What, however, has been said of the influence of teachers and preachers at home may be affirmed with much greater force of workers in the foreign mission fields, that they ‘are of all influences the most intangible: their thoughts enter the intellectual life of men--such as it is--and shape it, and the moral and religious life of men and fertilize them, but it is as the rain fertilizes the soil, itself disappearing in the process, leaving those benefited often utterly unconscious of the blessings they received.’ After a time I was able to get village school-boards--such as we had in Vònizòngo--established in the A-kànga district, and on the whole they did very good service up to the time of the French invasion in 1895. The Malagasy government sent an embassy to France in 1882, to see if the difficulties between the two governments could not be amicably arranged. The embassy afterwards visited England and America, but without being able to attain their end. In 1883, because the Malagasy government would not yield to certain demands made by the French, war broke out. Without any warning the ports on the north-west coast were bombarded, and the town of Mojangà was occupied. Soon after Tàmatàve, the port of Madagascar on the north-east coast, was taken, or rather was abandoned by the Hovas, and thereafter occupied by the French. A fortified camp at Fàrafàtana, a few miles to the west of Tàmatàve, was formed by the Hova troops, and although Tàmatàve was held by the French for nearly three years--mainly by means of their warships--and the camp at Fàrafàtana was within reach of their guns, and was constantly shelled by them, and several attempts were made to carry it, yet the Hovas held it to the end of the war. This was almost entirely through the ability, energy, and determination of the late Governor of Tàmatàve, who was shot for his pains in 1896. When the French sent up their ultimatum to the Malagasy government all French subjects, of course, received notice that they must leave the island. The Jesuits, Sisters, and French and French-Creole traders had a fortnight given them in which to prepare to leave for the coast. The British subjects in Antanànarìvo formed themselves into a committee of public safety; not that we were in any real danger, but rather that we might act in unison. The prime minister sent for us, and advised us not to go far into the country, as the people were very much exasperated by the action of the French, and the vast majority of those in the country districts were ignorant of the distinctions between French and British. We were all white men to them: mistakes might be made. As a matter of fact some were made, and others only just prevented. Some members of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission were mistaken for Jesuits, and were consequently hustled about before the mob could be made to understand that they were British and not French priests.