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David Griffiths and the Missionary
“History of Madagascar”
Studies in Christian Mission
General Editor
Heleen L. Murre-van den Berg, Leiden University
Editorial Board
Peggy Brock, Edith Cowan University
James Grayson, University of Sheffield
David Maxwell, Keele University
Mark R. Spindler, Leiden University
Volume 41
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/scm

David Griffiths
and the Missionary
By
Gwyn Campbell
Leiden • boston
2012
Cover illustration: Oil painting, reproduced with the permission of Keith Greenlaw and
Carmarthen Museum.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Campbell, Gwyn, 1952–

David Griffiths and the missionary “History of Madagascar” / by Gwyn Campbell.
p. cm. — (Studies in Christian mission, ISSN 0924-9389 ; v. 41)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-20980-0 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Griffiths, David, 1792–1863. Hanes
Madagascar. 2. Ellis, William, 1794–1872. History of Madagascar. 3. Missions—Madagascar—
History. 4. Madagascar—Church history. I. Griffiths, David, 1792–1863. Hanes Madagascar.
English. II. Title.
BV3625.M2G7533 2012
266.009691—dc23
2011039519
ISSN 0924-9389
ISBN 978 90 04 20980 0 (hardback)
ISBN 978 90 04 19518 9 (e-book)
Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV
provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center,
222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
Er cof annwyl am fy rhieni, Jack ac Eileen
Contents
List of Illustrations, Maps, Tables and Poems .............................. ix

Acknowledgements / Cydnabyddiaethau ....................................... xv
Abbreviations ...................................................................................... xvii
Preface .................................................................................................. xix
Part A

I.Griffiths: Origins and Background . ....................................... 3

II.Griffiths in Madagascar, 1821–30 .......................................... 41
III.Freeman’s Challenge ................................................................ 74
IV. The Battle for Publications and the History of
the Mission . ............................................................................... 114
V. The Histories of Griffiths and Ellis Compared .................... 165
VI. Aftermath ................................................................................... 212
Part B
David Griffiths, History of Madagascar (1843)
Introduction ........................................................................................ 262

Explanation of the Pictures . ............................................................. 264
Chapter 1 ............................................................................................. 271
Chapter 2 ............................................................................................. 276
Chapter 3 ............................................................................................. 289
Chapter 4 ............................................................................................. 296
Chapter 5 ............................................................................................. 302
Chapter 6 ............................................................................................. 310
Chapter 7 ............................................................................................. 315
Chapter 8 ............................................................................................. 324
Chapter 9 ............................................................................................. 330
Chapter 10 ........................................................................................... 336
Chapter 11 ........................................................................................... 340
Chapter 12 ........................................................................................... 349
viii contents
Chapter 13 ........................................................................................... 355

Chapter 14 ........................................................................................... 367
Chapter 15 ........................................................................................... 376
Chapter 16 ........................................................................................... 382
Chapter 17 ........................................................................................... 390
Part C
Commentary on Griffiths’
History of Madagascar 403
Part D
Annexes
1. Books Published in English about Madagascar, 1838–70 . .. 933

2. The Library of Robert Farquhar on Mauritius ..................... 935
3. List of Publications from the LMS Press in Madagascar
up to 1835 and by David Griffiths, 1835–62 . ....................... 938
4. David Jones and David Griffiths, “An Account of the
Ceremony of Circumcision as Performed by the
Madegasse.” . ............................................................................... 943
5. David Jones, “Infanticide Among the Malagassy” ............... 951
6. Facts and Observations Illustrative of the Tanghen
Communicated in a Letter to Charles Telfair, Esq., by the
Rev. Edward Baker—1831 ........................................................ 958
7. Extracts from Jones’ Journal (1820) ....................................... 961
8. The Britanno-Merina Treaty, 1820 ......................................... 972
9. Particulars of the Illness and Decease of the late James
Hastie, Esq., Agent of the British Government at
Tananarivou, the Capital of Madagascar; Chiefly
Abstracted from Communications Transmitted by the
Missionaries ................................................................................ 978
10. Poetry Published in Britain about the Malagasy Refugees . 982
11. Freeman’s Poems ....................................................................... 984
12. Edward Baker, “Memorial to the Directors of the London
Missionary Society” [1832] ...................................................... 986
Glossary of Selected Malagasy Terms found in Text ................... 1001

Bibliography ........................................................................................ 1015
Hanes Madagascar Index .................................................................. 1057
General Index ...................................................................................... 1076
List of ILLUSTRATIONS, Maps, Tables and Poems
Illustrations
1. David Griffiths ........................................................................... xxiii

2. Capel Gwynfe Region . ............................................................. 5
3. Fan Brycheiniog ........................................................................ 5
4. Capel Jerusalem (Annibynwyr), Gwynfe ............................... 15
5. Neuaddlwyd Academy c. 1870 ............................................... 20
6. Llanwddyn (between Llanfyllin and Bala) pre. 1888 .......... 23
7. Welsh Drovers, 1850 ................................................................ 23
8. Wrexham High Street c. 1831 ................................................ 27
9. Allt y Gader, Llanfyllin, c. 1916 ............................................. 27
10. Llanwrin (between Llanfyllin and Machynlleth) c. 1830 .... 32
11. Old Parliament House, Machynlleth ..................................... 32
12. David Bogue . ............................................................................. 37
13. David Jones ................................................................................ 43
14. The Procession of James Hastie’s Funeral ............................ 50
15. Rasatranabo, 1837 ..................................................................... 64
16. 1863 Merina Embassy to Britain ............................................ 65
17. Rahaniraka and Raombana ..................................................... 66
18. Jean Laborde .............................................................................. 73
19. Silver Street Chapel . ................................................................. 77
20. Joseph John Freeman (c. 1827) .............................................. 80
21. Baxter Congregational Church, Kidderminster . ................. 81
22. Rafiringa (Rainilaiarivony) ...................................................... 101
23. Ambatonakanga Chapel . ......................................................... 122
24. Freeman’s English-Malagasy Dictionary, 1835
(frontispiece) .............................................................................. 127
25. William Ellis .............................................................................. 150
26. The Execution of Rasalama ..................................................... 175
27. John Philip ................................................................................. 195
28. Jan Tzatzoe, Andries Stoffles, John Philip & James Read,
Sr. and Jr. Giving Evidence before the Committee of the
House of Commons . ................................................................ 197
29. Freeman and the Merina Embassy meet Queen Adelaide
(7 March 1837) . ........................................................................ 201
x list of illustrations, maps, tables and poems
30. Portraits of Radama I ............................................................... 207

