This attitude of the government towards the London Missionary Society opened the door to all kinds of accusations against the natives connected with our mission. In addition to the time-serving informers among the natives, who sought to ingratiate themselves with the authorities, and to gain a position by sacrificing the good name of men of altogether superior character to themselves, it is not difficult to detect the hand of the Jesuit priest. Our evangelists, pastors, teachers, in fact the whole body of our adherents, and even our school children, were supposed to entertain disloyal sentiments, and also, in many cases, to be instigators and leaders in the rebellion. Even the missionaries themselves were not spared. Absurd charges were brought against some of them of preaching rebellion, and even of supplying powder and guns to the insurgents; but it is needless to say that, in those cases where the accusers and accused could be brought face to face, these charges were seen quickly to vanish into thin air. General Gallieni was surrounded by some of the worst advisers--both French and Malagasy--that he could possibly have had. It was little wonder, therefore, if at the first he committed serious errors of judgement, and made some most reprehensible mistakes;--for example, the shooting of the Governor of Tàmatàve upon a baseless charge trumped up against him by his malignant enemies to get rid of him. The General was, however, far too shrewd and able a man to allow himself to be held long in leading-strings, or to have dust permanently thrown in his eyes. Still, it took him over a year to get at the real state of affairs, and to find out the facts for himself. He found that those whom he had sought to make tools of to harass the Protestants, and upset the work of the British missionaries in the supposed interests of France, were really making a tool of him, and a stalking-horse of France in the interests of Rome! He may have been as greatly deceived as the German professor, who published a book on Madagascar some time ago, so packed with fiction and false conceptions, that he gravely informs his readers that: ‘The London Missionary Society had a colony (_sic_) in Madagascar,’ and that ‘the clerical gentlemen were the real rulers,’--the late queen and prime minister seemingly being little better than their aides de camp!