, the Country, and the People, with chapters on travel and topography, folk-lore, strange customs and superstitions, the animal life of the Island, and mission work and progress among the inhabitants." By the Rev. James Sibree, F.R.G.S. With maps and numerous illustrations. (T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1896.) "The Great African Island." By the Rev. James Sibree, F.R.G.S. (Trübner & Co., 1880.)

"Two Campaigns, Madagascar and Ashantee." By Bennet Burleigh, Correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. (Fisher Unwin, 1896.)

proved his own. To explain this, however, it is necessary to notice certain facts in the past history of the Hova nation. As is usually found to be the case in most Oriental States, unless the monarch is a strong military commander, and himself the founder or reorganiser of his kingdom, the real ruler, and he who practically wields the power of the dynasty, is the minister or hereditary grand vizier, whilst the occupant of the throne is merely a puppet for the time being. So amongst the Malagasy-thorough Orientals, and more or less Malayan-it is found that there are numerous so-called queens and kings on the coast, but they are all in the hands of their ministers; whilst with the Hovas, ever since Andrianimpoinimerina established the Hova dominion over the neighbouring tribes, the monarch has ever had to rely on the support of one particular clan—the Tsimiambololahy-the chiefs of which could have dethroned the king at any time, and formed a race of prime ministers, the founder having been Andriantsilavo.

When Radama I. proved too independent for these Tsimiambololahy he was "removed" and replaced by his widow, Ranavalona I., in whose name the brothers Rainiharo and Rainimaharo ruled the kingdom, and these were succeeded in turn by Rainivoninahitriony and Rainilaiarivony. It was these two powerful brothers who, at the demise of Ranavalona, placed her son Rakoto-Radama on the throne, and assassinated him when he proved recalcitrant. They followed the example of their predecessors by establishing the widowed Rasoherina as Queen or figure-head of their government; and soon afterwards Rainilaiarivony overthrew his elder brother, married the Queen, and henceforth ruled the island despotically till the arrival of the French troops terminated his career.

But it must be further explained that there always was, and still is, another element to be taken into consideration when dealing with the factors of this Oriental government, and this very important element is the religion of the State. From the days of Andriantsilavo downwards the various clans could only be induced to take up arms by the oracular biddings of their local gods, or their idols; and, naturally, the "voices" of these gods (who were generally identified with the ancestors of former chiefs and ancient heroes) could only be obtained from

the idols by their hereditary guardians, who formed a class or caste of themselves. These idol-keepers recognised the mpitahiry, or keeper of the national idol, as a religious chief, whose influence over the superstitious heads of the various clans was well-nigh supreme. It had, therefore, been very necessary for the hereditary prime minister to conciliate and maintain a near alliance with whatever priest possessed this supremacy. The Hova sovereigns were ever attended by the national idols, whose divinations were strictly to be obeyed. Thus the minister could only "work the oracle" in the direction he required by the concurrence of the chief mpitahiry. Radama II., like his putative father, had generally been sceptical as to the divinity either of the idols or their "sikidy," but when his mind had become weakened by intemperance, previous to his death, his superstitious imaginings had been reawakened by artfully contrived "messages" and "voices " from his ancestors, the precursors of his fate, and when his widowed consort reigned in his stead, she never appeared in public without the rod of the Royal idol Ramanjakatsiroa* affixed to her palanquin, with its keeper, Rainizoaro, in close attendance.

When Rainilaiarivony had deposed his elder brother, the rivalry of this religious chief of the Tsimahafotsy clan, the spiritual adviser of the Queen, proved to be the great bar to the minister's complete control over the sovereign. Therefore he determined, like a Malagasy Henry VIII., to suppress on the first opportunity all such spiritual interference with his temporal dominion; and, on the death of the Queen, he took good care to place a princess on the throne who was pledged to declare herself and her prime minister believers in Christianity. The idols were promptly turned out of their official residences and publicly burnt, whilst Rainizoaro and his followers were thus set at nought by this politic stroke. The new Queen Ranavalona II., and her minister were baptized, the Christian religion ordained as the religion of the State, and a church was erected within the Palace precincts, in which, however, the Royal seat was carefully elevated above the pulpit,

as evidence of the Queen's precedence above the preacher. Of course the majority of the Hovas were suddenly converted like a flock of sheep; thousands were baptized, and churches erected in every village wherever a State official resided throughout the country.

