Razàka was born at Fìhàonana, Vònizòngo, probably about the year 1814, so that he had reached the ‘three score years and ten’ before he passed away. He was the only child of his parents, and hence was spoiled by them, and grew up a very wayward, wilful, wicked lad, the terror of the village and neighbourhood, and a great authority on heathen charms, especially love-philtres. His father being one of the head-men of the district, numbers of the people visited him to consult him with regard to district affairs; but such was their terror of the son, even as a lad, that they would not venture to enter the village if they knew he was in it. As he grew up to manhood, his delights were cock-fighting, bull-fighting, and _dìamànga_, a kicking game. Some years after he was married, as his wife had no family, his father pressed him to take a second wife; but he declined to do so, not from any high or pure motives; but simply because he disliked the idea of having two wives. He came to be on friendly terms with several of the public criers, the men who used to proclaim in the fairs and district markets the royal proclamations, laws of the land, and edicts on the affairs of the kingdom, &c.; and, being a born speaker, he soon gained great power and made money. He was restless, however, and early got weary of the life he was living. God was preparing him for better and nobler work, although he knew it not. About 1833 some of the early missionaries visited Vònizòngo, and a school was begun at Fìhàonana. Among the first scholars was a son of the chief, who was a friend of Razàka’s. One day this lad told him about the things they learned at school, and, among other things, told him the story of Adam and Eve. The following day he was told something that surprised him very much more than that, and arrested his attention as nothing before had ever done. He was told that God created the world and all in it, and that, although it is appointed once for all men to die, _God would raise them to life again at the last day_. Such truths laid hold of his heart and mind, agitated him, and set him a-thinking, and ultimately led him to attend the school himself, in order that he might learn more about the new _Fìvavàhana_--religion. Being sharp, he very soon learned to read, and to the end of his long life was a beautiful reader, and a most fluent and gifted speaker.