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MADAGASCAR 813 siding at the capital. The officers of the army constitute also a powerful and well organized aristocracy. Rank among them is conferred by number from 1 up to 13. A colonel, for example, is a noble of the 9th honor, a general of the llth, and a field marshal of the 13th. The army is large, well armed, and disciplined in the European manner. The revenues of the government arise from taxes, duties and customs, fines, and confiscations. They are not large, but the property belonging to the crown is considerable, and the practice of using the services of the subjects without paying for them precludes in a great measure the neces- sity of a large money revenue. The native re- ligion of the Madagascans is not very clearly understood. They have a vague belief in a supreme God, whom they call Andria-manitra, "the prince of heaven," and in an evil princi- ple ; but the people worship 12 or 15 principal idols, belonging respectively to different tribes or classes, of whom they are supposed to be the guardians or tutelar gods. Four of these are superior to the others, and are considered public and national. The two greatest idols, Rakelimalaza and Ramahavaly, were kept each at small villages about 7 m. from Tananarive, where they were lodged in houses resembling the common dwellings of the people, there being no temples, and no priests except the men who have charge of the idols. In Sep- tember, 1869, both were publicly destroyed by order of the government, in order to convince the pagan masses, who demanded the return of the queen to the native religion, that their gods were powerless. The worship of the dead is also a part of their religion. The Madagascans are much addicted to divination, which they practise according to certain definite rules, with the help of beans, rice, straw, sand, or any oth- er object that can be easily counted or divided. They also cast nativities and foretell fortunate days by the moon and its phases. Trial by ordeal until very recently prevailed extensively among them, principally by causing the accused to drink a decoction of a poisonous fruit called the tangena, a small dose of which acts as an emetic, while a large dose is generally fatal. By skilfully managing the size of the dose, those who administer it have it in their power to decide the result. The Madagascans have no records of their history, but from their tra- ditions and usages there is reason to believe that none of the races now existing in the isl- and were its primitive inhabitants. An extinct race called the Vazimba seem to have prece- ded the present population ; nothing is known of them except that they dwelt in the interior, and at a remote period were conquered by in- vaders and in time exterminated. The exis- tence of the island was first made known to Europeans by Marco Polo in the 13th century; he did not visit it, but gathered in Asia some vague idea of its extent and position. It was discovered in 1506 by Lorenzo Almeida, son of the first Portuguese viceroy of India. The Portuguese not long afterward made a settle- ment on the banks of the river Franchere in the province of Anosy, but their colony was soon massacred by the natives. The French in 1642 made an attempt to possess themselves of Madagascar, and settled a colony in Anosy. Several expeditions were subsequently sent thither, and for some years the French had considerable influence in the southern provin- ces, and claimed sovereignty over the whole country; but the climate and wars with the natives eventually compelled them to abandon the island. In 1644 the English had a fort at St. Augustin's bay, with a garrison of 200 men, of whom one fourth died of fever in two years, and the settlement was soon broken up. For a considerable period Madagascar was not molested by Europeans, till the close of the 17th century, when it became a favorite resort of pirates, who in time, under the lead of a Frenchman named Misson, formed a settlement and a sort of commonwealth, which they called Libertalia, on the N. E. coast. After com- mitting great depredations, these buccaneers were suppressed by powerful naval forces sent against them by several European governments. About 1745 the French East India company took possession of the island of St. Mary's on the E. coast, and made a settlement there, and in 1768 they established another colony at Fort Dauphin at the S. E. extremity of Madagascar. In 1774 the celebrated Hungarian adventurer, Count Beniowsky, attempted to conquer Mad- agascar, and for a time met with considerable success ; but his plans were frustrated by his violent death in 1786. (See BENIOWSKY.) At the beginning of the present century Madagas- car was divided into a number of independent states, one of the most powerful of which was the kingdom of Imerina, a subdivision of An- kova, the country peopled by the Hovas. In 1808 Radama (born in 1792), the descendant of a long line of kings, ascended the throne of Imerina on the death of his father Impoina. This able and ambitious monarch was visited in 1816 by British agents, whom he received with great favor. He formed a treaty with them in 1817, by which the slave trade was abolished on condition of an annual supply of ammunition and arms from the British gov- ernment, which also sent men to instruct the native soldiers in military tactics. With the arms and discipline thus obtained, Radama was in a few years enabled to subdue the whole island. In 1 8 1 8 the London missionary society sent a number of missionaries, accompanied by artisans to instruct the people. The native language was reduced to writing, a grammar prepared, and the Bible translated and printed. In the course of ten years about 15,000 of the natives had learned to read, and a large num- ber were converted to Christianity. Mr. Has- tie, an Irishman sent by the British govern- ment as its agent, resided several years at the capital, where he had great influence. His counsels, which all tended to promote civiliza-