31. Ranavalona I .............................................................................. 208
32. Ranavalona I in a Procession . ................................................ 209
33. Exeter Hall, LMS Anniversary Meeting, 1845 ..................... 216
34. Aborigines’ Protection Society Logo ..................................... 220
35. “A Little Girls’ Missionary Meeting” . ................................... 224
36. LMS Jubilee Medals (1844) ..................................................... 225
37. The John Williams . ................................................................... 226
38. Freeman Chapel, Kingston, Jamaica . .................................... 228
39. Joseph John Freeman, 1841 .................................................... 229
40. Mission House, Blomfield St, Finsbury, London ................ 230
41. Illustrations to Accompany Accounts of Freeman’s
Voyage in South Africa . .......................................................... 239
42. A Tetrawan ................................................................................ 243
43. Memorial Plaque to Ebenezer Griffiths (in Ebenezer
Chapel, Hay) .............................................................................. 252
44. David Griffiths Pictured with a Grandchild Shortly
before his Death ........................................................................ 254
45. Capel Y. Graig, Machynlleth . ................................................. 255
46. Ambodin’Andohalo, the House and Missionary Chapel .... 259
47. The Manner in which Nine Christians were Martyred in
Madagascar . ............................................................................... 260
48. Hanes Madagascar (title page) ............................................... 261
49. Betanimena . ............................................................................... 412
50. Sainte-Marie . ............................................................................. 413
51. Indigenous Fruits (including Melon, Pomegranate, and
Lemon) . ...................................................................................... 417
52. Merina Officers wearing Silk and Cotton Lamba ............... 432
53. Kafir Orange (Strychnos Apinosa) . ........................................ 446
54. Embarking Cattle at the Port of Tamatave, Madagascar .... 451
55. Weaving Raffia Cloth ............................................................... 458
56. Indris Brevicaudatus in the Alamazaotra, or Eastern
Forest . ......................................................................................... 465
57. Aye-Aye ...................................................................................... 465
58. Fosa . ............................................................................................ 466
59. Æpyornis .................................................................................... 468
60. Great Madagascar Bat .............................................................. 468
61. Boys Fishing in an Inland Lake . ............................................ 470
62. Trondromainty (Ptychochromoides Itasy) . ........................... 474
63. Modern Satellite Image of Lake Itasy Region ...................... 476
list of illustrations, maps, tables and poems xi
64. Angavo ...................................................................................... 481

65. A Tsingy Forest . ...................................................................... 483
66. Alamazaotra Forest ................................................................. 484
67. Lake Anosy . ............................................................................. 487
68. Mangoro River: Ferry at Andakana ..................................... 489
69. The River Ikopa at Farahantsana, c. 1906 . ......................... 491
70. Andrianampoinimerina ......................................................... 499
71. Radama I .................................................................................. 502
72. Betsimisaraka ........................................................................... 507
73. Group of Sakalava in Antananarivo c. 1880 ...................... 508
74. Members of the 1837 Merina Embassy to Europe . .......... 509
75. Use of Angady in Ricefields .................................................. 510
76. Dioscorea Soso Jum. & H. Perrier var. Trichopoda (Jum. &
H. Perrier) Burkill & H. Perrier [family Dioscoeaceae] . .. 513
77. Malagasy Rice Plant (Oryza Sativa) . ................................... 518
78. Transplanting Rice . ................................................................ 521
79. Preparing Bread from the Manioc Root ............................. 523
80. Rakelimalaza ............................................................................ 536
81. Goaika ....................................................................................... 538
82. Ramahavaly .............................................................................. 542
83. Ramanjakatsiroa ...................................................................... 544
84. Rafantaka .................................................................................. 545
85. Sampy ........................................................................................ 549
86. Representations of Infanticide in Madagascar . ................. 554
87. Fandroana Bullock c. 1896 . .................................................. 559
88. Betsimisaraka Rum-Vendor (1888) ..................................... 561
89. Tangena Plant .......................................................................... 571
90. Representation of the Tangena Ordeal ............................... 572
91. British Crown Coin ................................................................ 573
92. Madio Procession . .................................................................. 576
93. Thomas Bevan (1795–1819) .................................................. 592
94. Tamatave in the 1860s ........................................................... 599
95. Storm at Sea ............................................................................. 604
96. Port Louis, 1829 ...................................................................... 605
97. Fairfax Moresby ...................................................................... 609
98. Soanieranana Palace, c. 1865 ................................................ 611
99. Juliette Fiche c. 1857 .............................................................. 616
100. Embarking in Dug-Outs on East Coast Lagoons,
c. 1880s ..................................................................................... 618
101. Bridge over a Forest Stream . ................................................ 619
xii list of illustrations, maps, tables and poems
102. Travelling through the Eastern Forest, 1850s .................... 620

103. Ambatovory, c. 1880s ............................................................. 621
104. Antananarivo c. 1857 ............................................................. 622
105. Andohalo: a Kabary . .............................................................. 622
106. Early Military Training Ground, Antananarivo [Sahafa?] 625
107. Sorabe (17th century) . ........................................................... 628
108. Ampanga or Maria Theresa Dollar ...................................... 637
109. Hair Style of a Widow in Mourning ................................... 640
110. Prince Ratefy . .......................................................................... 641
111. John Jeffreys ............................................................................. 644
112. Wenceslas Bojer ...................................................................... 651
113. Mahazoarivo Royal Gardens ................................................. 652
114. Merina Hunting Party . .......................................................... 654
115. Madagascar Owl (Asio Madagascariensis) .......................... 660
116. Ambatomanga, 1862 . ............................................................. 666
117. David Johns . ............................................................................ 675
118. James Cameron seated outside his House in Analakely
c. 1870 ....................................................................................... 679
119. French Attack on Tamatave, 1829 ....................................... 697
120. Ambohipotsy . .......................................................................... 702
121. Daniel Tyerman ...................................................................... 710
122. George Bennet ......................................................................... 710
123. Wooden Tombs . ..................................................................... 717
124. Rafaralahy . ............................................................................... 718
125. Majunga .................................................................................... 721
126. Sultan Abdullah, 1829 ............................................................ 723
127. Jumbe-Souli, Daughter of Ramanetaka and Cousin of
Radama II ................................................................................. 728
128. John Cummins, c. 1855 ......................................................... 736
129. Galbraith Lowry Cole ............................................................. 738
130. Audience at the Palace, 5 September 1856 . ....................... 753
131. Ambohijanahary c. 1870 ........................................................ 755
132. East Coast Sugar Refinery, 1863 . ......................................... 760
133. Theophilus Atkinson .............................................................. 778
134. Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, 1844 ................................. 780
135. Ikongo ....................................................................................... 783
136. Cannons at Ambodin’Andohalo c. 1870 ............................ 800
137. Mahamasina: Military Drill c. 1870 ..................................... 801
138. James Cameron and Daughter Mary, Madagascar
c. 1870 ....................................................................................... 809
139. Depictions of the Execution of Rasalama ........................... 823
list of illustrations, maps, tables and poems xiii
140. The Merina Christian Escapees, 1838 . ................................ 826

141. Aerial View of Nosy Mitsio .................................................. 831
142. Nosy Be . ................................................................................... 832
143. Portuguese Slave Brig with 35-–man Crew, and 576
Slaves, Captured by HMS Scout, 11 January 1837 ............ 839
144. Toamasina Fort, c. 1845 ........................................................ 865
145. Aftermath of the Franco-British Attack on Tamatave,
1845 ........................................................................................... 866
146. Gravestone of Edward and Ruth Baker .............................. 873
147. Charles Manthorpe ................................................................. 875
148. Beforona ................................................................................... 882
149. The Tsitialaingia (centre) . ..................................................... 885
150. A Woman’s Palanquin, near Toamasina (the Merina
Fort at Tamatave), 1865 . ....................................................... 890
151. Griffiths’ House and Wall . .................................................... 894
152. The LMS Chapel in Port Louis, Mauritius ......................... 917
153. Merina Rice Granaries ........................................................... 919
154. Thomas Fowell Buxton .......................................................... 929
Maps
1. David Griffiths’ Wales .............................................................. 17

