Thirty Years in Madagascar with the Rev T.T. Matthews

Thomas Trotter Matthews [1842-1928] was an LMS missionary in Madagascar.

Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Matthews was influenced by the 1859 revival movement and volunteered to the London Missionary Society. He studied theology at the Congregational colleges in Manchester and Highgate and took some medical studies. He was appointed to Madagascar in 1870 as part of the reinforcement and development of the mission there following the accession of Rànavàlona II, the first Christian monarch, in 1868. [Biographical Dictionary of Christian Mission, p.442.]

My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy of this book to scan. This title is in the public domain.

Thomas Trotter Matthews [1842-1928], Thirty Years in Madagascar with Sixty-Two Illustrations From Photographs and Sketches. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1904. Hbk. pp.383. [Click to download complete book in PDF]

Contents

1. A Land of Darkness
2. ‘The Killing Times’
3. From Darkness to Dawn
4. The Morning Breaking
5. Bealking Up the Fallow Ground
6. Early Experiences
7. Shadow and Sunshine
8. District Journeys and Incidents
9. Development and Consolidation
10. The Dead Past
11. Progress All Along the Line
12. Gathering Clouds
13. Bible Revision and ‘An Old Disciple’
14. The Light Extending
15. The Conquest of Madagascar
16. Trials, Triumphs, and Terrors
17. The End of the Monarchy
18. The Triumph of the Gospel

• Index

Preface

For the facts of the historical introduction I am mainly indebted to the writings of earlier writers and missionaries, and to unpublished native accounts of the earlier years of the mission and of the persecutions; for mine would have been almost impossible had it not been for the labours of those other workers in the same field, and for the native sources I have mentioned. Without such knowledge as this introduction gives no correct conception can be formed of Madagascar and the Malagasy, of the work done for and among them, the present condition and future prospects of the people, and of the future of Christian work in the island. [Continue reading]