Razàka and his wife were among the first of the converts from Vònizòngo who were baptized after the persecution began. They were baptized at a midnight prayer-meeting in the house of Rafàravàvy one very dark night, while the rain descended in torrents, the lightning flashed, and the thunder roared. Her house was at Imarìvolànitra, near to the spot on which the London Missionary Society printing-office now stands, and within gunshot of the palace. It would have been death to the whole party if they had been discovered In 1850 they were received into church fellowship, and for the first time partook of the Lord’s Supper; and from that time Razàka became a more prominent member than ever of the persecuted band of Christians, with whose lives and fortunes the future of the Church of Christ in Madagascar was bound up. Razàka became so noted among the ‘prayers’ in Vònizòngo, that the queen sent officers to arrest him and bring him to the capital. He had notice of their coming, and escaped. He got back to Fìhàonana one dark night and into the cave. He was able to let his wife know that he was there, and she took him food during the night. He lay hidden in that cave--the small-pox hospital--for two years, his wife taking his food to him during the night. He lay near the mouth of the cave during the day reading and re-reading the Bible--which was hidden there--until he seemed to have got the whole book by heart. As he was thus out of sight for two years, it was thought that he had escaped to the Sàkalàvas, and been murdered by them as a Hova spy; and so search for him was given up. Afterwards, in order to keep him and a few others of the more prominent ‘prayers’ in Vònizòngo out of danger, Prince Rakòto Radàma (afterwards Radàma II) sent Razàka and other five down to Bàly on the west coast, under the pretence of seeing what the French priests were doing there; but really to get them out of danger, in case their zeal for the propagation of the faith might attract the notice of the queen, and cost them their lives. They started for Bàly on July 4, 1854, suffered great privations on the way--were four days and nights without water, four of their number going mad in consequence--and after all they never reached Bàly; for they were seized by the Sàkalàvas as Hova spies, tied up, and taken to the large Sàkalàva town of Namòroka. The old mode of tying up prisoners, with small cords twisted round their wrists, was a most painful and cruel method; and the cords were twisted more tightly round Razàka’s wrists, until they cut into the flesh, as a sort of honour, he being treated--as he really was--as the leader of the party. Shortly after being caught they were sold as slaves to some Arabs, who, in their turn, sold them to a French trader, who carried them to Nòsibè, where they arrived on September 25, 1854.