2. State-Mission Schools in Central Imerina, 1828–32 . ......... 53
3. Madagascar and the Southwestern Indian Ocean ............... 407
4. Gold Deposits in Madagascar ................................................. 427
5. LMS Map of Lake Itasy and Region, 1875 ........................... 476
6. Imerina . ...................................................................................... 501
7. Tamatave-Antananarivo Route . ............................................. 617
8. Comoro Islands ......................................................................... 724
9. Nzwani (Johanna / Anjouan), 1748 . ..................................... 725
10. Royal Palace, Antananarivo (1829) . ...................................... 730
11. Andohalo, 1829 ......................................................................... 751
12. Fort Dauphin, July 1829 .......................................................... 769
13. Baly Bay ...................................................................................... 922
Tables
1. David Griffiths’ Family Tree ..................................................... 6

2. Students at Wrexham and Llanfyllin Academies .................. 29
3. Members of the Early Madagascar Mission ........................... 45
xiv list of illustrations, maps, tables and poems
4. Mission Schools, 1828–29 . ...................................................... 56

5. Mission School Teachers, 1826–27 ........................................ 57
6. The Roambinifololahy, 1824 and 1826–28 ............................ 59
7. Schema of the Histories of Madagascar . .............................. 167
8. Comparative Significance of Individual Missionaries
according to Ellis and Griffiths . ............................................. 185
9. Comparison of References in Ellis’ History vol. 2 and
Griffiths’ Hanes to Leading LMS Agents and British
Political Agents Connected to Madagascar, 1810–36 and
the English Monarchy .............................................................. 204
10. Weaving Terms ......................................................................... 433
11. Months in Different Malagasy Dialects ................................ 478
12. Malagasy Dollar Subdivisions and Rice Equivalents .......... 497
13. Malagasy Monetary Weights Expressed in Rice Grains . ... 497
14. Select Merina and Betsileo Vocabulary . ............................... 525
15. Cult Vazimba Tombs in Central Imerina ............................ 530
16. Merina Lunar Calendar ........................................................... 558
17. Examples of the Traditional Merina New Year . ................. 562
18. Merina Expressions of Time ................................................... 577
19. Mauritius. British Vessels Sailing to and from
Madagascar, 1845–46 ............................................................... 868
20. Mauritius. Oxen and Rice Imports from Madagascar,
1835–44 . ..................................................................................... 869
Poems
1. Dafydd [David] Jones’ Farewell Poem .................................... 591

2. Matilda McCroby’s Farewell Poem .......................................... 682
3. George Bennet’s Poem ............................................................... 734
4. An Australian Girl’s Farewell . .................................................. 874
5. The Embarkation of the Malagasy Christians ........................ 982
6. Rafaravavy and Joseph Driven Away . ..................................... 983
7. Thoughts at Sea . .......................................................................... 984
8. The “Magnificent” in South Africa . ......................................... 985
Acknowledgements
CYDNABYDDIAETHAU
I Eleri Edwards a gyflwynodd imi gyhoeddiadau David Griffiths; i

Elwyn Hughes, cyfaill cadarn, am ei gymorth gyda’r cyfieithu; i Anna
Brueton, Valerie Haynes, Richard Glanville-Brown, Joy Jones, Keith
Greenlaw, Edward Hood a Trefor Jenkins am eu cyfraniadau; i Linda
Janeiro am wella’r mapiau a’r darluniau ac am ddarllen a gwirio’r
cyfan; i Marianne am ei diddordeb a chyngor; ac i Rhiannon, Rhys a
Lludd am eu hamynedd dros y blynyddoedd.
This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada.
Abbreviations
AAM Archives de l’Académie Malgache, Antananarivo

AAMM Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine
AHVP Archives historiques de la Vice-Province Société de Jésus de
Madagascar, Antananarivo
ALGC Archifdy Llyfrgell Genelaethol Cymru / Archives of the
National Library of Wales.
BAM Bulletin de l’Académie Malgache
BFBS British and Foreign Bible Society
BL British Library, London, England.
CO Colonial Office series in the Public Records Office,
London.
CWM Council for World Mission.
EMMC Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle
FJKM Fiangonana Jesosy Kristy aty Madagascar (Protestant Church
of Madagascar)
HdR Callet, R.P. Histoire des Rois. Tantara ny Andriana.
JAH Journal of African History
JMM Juvenile Missionary Magazine
LMS London Missionary Society.
MIL Madagascar, Incoming Letters.
MJMM Madagascar. Journals Madagascar and Mauritius 1. 1816–
1824
MMC Missionary Magazine and Chronicle
MOL Madagascar, Outgoing Letters.
MR Missionary Register
MSC Meeting of Southern Committee of the LMS
ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
PRO Public Record Office, Kew, London.
QCT Quarterly Chronicle of the Transactions of the London
Missionary Society
SACA South African Commercial Advertiser
SOAS School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London.
SPCK Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge
Preface
In 1838, Fisher, Son, & Co., a reputable London printer, published

a two volume History of Madagascar by William Ellis (1794–1872),
Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society (LMS) and editor
of the society’s journals.1 A description of the first Protestant mission
to Madagascar and its impact upon Malagasy society, Ellis’ History
has long been regarded as an important historical source for late eigh-
teenth and early nineteenth-century Malagasy history. What isn’t gen-
erally acknowledged is that Ellis had yet to visit the island when the
volumes bearing his name were published. The work was in fact a
collaboration based on the research of at least four missionaries who
had been in the field for some years. Ellis, who went on to write sev-
eral other books about Madagascar, did not visit the island until 1853,
almost two decades after the first LMS mission collapsed.
How did an important editor and high-profile LMS leader come
to claim sole authorship for a work he clearly could not have written
alone? This question has puzzled me for decades. My parents were
Welsh missionaries; I was born in Madagascar, grew up in Wales
and have written extensively on island’s economic history as well
as the mission.2 Shortly after my return to Madagascar in 1978 for
a two-year research stint, I met a Welsh-speaking missionary, Eleri
Edwards, who had known my parents and was part of the long tradi-
tion of Welsh missionaries to the island that began in 1818. A dedi-
cated teacher, Eleri also had a keen interest in history. She gave me
1
William Ellis, History of Madagascar. Comprising also the Progress of the Christian
Mission established in 1818; and an Authentic Account of the Recent Martyrdom of
Rafaravavy; and of the Persecution of the Native Christians, 2 vols. (London: Fisher,
Son, & Co, 1838).
2
See e.g. Gwyn Campbell, An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750–
1895. The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2005); Idem, “The Role of the London Missionary Society in the Rise of the Merina
Empire, 1810–1861” PhD. University of Wales, Swansea, 1985; Idem, “Missionaries,
Fanompoana and the Menalamba Revolt in late nineteenth century Madagascar”
Journal of Southern African Studies 15.1 (1988), 54–73; Idem, “Currency Crisis,
Missionaries, and the French Takeover in Madagascar, 1861–1895” International
Journal of African Historical Studies 21.2 (1988), 273–89; Idem, “Crisis of Faith and
Colonial Conquest. The Impact of Famine and Disease in Late Nineteenth-Century
Madagascar” Cahiers d’études africaines 32.127 (1992), 409–53.
xx preface
a small, cloth-bound volume entitled Hanes Madagascar—literally

