The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fugitives, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: The Fugitives
The Tyrant Queen of Madagascar

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Illustrator: Pearson

Release Date: October 31, 2007 [EBook #23263]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FUGITIVES ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Fugitives, by R.M. Ballantyne.

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A group of people from a British ship have gone ashore to stretch their
legs, when enemies approach, the ship's boat retreats to the ship and
they are left stranded ashore. The book deals with their efforts to
find what they hope will be civilisation in the capital of the Island of
Madagascar, which is something like the size of France. Unfortunately
the reigning Queen has a hatred of Christianity which had been brought
to the Island by missionaries some forty years before. Our heroes find
themselves assisted by a Christian net-work, but when they get to the
capital they are appalled by the carnage and torture they find when the
Queen has one of her rages against Christianity.

Based on fact, the story told here of the repression of Christianity in
an emerging nation was all too true. The Queen died in 1867, and was
succeeded by her son, an altogether different person, at which point our
heroes take ship for England, and the story ends.

The story is full of action, the only quibble being the long and rather
similar names the Malagasy people who appear in the story have. This
makes it sometimes rather hard to make out what is happening.

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THE FUGITIVES, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.

PREFACE.

It is almost allowable, I think, to say that this is a true story, for
fiction has only been introduced for the purpose of piecing together and
making a symmetrical whole of a number of most interesting facts in
regard to Madagascar and the terrible persecutions that took place there
in the early part and middle of the present century.

I have ventured to modify time and place somewhat, as well as to mix my