Paganism, as may be well supposed, although thus outwardly suppressed all of a sudden, was by no means destroyed. It may be remembered that among this very same people, the Hovas, during the long reign of the first Ranavalona, the cruel and sanguinary persecution of those professing Christianity had only served to intensify the faith among the survivors, who even managed to win over proselytes during the days of oppression. Now, by the strange irony of fate, the disestablishment of the national gods but smothered and served to concentrate, instead of extinguishing, the strong innate belief of the mass of the people in the miraculous powers of their ancient gods. Rainizoaro, his colleagues, and their followers, henceforth the avowed enemies of Rainilaiarivony, only awaited their opportunity for working their vengeance upon him, and for the reinstatement of the old order of things. When war was declared, the red flags were displayed on the twelve hills sacred to the idols. The Queen in all her addresses alluded to the twelve sacred cities, and the old idol-keepers were again appealed to for charms, "odys," and protective amulets against the enemy. Paganism again raised its head in the land.

It was always remarkable that, although naturally of sanguinary disposition, and, like their Malayan progenitors, careless and prodigal of human life among themselves, the Hovas always avoided taking the lives of Europeans. In this respect their policy has much resembled that of the Japanese. It was not out of love for foreigners that the persons of the "Vazahas" were safe and religiously protected by the authorities throughout the country wherever Hova garrisons held sway. It may be remembered that when MM. Laborde and Lambert attempted a revolution in 1857, although their treasonable act deserved capital punishment, their lives were spared, and they were escorted down to the coast. Of course the reason has always been that the Hova Government wisely judged that no act of theirs should ever give an excuse for

active foreign interference. So long as the foreigners did not attempt to invade Imerina, the Hova Ministries cared little for what happened by way of reprisals on the coast; and they were ever ready to pay up indemnities* so long as their home was undisturbed.

The rooted mistrust of foreign interference in their affairs was evinced by the Hovas in all their dealings with the Vazahas. One reason why the missionaries of the London Society were so successful in their proselytism was because the Malagasy churches and congregations could be independent of foreign control. Neither the Queen nor her minister, who are supreme in the Palace church, could consistently enter the Roman Catholic Church, thereby acknowledging the superiority of a foreign pontiff.

It is when we take all these factors into consideration that we can understand the tenacious struggle against the use of the word "Protectorate" in the treaty of 1885, and the new spirit of dread and hatred aroused throughout the Antimerina, on the acknowledgment by Great Britain of the French Protectorate over the island in August, 1890.

After that date the lives of foreigners were no longer safe in Madagascar, and when, moreover, the law of government corvée, the hateful fanompoana, was utilised by foreigners to obtain unpaid labour in the gold mines above Suberbieville, the numerous runaway labourers formed troops of banditti in the forests on the banks of the Mahajamba river, and thus a new source of danger to foreigners was created. Many of these Fahavalos were regarded by the villagers as patriots, and as, during the progress of the invading columns up the Betsiboka and along the valley of the Ikopa, numbers of Hova soldiers deserted and were afraid to return to their homes, these served to recruit the ranks of the robber bands, and fahavalism, spreading in all directions, became of formidable dimensions.

* Nevertheless, it was the repetition of these same heavy indemnities, exacted by taxation of the people, in 1865, when five tons weight of silver dollars were paid over to France, and again from 1886 to the present date (when the repayments of the loan, contracted in order to pay off the last war indemnity, became due), which has largely contributed to exasperate the Hovas more against the French than against other foreigners.