The martyrdom of the Johnsons, as it afterwards appeared, saved the lives of the queen, the French General and staff, the chief Malagasy officials, the traitors, and the European community at Fàravòhitra in the capital. For one of the tribes--the Zànakàntitra--in the neighbourhood of the capital, having branches in other parts of the central province, had formed a conspiracy to murder the traitors for betraying them and selling their fatherland; the queen and chief Malagasy officials for yielding to the French; the French General and his staff; and the European community for being on friendly terms with the French, and therefore in their minds, of course, in league with them against the Malagasy. The whole tribe was to assemble from the various villages by different routes at the weekly market at the capital, on a certain Friday, armed with knives and small meat-axes, which could easily be carried hidden under their cotton plaids. At a pre-arranged signal one party was to rush the French residency, another the palace, and a third Fàravòhitra, where the European community mostly resided, and all were to be massacred. As nothing of this kind was suspected by any one the plot might very easily have succeeded. On the Monday, however, before the Friday fixed upon, two Malagasy officers--one of whom I knew well--and nine soldiers were sent out west to one of the villages of the Zànakàntitra tribe to arrest a bad character who was _wanted_; but who was being harboured by the chief of that village. On their arrival at the village they demanded in the queen’s name that the man should be given up; but the chief refused to hand him over to them. Thereupon the Hova officers in an arrogant tone--Hova officers were nothing if not arrogant--declared that if he was not given up at once he would be taken by force together with the chief, and that both would be carried off as prisoners to the capital. The chief dared them to do so. Whereupon the officers and men drew their batons--they had no other arms--and entered the village; but as they were completely at the mercy of the villagers, who were armed and ready to receive them, they were at once speared or cut down. Thus the eleven were literally cut to pieces! Having committed so great a crime as the murder of the queen’s officers and men they knew the consequences, and having once tasted blood determined not to wait till Friday; but rose at once, and sent off messengers to call out the other branches of the tribe. As they were not prepared to rise at a moment’s notice, and many were from home, they were joined only by a few from their immediate neighbourhood. They marched next morning on Arìvonimàmo, to seek, it was said, for an evangelist against whom they had a grudge, and who, it had been reported, was under shelter in Mr. Johnson’s house. When they found that he had escaped they attacked the Johnsons and murdered them all. They looted their property and burned down their dwelling.