, surrounded by enormous columns in wood,
brought with great labour from fabulous distances. Five thousand men
were employed in transporting one single pillar, and the greater part of
them died from fever and disease, caught in the low-lying forest land,
where the mighty tree grew. Near the palace is the tomb of King Radama,
whose intelligence was the means by which the Hovas race emerged from
darkness; and near it stands a second palace, richly ornamented with
silver, which sparkles in the sun, and belongs to the queen's heir. On
three sides the mountain is scarped, forming awful precipices; on the
fourth it slopes gently down to the plain, and on these slopes the
little houses of the poorer people are erected, and here we were
assigned a hut.

"Among our number was a missionary named Maurice. Young, ardent and
enthusiastic, he would make no allowance for the prejudices of others,
and seemed to brave death, and even court martyrdom, in his incessant
endeavours to make proselytes. Strict orders had been given by the
queen that we were not to prosecute our religious rites, but Maurice
could not be restrained. Whilst we waited, hoping that the queen's mood
might change, our brother went forth among the people, boldly preaching
the Gospel, and openly defying the queen.

"He planted the cross on the heights of the mountains, he assembled the
people under the forest trees, and there with the sweet odour of the
ravensara floating around, he told them that cheating and lying, though
taught as virtues, were in reality crimes. He told them that the souls
of their chiefs were not migratory, that the crocodiles were not once
men, that the good genius of the world was not Zanhahar, and the evil
one Angetch, and what was a still worse crime, that the ombioche or
priests were only pretended sorcerers.

"He made many converts, but he raised up a host of enemies."

"You speak of him ever in the past," remarked Hughes; "he must have been
a noble fellow. Did he pay the penalty of his zeal?"

"You shall hear," continued the missionary. "One morning our hut was
surrounded with soldiers, our chief, Willis, was seized, and at once
sent under escort to Tamatave. Rice, manioc, and a kind of potato
peculiar to Madagascar, were supplied us, and for nearly a month we
remained close prisoners. Of what was passing around us we knew
nothing, but during this time the `ombioches,' against whose pretensions
Maurice had preached, were em