“History of Madagascar”—by David Griffiths written in Welsh.3 Of
course I knew Griffiths (1792–1863) as co-founder, along with David
Jones (1796–1841), of the first LMS Malagasy mission, and its lon-
gest serving member. However, I was not aware that he had published
a history of the island—I might add, an unauthorized history in his
native language—as all writings by missionaries were considered the
property of the LMS. Realizing that few outside Welsh circles knew of
the book, I undertook a translation—with the invaluable assistance of
Elwyn Hughes.
Written for a Welsh reading public, but one which gave strong sup-
port to the LMS, Griffiths’ volume differs from that of Ellis in that it
gives the Welsh missionaries pride of place, and diminishes the impor-
tance Ellis affords to English missionaries and political interests. It also
adds new information on the indigenous Christians, and their survival
under persecution.
However, as significant as Giffiths’ book is, the story behind its
authorship is perhaps of greater importance to our understanding of
the history of the mission, its impact on Malagasy society, and on the
wider political context in which missionary activity took place. The
LMS was at the time a global enterprise; Ellis had taken over publica-
tion of all LMS journals world-wide and as Foreign Secretary, was a
powerful force in many LMS areas of activity. His attention was drawn
to Madagascar through a vigorous campaign waged by London-born
missionary Joseph John Freeman (1794–1851)—who was also a fam-
ily friend—to discredit Griffiths and force him to leave Madagascar.
Freeman had been sent to the island in 1827 to wrest leadership from
Jones and Griffiths, whom the LMS considered troublesome charac-
ters. Griffiths’ story is one of on-going battles with the LMS, and his
eventual return and attempt to set the record straight through writ-
ing. The archives reveal evidence of bitter rivalry, personal enmity and
appropriation of authorship, which seriously diminished the impor-
tance of Griffiths’ and to some extent Jones’ role in the history of the
mission. The evidence strongly suggests that Ellis’ book, which con-
3
David Griffiths, Hanes Madagascar, neu Grynodeb o Hanes yr Ynys, ei Chynyrch,
ei Masnach, ac Ansawdd ei Thrigolion; yn nghyda’u Harferiadau Creulon, a’u
Heilunaddoliaeth Ffiaidd. Hefyd, Hanes y Genadaeth, yn ei Llwyddiant a’i Haflwyddiant;
yn nghyda’u Herledigaethau a’u Merthyrdodau, o’r Dechreuad yn 1818, hyd 1843
(Machynlleth: Richard Jones, 1843).
preface xxi
tains significant errors, was published in haste in order to pre-empt an

attempt by Griffiths to publish his own version of events. I argue that
the core of Ellis’ work derived chiefly from the work of Griffiths and
secondarily Jones—notably a manuscript which originally bore their
names and their correspondence back to mission headquarters.
This volume consists of three parts. The first section, based on
extensive research in mission and other archives, analyses the back-
ground, work and character of David Griffiths, traces the making of
the histories of the first Madagascar Mission, investigates the true
authorship of the LMS sanctioned History of Madagascar, and com-
pares and contrasts it with Griffiths’ Hanes Madagascar. It presents,
for the first time, not only evidence that Griffiths’ work provided the
core of the missionary sources used for the LMS-authorised History,
but that Freeman and Ellis deliberately denied Griffiths any claim to
authorship, and downplayed his role in the mission.
The second part presents a translation of Hanes Madagascar, mak-
ing it available to non-Welsh readers for the first time. The original
page numbers are marked in bold in square brackets. The third section
comprises an extensive commentary on Griffith’s book—thus helping
to restore to the man and his work a value the LMS hierarchy sought
to deny.
This study will, I hope, open the door to a serious re-evaluation,
not only of the Madagascar Mission, but of early nineteenth-century
British imperialism and its relationship to the global evangelical enter-
prise. Clearly, Welsh and English missionaries carried their cultural
perceptions and agendas with them into the mission field. These dif-
ferences predisposed them to view the indigenous Malagasy and thus
their evangelical mission quite differently. The resulting tensions inev-
itably moulded the destiny of the mission. Records show that the LMS
did its utmost to conceal such disputes from the British Foreign Office
and Christian public, and to remove any evidence of such tensions
from published documents. I hope this book will not only inspire a re-
evaluation of missionary history and its relationship to British impe-
rial policy, but will begin the restoration of David Griffiths’ place in
history as a pioneering missionary and important writer. This restitu-
tion is long overdue.
David Griffiths. Oil painting, reproduced with the permission of Keith
Greenlaw and Carmarthen Museum.
Part A

Chapter one
David Griffiths: Origins and Background
Wales, a mountainous country, 20,779 km² in area, is a part of main-

land Britain lying between England and the Atlantic (the Irish Sea). It
possesses three national parks, created to protect areas of outstanding
natural beauty, one of which comprises the Brecon Beacons (“Bannau
Brycheiniog”), a mountain range in South Wales that generally lies at an
altitude of between 250 and 600 metres. The westernmost extension of
the Beacons is called the Mynydd Du (“Black Mountain”). It was here
in the parish of Gwynfe (“Paradise”), Carmarthenshire, West Wales,
that David Griffiths was born on 28 December 1792 and raised, the
eldest of the six children (all boys) of Elizabeth and William Griffiths,
who farmed “Glanmeilwch” (“on the bank of the River Meilwch”).1
The farm was one of a number of tenant holdings, enclosed by earth
banks topped with hedges, with patches of deciduous woodland, scat-
tered along the western edge of the Mynydd Du.
At the time, Wales was the most rural region of Southern Britain.2
In South Wales, the only towns with a sizeable population were
Merthyr Tydfil (7,705) and Swansea (6,831); the only other centres
with a population of over 1,000 were Cardiff (1,870), Aberystwyth
(1,758), and Newport (1,087).3 The agricultural sector, in which the
majority of Welsh people were employed, was backward compared
to England, which from the mid-eighteenth century experienced an
1
David Griffiths’ brothers were Griffith (b. 16/05/1795), Timothy (09/11/1796–
18/02/1888); William (b. 02/01/1804), John (b. 13/08/1805); and Jonathan
(b. 23/03/1815), “Donation Miss. L.J. Jones, Llandeilo, December 1970” 17447E, ALGC;
T. Gwyn Thomas, David Griffiths, Madagascar (Llundain: Cymdeithas Genhadol
Llundain, 1920), 10; D.R. Jones, Arwyr y Groes (Llundain: Cymdeithas Genhadol
Llundain, 1919), 15; Zoë Crossland, “Landscape and mission in Madagascar and
Wales in the early 19th century: ‘Sowing the seeds of knowledge’” Landscapes 7.1
(2006), 100.
2
Thomas A. Welton, “On the Distribution of Population in England and Wales,
and Its Progress in the Period of Ninety Years from 1801 to 1891” Journal of the Royal
Statistical Society 63.4 (1900), 550.
3
David Williams, A History of Modern Wales (London: John Murray, 1951), 195.
4 chapter one
agrarian revolution.4 The Griffiths family probably occupied a modi-

