The Dawson journal., 1883-09-20
MADAGASCAR MARTYlss.
Thrilling Scenes OF Fifty Years
ASO-A w IOicSaEe MASSACRE
OF Christians.

A correspondent Of the New TOJl (
TINES, describing a journey across
Madagascar, says: But there is
one spot whose memories outweigh |
thousand fold all tie associations
Of the capitolp put together. Just at |
its southern extremity, the high /
sloping ridge upon which Autanana-
liyo stands plunges headlong down /
to the plain in sheer pracipiee Of .
stern gray granite, three hundred /.
feet in height, which the Christian
Hovas look upon with the same rev
erence wherewith Thermopyln was
regarded by the ancient Creeks or
Smithfeld 10y the English Protes-
tants Of the sixteenth century. All |
around it the houses Of the city seem
to have shrunk away IS if recoiling
from the contact Of the accursed
spot And well they may, for this
is the place of public execution, the
Tarperan rock ofAntananarivo, from
which criminals condemed to death
were hurled headlong, and here, in
the evil days Of 1849, was done a
deed OF which a few grayhaired ma
tiyes still speak under their breath
with looks Of horror.
During the tolerant reign Of King
Radamo l., man as far in advance
OF his age in Madagascar as Peter
the Great was in Russia, the prog
ress of Christianity among the Ho-
vas if not encouraged, was at least
tacity permitted. But his successor,
the grim Queen Ranayiomvniaka
was not long in making up her mind
that this new and strange faith,
which SO directly eontrayened all ma
tive customs and traditions, must
needs be eineompatible with that in
stautive reverence for established
usages which was the foundation
stone Of her own power. With this
modern Scmiramis to resolve was 10
execute. She and Christianity
could not live together, and Christi
anity must so.
Accordingly the prohibition Of
Chistian preaching in 1885 was
speedily followed by the flaming out
Of persecution that waxeI even
ferccr and feroer, till it grew into
a seven-fold furnace of wrath.
Neither age nor sex was spared.
Old men, children, weak women,
tender girls, went faarlessIy to death
lnsigniffcance could not shield the
peasant who toiled in the rice fields.
high birth and long seryicec could
not save the noble who stood beside
the throne. 81 must obey God rath-
er than man in this Natter said one
gallant fellow, ''but | will serve the
Queen faithfully nevertheless. The
words were hardly spoken when ne
was q corpse. And at last there
came a day when eighteen victims
at once, among whom there were
several Of the noblest names in Mad
agascar, were dragged before the
judges amid the yells of a blood
thirsty multitude and all condemned
to die-fourteen to be hurled from
the Rock Of Napaminariua and the
remaining four to be barned alive.
Then the little band Of heroes hay
ing refused every offer Of life came
The last scene. OF all, the description
Of which, by a native eyewitness,
may bear comparison with anything
in Fox Book Of Martyrs or the
'Annals Of the Scottish Coyenanters."
And the eighteen appointed TO die,
as they sat upon the grounl sur
rounded by the soldiers, sang the
hymn:
There is a blessed land,
Making most glad;
There it shall never end,
There none be sad"
"And when the sentences were all
pronounced and the officer had gone
back to the place of the chief au
thoity they took those eighteen
away toput them to death. They
tied them by the. hands and feet to
long poles aud carried them on meo's
shoulders. And those brethren
prayed aud spoke to the people as