Having forded the river once, they were quite prepared to do it fifty times if necessary. After we had all been brought safely over, the men started again laughing, dancing, and fairly yelling for joy. ‘What a set of cowards we are,’ they said, ‘if it had not been for the white man, we should never have attempted fording the river.’ I thought within myself, if you only knew it, the said white man would never have asked you to make the attempt, if he had had any idea of the risk that you would have to run. It would have been far wiser, however uncomfortable, to have waited for another hour, or even two, on the banks of the river. However, we reached home just at dark, and had soon forgotten the perils and discomforts of our journey. As I have already said, the war in the south of the island, and the visit of the queen and court to the Bètsilèo country, greatly affected the attendance at church for a time; but on Her Majesty’s return to the capital the tide turned, and the churches were soon as full as ever. Immoralities also declined; we had fewer scandals and fewer cases of church discipline than we had ever had. A Christian public opinion gradually grew in the district; sin began to hide its head, and people to become ashamed of what they had formerly gloried in. As the result of God’s blessing on our efforts to spread the Gospel, real religion took root in the hearts of our people. Several who had been suspended from church fellowship, under the influence of the Spirit of God professed sincere sorrow for their sin, and showed great anxiety to be received back into the church, and to be numbered again among God’s people. One man in particular, who had fallen into sin, and that too in spite of all our warnings and advice, was brought to repentance by repeated strokes of affliction, and the death of one dear one after another, and of his companions in sin. For a time he only rebelled more and more beneath the rod, but at last he came to himself and said: ‘Well, it’s no use going on like this; for this is God dealing with me for my sins, and there is nothing to be gained by going on fighting against God, and the white man’s advice.’ He came to us and professed sincere penitence, and was received back into church fellowship, a sadder and a wiser man. We got out the first edition of the Malagasy Bible, at the cost of one shilling, in 1873; and the whole consignment of 6,000 copies was sold in six weeks, and 10,000 could have been sold, had they been there. There were many most touching incidents connected with the sale of those Bibles; but it would take up too much space to tell more than one.