‘_Christian_: “Rabòdonàndrìanampòinimèrina is the sovereign appointed by God to be served and obeyed; but she is only human, hence we cannot worship her, we can only worship God.” ‘_Officer_: “Won’t you take the oath?” ‘_Christian_: “We cannot do so, and we have vowed not to do so.” ‘_Officer_: “Do you still regard the Sabbath day as sacred, and abstain from all work on it?” ‘_Christian_: “The Sabbath is a day set apart for the service of God; during the six days we labour and do all our work, but we still hold the Sabbath sacred.” ‘_Officer_: “Why do you say that you will not worship or pray to any one except God; and yet you worship and pray to Jehovah and Jesus Christ?” ‘_Christian_: “Jehovah and Jesus Christ are God under different names.” ‘One man was asked by the officer: “Who are your companions, fellow?” To whom he replied: “You and all the people on the earth are my companions.” This same man strengthened his fellow Christians by saying: “Be not afraid of them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him Who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” ‘On Wednesday, March, 28, 1849, a proclamation was issued and read at Anàlakèly condemning the eighteen Christians who had refused to give up praying to Jesus Christ and worship the idols. It ran--“Concerning these eighteen brothers and sisters whom I have interrogated and examined: they will not follow the doings of you the majority of my subjects; therefore I shall put them to death. Some of them shall be burned at Fàravòhitra, and the rest I shall fling over the precipice.” When the condemned heard the sentence, they began singing a favourite hymn: “We are going home, O God.” ‘The Christians were mocked, jeered at, and vilified by their fellow countrymen, called traitors to their fatherland, and worshippers of the “white man’s ancestor[11].”’ ‘The sentences of the queen upon the offenders were divided into classes, according to their rank or their crimes. The four nobles, two of whom were husband and wife, were sentenced to be burned alive at Fàravòhitra, at the northern end of the hill on which the city is built; and they were burned under circumstances of cruelty which dare hardly be described. The fourteen others of inferior rank were sentenced to be hurled from the edge of Ampàmarìnana, a precipice to the west of the palace, and their wives and children sold into irredeemable slavery. The total number of those on whom one or other of the sentences was pronounced on this occasion amounted, at the lowest computation, to 1,903, but by some accounts it is nearer 3,000.