fied version of the traditional one-room thatched-roof mud hut inhab-
ited mostly by petty Welsh farmers.5 David Howell noted of the small
(under 25-hectare) commonplace family-run tenant farms, such as
that of the Griffiths:
resources were limited and advanced technology was generally
absent . . . Besides their shortage of capital, such family-farmers were
often ill-educated, wanting in enterprise, wedded to traditional methods
and suspicious of change. When compared with the substantial tenants
of the large farms of the southeast and southern Midlands of England it
clearly emerges that these family farmers really belonged to the labour-
ing class. They were essentially peasant-tenants who practiced semi-
subsistence farming.6
A 1794 report for Carmarthenshire, where Griffiths was raised, noted
that “The people have impoverished the soil, and the soil, in its turn,
has impoverished them.”7 However, probably because of open access
to the neighbouring unenclosed Beacons, the Griffiths were relatively
comfortably off.8 In common with neighbouring farmers, they prac-
ticed traditional mixed agriculture—cultivating primarily oats, fol-
lowed by corn; and grazing cattle, sheep and Welsh Mountain ponies
and cobs (used for light farm work) on the Mynydd Du.9
The traditional Celtic agricultural year had two seasons: November
to April and May to October, with periods of intense activity in March
and April and from mid-June to October. The system, which persisted
into the post-1945 era in many areas of highland Wales, was described
by Alwyn Rees in 1940:
The calendar year opens with farming at a low ebb. Men and animals
are largely confined to the farmstead by inclement weather. Implements
are mended, firewood is cut and there is hedging to be done when the
4
David J.V. Jones, Before Rebecca. Popular Protests in Wales, 1793–1835 (London:
Allen Lane, 1973), 1–2.
5
Jones, Before Rebecca, 3; “Ross McCabe of Under the Thatch”—http://www
.underthethatch.co.uk/essay-traditional-cottages.htm (04/02/07).
6
David W. Howell, Land and People in Nineteenth-Century Wales (London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977), xii–xiii.
7
Hassel, quoted in David Williams, The Rebecca Riots. A Study in Agrarian
Discontent (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1971), 71.
8
Edward Rees (Iolo Rhys), Caersws, “Y Parch. David Griffiths, Madagascar a’i
deulu” Y Dysgedydd 100 (Mawrth 1921), 105.
9
http://www.equiworld.net/Breeds/welsh/history.htm (04/02/07); http://www
.acadat.com/HLC/theme.htm#moor (04/02/07).
david griffiths: origins and background 5
Illustration 2. Capel Gwynfe Region10
Illustration 3. Fan Brycheiniog11
10
http://www.acadat.com/HLC/Myddfai/Myddfaisummary.htm (04/02/07).
11
http://www.livefortheoutdoors.com/Hill-Guide/Search-Results/7883/7889/Fan-
Brycheiniog/ (14/03/10).
Table 1. David Griffiths’ Family Tree12
6
chapter one
12
Based chiefly on information kindly given the author by Anna Brueton, Joy Jones and Valerie Haynes.
weather permits, while sheep left out on the hillside require attention
during snowfalls. Towards the end of February ploughing of leys for oats
begins in earnest and continues during March. The seed is sown towards
the end of March and the beginning of April, or ideally, according to the
old saying, during y tri deryn du a dau lygad Ebrill (i.e. the last three days
of March and the first two of April). At the same time lambing demands
the attention of the farmer, and this period, with the cattle still indoors
making extra work, is a peak period of activity. During April winter
fallow is ploughed, harrowed and cleaned, and barley and rootcrops are
sown at the end of the month, with the exception of swedes which are
usually left until late in May to avoid blight.
By the end of April most of the ploughing and sowing has been done,
lambing is over, the cattle are now left out at night, and the following six
or seven weeks (from the beginning of May to the latter part of June) is
a period of comparative respite. Now there is time for carting manure
from the yard, and for fencing, ditching and tidying up generally. The
latter half of June is the traditional time for washing and shearing sheep,
and at the same time the crops need weeding. The farmer tries to do
these tasks before the hay harvest starts at the end of the month. This
busy period ends in July if the weather is kind, and there is a brief breath-
ing-space during the first half of August before the corn harvest begins.
Advantage is taken of this interval for dipping sheep and bringing in
rushes and bracken for winter bedding. Then the tempo quickens again
while the cereal crops are gathered in September, slackening off gradu-
ally during October and November when rootcrops are harvested and
stubble is ploughed for winter fallow. In November the cows are brought
in again and, with the main tasks of the year completed, the farmer and
his household relax in the declining days of the back-end . . .13
The Griffiths family was largely self-sufficient, and from March to
October frequented weekly markets in the nearby Tywi valley to sell
animals (18-month old cattle were generally sold in March; yearling
calves in May; lambs intermittently throughout the summer; old ewes
and additional numbers of 18-month old cattle in early October)14
and surplus produce—some of which was exported from Carmarthen
(Caerfyrddin), an important regional market town some 42 km dis-
tant, at the mouth of the Tywi, to southwest England and Ireland.15
13
Alwyn D. Rees, Life in a Welsh Countryside (Cardiff: University of Wales Press,
1975), 24–5.
14
Rees, Life in a Welsh Countryside, 25.
15
Jones, Before Rebecca, 1–3; Jasper Malcolm Lodwick, Edith Mary Lodwick, Joyce
Lodwick, and Victor Lodwick, Malcolm and Edith Lodwick’s Story of Carmarthen
(Carmarthen: V.G. Lodwick & Sons, St. Peters Press, 1972), 121–3; http://www
.acadat.com/HLC/Myddfai/Myddfaisummary.htm (04/02/07); http://www.acadat
.com/HLC/theme.htm#comm (04/02/07).
8 chapter one
Farm life was hard and simple. Adult family members worked every
daylight hour except for Sundays. Children generally started working
from the age of ten, although David Griffiths, as the eldest male child
of a large family, assisted his father from a much earlier age. When
required, notably at harvest time and during the construction of build-
ings, neighbours would help each other.16 Such cooperation was essen-
tial in hard times, as from 1789 to 1802 when particularly wet weather
ruined harvests, and between 1805 and 1820 when the northern hemi-
sphere experienced exceptionally cold weather and harvest shortfalls
were again common: 1812 was the coldest year for four centuries, the
winters of 1813–14 and 1815–16 being exceptionally cold, and the
years 1816 and 1817 exceptionally wet. The winter of 1813–14 which
experienced abnormally heavy snowfalls was one of the five coldest
winters on record—it was the last time that the tidal Thames froze
(and horses crossed the iced-over River Severn).17 The summer of 1814
was also very cold. In 1816 the eruption of Tambora, in Indonesia,
had a global climatic impact,18 creating in Western Europe “the year
without a summer.”19 In Wales, wet weather and low temperatures
ruined the hay harvest, with the result that livestock could not be fed,
and famine threatened. In 1818, violent storms and the flooding of the
Tywi valley ruined crops and decimated herds, reducing many local
people to destitution.20
Such adverse natural phenomena were aggravated by human catas-
trophes. Griffiths grew up during the Napoleonic Wars, when agricul-
tural protection (the Corn Laws) and currency problems, combined
with a series of poor harvests, resulted in a sharp rise in agricultural
prices.21 Welsh hill farmers grew little wheat, so suffered from the
sharp rise in grain prices, especially from 1789 to 1802,22 although
they profited from the rise in the price of cattle and dairy products.
Rising agricultural prices led to greater pressure from landlords for
16
Jones, Before Rebecca, 4.
17
http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/climate/1800_1849.htm (19/03/10).
18
D. Fauvell and I. Simpson, “The History of British Winters”—http://www
.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=other;type=winthist;sess= (19/03/10).
19
Williams, History of Modern Wales, 197–8; Helmut E. Landsberg, “Past Climates
from Unexploited Written Sources” in Robert I. Rotberg and Theodore K. Rabb
(eds.), Climate and History. Studies in Interdisciplinary History (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1981), 61.
20
Williams, History of Modern Wales, 198.
21
Jones, Before Rebecca, 7, 9.
22
enclosure. By 1815, most of the Welsh uplands had been enclosed,

