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The year 1869 saw the addition to the mission circle of the Rev. James Richardson (1869-1897), who, besides being an ordained missionary, was also a trained teacher. He commenced the Betsileo mission at Fianarantsoa in 1870. Two years later, however, he returned to Antananarivo to take charge of the Normal and Boys' High School. Mr. Richardson became a very popular preacher in Malagasy; and he did a great work in teaching a large number of his pupils to understand and to teach the Sol-fa system of music and singing, so that eventually a knowledge of it was spread far and wide over Madagascar. He also did valuable service by editing and preparing the Malagasy-English Dictionary, of 832 pages; for this and his Malagasy for Beginners all students of the language are greatly indebted to him. In an adventurous journey of three months' exploration to the south-west coast in 1877, Mr. Richardson was attacked by robbers, and everything he had was stolen except what he had on, and one of his followers was killed; after escaping with difficulty, he made his way on foot for nearly 250 miles to Fianarantsoa. It should not be omitted to note here that he was one of the most prolific of our hymn writers, thirthy-three of those in the Malagasy hymn-book coming from his pen. |
