I had some of my local preachers, deacons, and members taught bricklaying, while our manse was being built, so that we might be independent of the bricklayers of the capital for the building of our new church, when we were able to have one. They gladly and generously built the walls for _one-fourth_ of the regular pay for bricklaying, to keep down the cost of building. The congregation at Fìhàonana raised £20, equivalent to £100 to them, while the churches of the district raised £3 2_s._ 6_d._, equivalent to £15 12_s._ 6_d._, to help us. These may seem small sums, but they were really large for the people to raise at _that_ time. The members and adherents at Fìhàonana made 100,000 bricks for nothing. We had no forced labour, such as there was at the building of some other station churches, under the sway of the ‘Palace Church Evangelists.’ We had agreed not to ask the old chief to help us, as we knew that it would only mean his calling his clansmen, and setting them and their slaves to making bricks for us. We were determined we should not have that, and so we left all to the voluntary efforts of those really interested in the church. The old chief did not like our way of getting the church built, as it gave him no prominent place in the work, as chief, and he accordingly took umbrage, and stood aside for a time; but when he saw that the work went on without him, he came forward and made offer of his services, and really did a good deal to help us, poor old man. I say ‘poor old man,’ because I felt for him. He was a member of the church, he was so before we knew him; but I fear he was not a member of Christ. Yet he knew the truth, and I believe it often troubled him, and he dared not do the things he had formerly done. He was a son of the first convert to Christianity in Vònizòngo, and hence was a brother of Ràmitràha the martyr. He had been a pupil of the first missionaries, along with Razàka, but had lapsed and drifted. Our work was interrupted for a time, first, by the protracted committee meetings, and the missionary conference at the capital, from which we did not return until the middle of February, and then, by the serious amount of affliction through which we were called upon to pass. My wife and children were ill together for about three months; she so seriously ill, that she was brought to the brink of the grave; but God in His goodness spared her to her children and me. The anxieties, and the nursing, proved too much for me, weakened as I then was by my attempts to overtake all the work of the two districts, which had been committed to my care, and so, just as they recovered I was laid aside for a time from full work. While unfit for full duty, I dashed off some 800 pages of letters to friends at home, asking for help for the building of our new church, and by that means was able to raise £150!