which precipitated rioting by landless peasants that continued into the
1820s23—although small farmers in Griffiths’ region were fortunate as
the Mynydd Du remained common land accessible to all.24
However, following the 1813 defeat of Napoleon, the continental
blockade collapsed and the ensuing influx of European wheat and
other farm produce resulted in a dramatic fall in the price of Britain’s
agricultural output. This triggered bankruptcy for thousands of small
tenant farmers on marginal land and, with the imposition in 1815 of
agricultural protectionism (the Corn Laws—repealed in 1846), a mini-
mum price on corn of 80 shillings a quarter (12.7 kilos) that most poor
people were unable to afford.25 More significant to the Griffiths family
and other hill farmers was the precipitous fall in livestock prices after
a summer drought in 1815 forced many to sell their animals in large
quantities. Prices for stock recovered only slightly in 1819, and stayed
low until 1823.26 For the landless, the situation proved desperate and
riots occurred. For example, in Carmarthen on 25 September 1818
crowds prevented a cargo of cheese from being loaded aboard a ship;
two days later when another attempt was made to load the cheese,
the vessel was ransacked.27 Nevertheless, the much lower overheads
(family and community labour; low-level technology), risk spreading
(mixed farming), and lower market vulnerability (near self-sufficiency),
in addition to a culture of frugality and resilience to poverty, enabled
most Welsh highland farming families such as the Griffiths to survive
the vicissitudes of the War and post-war years better than the average
farmer in England.28
Possibly the greatest pressure on Welsh farms was demographic.
From 1750 to 1801 the population of Wales rose an estimated 19.6
percent, from about 489,000 to 587,000; and between 1801 and 1830
by 54 percent. This growth subjected unenclosed land, much of which
was marginal due to adverse climatic and economic conditions, to
23
Jones, Before Rebecca, 48; Williams, History of Modern Wales, 182–4, 199.
24
25
James A. Williamson, Great Britain and the Empire. A Discursive History
(London: Adam & Charles Black, 1946), 85.
26
Howell, Land and People in Nineteenth-Century Wales, 5.
27
28
Howell, Land and People in Nineteenth-Century Wales, xiii, 4–5.
10 chapter one
considerable demographic pressure.29 Consequently, many peasant

farmers, and especially rural workers, became desperately poor. From
about 1770 to 1815, the poor rate for Wales increased over 400 per-
cent.30 Those in receipt of regular relief from Gwynfe parish increased
2.5 times between 1800 and 1818, while in years of particularly poor
harvests, in 1799–1802, 1817 and notably 1818, the vestry had to pro-
vide widespread food relief.31 At the same time, Welsh Nonconformists
greatly resented the tithes they had to pay the established Church: Even
in Madagascar, Thomas Rowlands (c. 1804–1828), an artisan mission-
ary of Welsh origins “declaimed bitterly against tithes and the hard-
ship of the Independents being obliged to pay the Church Ministers
and their own also.”32
Parishes sought increasingly to remove paupers from their juris-
dictions, while many rural labourers and the younger sons of poor
farmers migrated seasonally to the burgeoning coal, iron and copper
works of the South Wales valleys, and the border country or English
Home Counties, returning in the summer months to work on the
farms.33 Others migrated permanently, to regional market-ports such
as Carmarthen and Swansea, or industrial centres boosted by the
demands of the military during the French Wars: by 1799 Swansea
produced roughly 90 percent of Britain’s copper and by 1811 South
Wales produced one-third of Britain’s iron output.34 Smaller numbers
of Welsh peasants sought a better life overseas, such as the band of
thirty from Pembrokeshire, to the west of Gwynfe, who emigrated to
America in 1820.35
The eighteenth century also witnessed major religious revivals in

which open-air preaching and the growth of literacy in Welsh played
29
Jones, Before Rebecca, 5; Prys Morgan, “Engine of Empire c. 1750–1898” in idem
(ed.), The Tempus History of Wales 25,000 B.C. A.D. 2000 (Charleston, SC: Tempus,
2001), 186.
30
Williams, History of Modern Wales, 200–2.
31
Anna Brueton, personal communication (25/03/2007).
32
Henry S. Keating, “Travels in Madagascar, Greece and the United States” (1825),
99—Bodleian Library, ms. Eng.misc. C.29.
33
34
Jones, Before Rebecca, 7–8; E.T. Davies, Religion in the Industrial Revolution in
South Wales (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1965), 16–17; Morgan, “Engine of
Empire c. 1750–1898,” 184.
35
Roland G. Thorne, “Thomas Philipps of Milford: Emigrant Extraordinary”
National Library of Wales Journal 20.1 (1977)—http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/
ThomasPhilipps.html (15/03/10).
central roles. In 1800, despite centuries of English rule, 90 percent of

