Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-08-24


The prohibition of Christian preach
ing in 1885 was speedily followed by
the flaming out of a.persecution tnat
waxed ever fiercer and fiercer, u IL
grew into aseven-fold furnace of wrath:
Neither age nor sex was spared. Old
men, children, weak women, tender
girls, went fearlesslv to death. lnslg-
nificance could not shield the peasant
who toiled \ the -rice-fields, high birth
and long service could not save the
noble who stood beside the throne. 81
must obey God rather than man in this
matter" said one gallant fellow, "but
will serve the Queen faithfully never
theless." The words were hardly
spoken when he was a corpse. And at
last there came day when eighteen
victims at once, among whom were sew
eral of the noblest names in Madagas-
car. were dragged before the judges
amid the yells Of bloodthirsty multi
tude and all condemned to die-four-
teen TO be hurled from the Rock of
Nampaminarina and the remaining four
10 be burned 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
Foxes Book of Martyrs" or the annals
of the Scottish CoFenanters: ..And the
eighteen appointed to die, as they sat
upon the ground surrounded by the sol
diers. sang the hymn;
"Thereis a blessed land,
f'f Making most glad:
There rest 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 authori-
ties they took those eighteen away to
put them to death. They tied them by
the hands and feet to long poles and
carried them on mems shoulders. And
those brethren prayed and spoke to the
people as they were being carried along.
And some who looked upon them said
that their faces were like the faces of
angels. And as they took the
four that were to be burned alive to the
PLACE of execution, these Christians sang
the hymn, when our hearts are
troubled then remember us. And when
they came to Faravohitra there they
burned them, fixed between split spars.
And there was q rainbow in the heavens
AZ the time. They prayed as long as
they had any life. and they died softly
and gently. Aud all the people were
amazed who beheld the burning of them
there" - ~
i Equally cruel was the fate of the
heroic fourteen who were doomed to
the fatal rock. With savage refine
ment of torture, their murderers pro-
longed the last agony by suspending
them with cords passed round their
bodies over the-brihk- of the fearful
precipice. rs if to make them taste the
full bitterness of that hideous death be-
fore it came, An awful hush fell upon
the fierce multitude that crowded the
summit of the rock as the execut;oner's
gaunt black figure came gliding like a
spirit of evil up to the spot where the
swinging forms lowered in mid-air,
with the glorious panorama below out
spread as if in mockery before the eyes
that were so soon to be closed forever.
Once more, and for the last time, mercy
was offered to each victim in turn On
condition of renouncin1 the Christian
'aith. The firm refusal that answered
IL was barely uttered when the doomS-
mans TX flashed and fell, and in the
tomb-like silence were heard the . snir''
Of the parted rope and the dull thud of
the mangled body on the cruel rocks
far below.
No churches have been founded, no
shrines decorated, to honor these name
less heroes: but many saint whose
name stands high on the muster-roll of
the noble army of martyrs. and whose
memory lives in costly silver. and i'm
perishable marble. might fairly Weld
his place to the witnesses of Nam
pamnarina. OF all that doomed band
one only escaped with life from that
Golgotha. This was n Young Girl.
who walked quietly to the place of exc
cutiOn. saying that there was no need
tobind or carry her, for she was quite
ready to 90. Hopes were entertained
that she might be induced to recent,
and with this view orders were pri-
vatelv given to the native officers who
superintendent the butchery to reserve
her TO the last. She was set close to
the edge of the precipice and held there
by the executiOners while the slaughter
proceeded. One by one her fellow
martyrs were crushed into shapeless
hideousness before her eyes till she
alone was left. But the brave girl new
er tlinched. To all offers of life she re-
piled simply: 81 will not give up nv
faith; let me 90 to nv friends Infu-
rated by her steadfast calmness the
chief of the rlffians who directed the
massacre struck her savagely on the
face and babe her take the oath of alb
iurgation and do homage to the gods
Of the country or die forthwith. But
her answer was still the same: 81 will
follow my friends ''She is an idiot.
and knows not what she says" roIred
the baffled savage; take her awav.''
She was accordingly removed. from the
spot and dragged away to distant part
Of the island, where she Survived to re-
count, years later, all the details of a
scene worthy to be commemorated in
words of fire like those wherewith the
great st Englishman of the seventeenth
century branded the Piedmontese mas
acre.-LOndou Cor. N. y Times