the population of Wales still spoke Welsh: 70 percent were monoglot
Welsh speakers.36 The Welsh traced their Christian roots to the Celtic
Church, and the small Christian kingdoms that emerged in Britain
from the fifth to tenth centuries ce, following the end of Roman rule,
that defied the pagan Anglo-Saxons.37 The English military conquest
of Wales completed in 1282 was followed by the imposition from
1536–43 of the English legal system, and of the Church of England,
which in 1534, under Henry VIII (1491–1547), had separated from
Rome.38 However, the established church had little religious meaning
for ordinary Welsh people. Thus in 1737, just before his first trip to
North America (Georgia) under the auspices of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel, John Wesley (1703–1791), the father of
English Methodism, noted the Welsh to be as ignorant of the Gospel
“as any Creek or Cherokee Indians.”39 Indeed, Methodism did not dis-
tinguish sharply between home and foreign missions, considering that
lost souls in Britain, notably the people uprooted from the countryside
and traditional parish by the economic changes of the eighteenth cen-
tury, were as in need of salvation as were lost souls abroad.40
The eighteenth-century Methodist revival in Wales was largely
distinct from that in England. First, as a reviewer of John Hughes’
authoritative Methodistiaeth Cymru stated, its doctrine and organisa-
tion were separate:
Welsh Methodism is totally different from ‘Methodism,’ as com-
monly understood in England. English Methodism is, in Wales, called
Wesleyanism. Welsh Methodism is, in doctrine, Calvinistic, and in dis-
cipline Presbyterian, except that, in reality, no presbyter is regarded as
the pastor of any given congregation; and yet the stewards or ‘deacons’
are officers of the societies to which they respectively belong, and of
them only.41
36
Geraint H. Jenkins, “Introduction” in idem (ed.), Language and Community in
the Nineteenth Century (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1998), 2.
37
Glanmor Williams, Religion, Language, and Nationality in Wales (Cardiff:
University of Wales Press, 1979), 1–3.
38
Williams, History of Modern Wales, 46–78.
39
Quoted in Johannes Van Den Berg, Constrained by Jesus’ Love. An Enquiry into
the Motives of the Missionary Awakening in Great Britain in the Period between 1698
and 1815 (Kampen: J.H. Kok, 1956), 85.
40
Van Den Berg, Constrained by Jesus’ Love, 84–5; see also R.H. Martin, “The Pan-
Evangelical Impulse in Britain 1795–1830” D.Phil, University of Oxford (1974), 7–8.
41
Anon, Review of John Hughes, Methodistiaeth Cymru: sef, Hanes Blaenorol a
Gwedd Bresenol y Methodistiaid Cafinaidd yn Nghymru; o Ddechread y Cyfundeb hyd
Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
purposes. I have heard these people styled “bird-swindlers,” but by
street-traders I heard them called “bird-duffers,” yet there appears
to be no very distinctive name for them. They are nearly all men, as
is the case in the bird trade generally, although the wives may
occasionally assist in the street-sale. The means of deception, as
regards the greenfinch especially, are from paint. One aim of these
artists is to make their finch resemble some curious foreign bird,
“not often to be sold so cheap, or to be sold at all in this country.”
They study the birds in the window of the naturalists’ shops for this
purpose. Sometimes they declare these painted birds are young Java
sparrows (at one time “a fashionable bird”), or St. Helena birds, or
French or Italian finches. They sometimes get 5s. for such a “duffing
bird;” one man has been known to boast that he once got a
sovereign. I am told, however, by a bird-catcher who had himself
supplied birds to these men for duffing, that they complained of the
trade growing worse and worse.
It is usually a hen which is painted, for the hen is by far the
cheapest purchase, and while the poor thing is being offered for sale
by the duffers, she has an unlimited supply of hemp-seed, without
other food, and hemp-seed beyond a proper quantity, is a very
strong stimulus. This makes the hen look brisk and bold, but if newly
caught, as is usually the case, she will perhaps be found dead next
morning. The duffer will object to his bird being handled on account
of its timidity; “but it is timid only with strangers!” “When you’ve had
him a week, ma’am,” such a bird-seller will say, “you’ll find him as
lovesome and tame as can be.” One jealous lady, when asked 5s. for
a “very fine Italian finch, an excellent singer,” refused to buy, but
offered a deposit of 2s. 6d., if the man would leave his bird and
cage, for the trial of the bird’s song, for two or three days. The
duffer agreed; and was bold enough to call on the third day to hear
the result. The bird was dead, and after murmuring a little at the
lady’s mismanagement, and at the loss he had been subjected to,
the man brought away his cage. He boasted of this to a dealer’s
assistant who mentioned it to me, and expressed his conviction that
it was true enough. The paints used for the transformation of native
birds into foreign are bought at the colour-shops, and applied with
camel-hair brushes in the usual way.
When canaries are “a bad colour,” or have grown a paler yellow from
age, they are re-dyed, by the application of a colour sold at the
colour-shops, and known as “the Queen’s yellow.” Blackbirds are
dyed a deeper black, the “grit” off a frying-pan being used for the
purpose. The same thing is done to heighten the gloss and
blackness of a jackdaw, I was told, by a man who acknowledged he
had duffed a little; “people liked a gay bright colour.” In the same
way the tints of the goldfinch are heightened by the application of
paint. It is common enough, moreover, for a man to paint the beaks
and legs of the birds. It is chiefly the smaller birds which are thus
made the means of cheating.
Almost all the “duffing birds” are hawked. If a young hen be passed
off for a good singing bird, without being painted, as a cock in his
second singing year, she is “brisked up” with hemp-seed, is half tipsy
in fact, and so passed off deceitfully. As it is very rarely that even the
male birds will sing in the streets, this is often a successful ruse, the
bird appearing so lively.
A dealer calculated for me, from his own knowledge, that 2000 small
birds were “duffed” yearly, at an average of from 2s. 6d. to 3s. each.
As yet I have only spoken of the “duffing” of English birds, but
similar tricks are practised with the foreign birds.
In parrot-selling there is a good deal of “duffing.” The birds are
“painted up,” as I have described in the case of the greenfinches,
&c. Varnish is also used to render the colours brighter; the legs and
beak are frequently varnished. Sometimes a spot of red is
introduced, for as one of these duffers observed to a dealer in
English birds, “the more outlandish you make them look, the better’s
the chance to sell.” Sometimes there is little injury done by this paint
and varnish, which disappear gradually when the parrot is in the
cage of a purchaser; but in some instances when the bird picks
himself where he has been painted, he dies from the deleterious
compound. Of this mortality, however, there is nothing approaching
that among the duffed small birds.
Occasionally the duffers carry really fine cockatoos, &c., and if they
can obtain admittance into a lady’s house, to display the beauty of
the bird, they will pretend to be in possession of smuggled silk, &c.,
made of course for duffing purposes. The bird-duffers are usually
dressed as seamen, and sometimes pretend they must sell the bird
before the ship sails, for a parting spree, or to get the poor thing a
good home. This trade, however, has from all that I can learn, and in
the words of an informant, “seen its best days.” There are now
sometimes six men thus engaged; sometimes none: and when one
of these men is “hard up,” he finds it difficult to start again in a
business for which a capital of about 1l. is necessary, as a cage is
wanted generally. The duffers buy the very lowest priced birds, and
have been known to get 2l. 10s. for what cost but 8s., but that is a
very rare occurrence, and the men are very poor, and perhaps more
dissipated than the generality of street-sellers. Parrot duffing,
moreover, is seldom carried on regularly by any one, for he will often
duff cigars and other things in preference, or perhaps vend really
smuggled and good cigars or tobacco. Perhaps 150 parrots,
paroquets, or cockatoos, are sold in this way annually, at from 15s.
to 1l. 10s. each, but hardly averaging 1l., as the duffer will sell, or
raffle, the bird for a small sum if he cannot dispose of it otherwise.
Of the Street-Sellers of Foreign Birds.

This trade is curious, but far from extensive as regards street-sale.
There is, moreover, contrary to what might be expected, a good deal
of “duffing” about it. The “duffer” in English birds disguises them so
that they shall look like foreigners; the duffer in what are
unquestionably foreign birds disguises them that they may look more
foreign—more Indian than in the Indies.
The word “Duffer,” I may mention, appears to be connected with the
German Durffen, to want, to be needy, and so to mean literally a
needy or indigent man, even as the word Pedlar has the same origin
—being derived from the German Bettler, and the Dutch Bedelaar—a
beggar. The verb Durffen, means also to dare, to be so bold as to
do; hence, to Durff, or Duff, would signify to resort to any impudent
trick.
The supply of parrots, paroquets, cockatoos, Java sparrows, or St.
Helena birds, is not in the regular way of consignment from a
merchant abroad to one in London. The commanders and mates of
merchant vessels bring over large quantities; and often enough the
seamen are allowed to bring parrots or cockatoos in the homeward-
bound ship from the Indies or the African coast, or from other
tropical countries, either to beguile the tedium of the voyage, for
presents to their friends, or, as in some cases, for sale on their
reaching an English port. More, I am assured, although statistics are
hardly possible on such a subject, are brought to London, and
perhaps by one-third, than to all the other ports of Great Britain
collectively. Even on board the vessels of the royal navy, the
importation of parrots used to be allowed as a sort of boon to the
seamen. I was told by an old naval officer that once, after a long
detention on the west coast of Africa, his ship was ordered home,
and, as an acknowledgment of the good behaviour of his men, he
permitted them to bring parrots, cockatoos, or any foreign birds,
home with them, not limiting the number, but of course under the
inspection of the petty officers, that there might be no violation of
the cleanliness which always distinguishes a vessel of war. Along the
African coast, to the southward of Sierra Leone, the men were not
allowed to land, both on account of the unhealthiness of the shores,
and of the surf, which rendered landing highly dangerous, a danger,
however, which the seamen would not have scrupled to brave, and
recklessly enough, for any impulse of the minute. As if by instinct,
however, the natives seemed to know what was wanted, for they
came off from the shores in their light canoes, which danced like
feathers on the surf, and brought boat-loads of birds; these the
seamen bought of them, or possessed themselves of in the way of
barter.
Before the ship took her final departure, however, she was reported
as utterly uninhabitable below, from the incessant din and clamour:
“We might as well have a pack of women aboard, sir,” was the
ungallant remark of one of the petty officers to his commander.
Orders were then given that the parrots, &c., should be “thinned,” so
that there might not be such an unceasing noise. This was
accordingly done. How many were set at liberty and made for the
shore—for the seamen in this instance did not kill them for their
skins, as is not unfrequently the case—the commander did not
know. He could but conjecture; and he conjectured that something
like a thousand were released; and even after that, and after the
mortality which takes place among these birds in the course of a
long voyage, a very great number were brought to Plymouth. Of
these, again, a great number were sent or conveyed under the care
of the sailors to London, when the ship was paid off. The same
officer endeavoured on this voyage to bring home some very large
pine-apples, which flavoured, and most deliciously, parts of the ship
when she had been a long time at sea; but every one of them
rotted, and had to be thrown overboard. He fell into the error,
Captain —— said, of having the finest fruit selected for the
experiment; an error which the Bahama merchants had avoided, and
consequently they succeeded where he failed. How the sailors fed
the parrots, my informant could hardly guess, but they brought a
number of very fine birds to England, some of them with well-
cultivated powers of speech.
This, as I shall show, is one of the ways by which the London supply
of parrots, &c., is obtained; but the permission, as to the importation
of these brightly-feathered birds, is, I understand, rarely allowed at
present to the seamen in the royal navy. The far greater supply,
indeed more than 90 per cent. of the whole of the birds imported, is
from the merchant-service. I have already stated, on the very best
authority, the motives which induce merchant-seamen to bring over
parrots and cockatoos. That to bring them over is an inducement to
some to engage in an African voyage is shown by the following
statement, which was made to me, in the course of a long inquiry,
published in my letters in the Morning Chronicle, concerning the
condition of the merchant-seamen.
“I would never go to that African coast again, only I make a pound
or two in birds. We buy parrots, gray parrots chiefly, of the natives,
who come aboard in their canoes. We sometimes pay 6s. or 7s., in
Africa, for a fine bird. I have known 200 parrots on board; they
make a precious noise; but half the birds die before they get to
England. Some captains won’t allow parrots.”
When the seamen have settled themselves after landing in England,
they perhaps find that there is no room in their boarding-houses for
their parrots; these birds are not admitted into the Sailors’ Home;
the seamen’s friends are stocked with the birds, and look upon
another parrot as but another intruder, an unwelcome pensioner.
There remains but one course—to sell the birds, and they are
generally sold to a highly respectable man, Mr. M. Samuel, of Upper
East Smithfield; and it is from him, though not always directly, that
the shopkeepers and street-sellers derive their stock-in-trade. There
is also a further motive for the disposal of parrots, paroquets, and
cockatoos to a merchant. The seafaring owner of those really
magnificent birds, perhaps, squanders his money, perhaps he gets
“skinned” (stripped of his clothes and money from being hocussed,
or tempted to helpless drunkenness), or he chooses to sell them,
and he or his boarding-house keeper takes the birds to Mr. Samuel,
and sells them for what he can get; but I heard from three very
intelligent seamen whom I met with in the course of my inquiry, and
by mere chance, that Mr. Samuel’s price was fair and his money
sure, considering everything, for there is usually a qualification to
every praise. It is certainly surprising, under these circumstances,
that such numbers of these birds should thus be disposed of.
Parrots are as gladly, or more gladly, got rid of, in any manner, in
different regions in the continents of Asia and America, than with us
are even rats from a granary. Dr. Stanley, after speaking of the
beauty of a flight of parrots, says:—“The husbandman who sees
them hastening through the air, with loud and impatient screams,
looks upon them with dismay and detestation, knowing that the
produce of his labour and industry is in jeopardy, when visited by
such a voracious multitude of pilferers, who, like the locusts of
Egypt, desolate whole tracts of country by their unsparing ravages.”
A contrast with their harmlessness, in a gilded cage in the houses of
the wealthy, with us! The destructiveness of these birds, is then, one
reason why seamen can obtain them so readily and cheaply, for the
natives take pleasure in catching them; while as to plentifulness, the
tropical regions teem with bird, as with insect and reptile, life.
Of parrots, paroquets, and cockatoos, there are 3000 imported to
London in the way I have described, and in about equal proportions.
They are sold, wholesale, from 5s. to 30s. each.
There are now only three men selling these brilliant birds regularly in
the streets, and in the fair way of trade; but there are sometimes as
many as 18 so engaged. The price given by a hawker for a cockatoo,
&c., is 8s. or 10s., and they are retailed at from 15s. to 30s., or
more, “if it can be got.” The purchasers are the wealthier classes
who can afford to indulge their tastes. Of late years, however, I am
told, a parrot or a cockatoo seems to be considered indispensable to
an inn (not a gin-palace), and the innkeepers have been among the
best customers of the street parrot-sellers. In the neighbourhood of
the docks, and indeed along the whole river side below London-
bridge, it is almost impossible for a street-seller to dispose of a
parrot to an innkeeper, or indeed to any one, as they are supplied by
the seamen. A parrot which has been taught to talk is worth from 4l.
to 10l., according to its proficiency in speech. About 500 of these
birds are sold yearly by the street-hawkers, at an outlay to the public
of from 500l. to 600l.
Java sparrows, from the East Indies, and from the Islands of the
Archipelago, are brought to London, but considerable quantities die
during the voyage and in this country; for, though hardy enough, not
more than one in three survives being “taken off the paddy seed.”
About 10,000, however, are sold annually, in London, at 1s. 6d.
each, but a very small proportion by street-hawking, as the Java
sparrows are chiefly in demand for the aviaries of the rich in town
and country. In some years not above 100 may be sold in the
streets; in others, as many as 500.
In St. Helena birds, known also as wax-bills and red-backs, there is a
trade to the same extent, both as regards number and price; but the
street-sale is perhaps 10 per cent. lower.
Of the Street-Sellers of Birds’-Nests.

The young gypsy-looking lad, who gave me the following account of
the sale of birds’-nests in the streets, was peculiarly picturesque in
his appearance. He wore a dirty-looking smock-frock with large
pockets at the side; he had no shirt; and his long black hair hung in
curls about him, contrasting strongly with his bare white neck and
chest. The broad-brimmed brown Italian-looking hat, broken in and
ragged at the top, threw a dark half-mask-like shadow over the
upper part of his face. His feet were bare and black with mud: he
carried in one hand his basket of nests, dotted with their many-
coloured eggs; in the other he held a live snake, that writhed and
twisted as its metallic-looking skin glistened in the sun; now over,
and now round, the thick knotty bough of a tree that he used for a
stick. The portrait of the youth is here given. I have never seen so
picturesque a specimen of the English nomads. He said, in answer to
my inquiries:—
“I am a seller of birds’-nesties, snakes, slow-worms, adders,
‘effets’—lizards is their common name—hedgehogs (for killing black
beetles); frogs (for the French—they eats ’em); snails (for birds);
that’s all I sell in the summer-time. In the winter I get all kinds of
wild flowers and roots, primroses, ‘butter-cups’ and daisies, and
snow-drops, and ‘backing’ off of trees; (‘backing’ it’s called, because
it’s used to put at the back of nosegays, it’s got off the yew trees,
and is the green yew fern). I gather bulrushes in the summer-time,
besides what I told you; some buys bulrushes for stuffing; they’re
the fairy rushes the small ones, and the big ones is bulrushes. The
small ones is used for ‘stuffing,’ that is, for showing off the birds as
is stuffed, and make ’em seem as if they was alive in their cases,
and among the rushes; I sell them to the bird-stuffers at 1d. a
dozen. The big rushes the boys buys to play with and beat one
another—on a Sunday evening mostly. The birds’-nesties I get from
1d. to 3d. a-piece for. I never have young birds, I can never sell ’em;
you see the young things generally dies of the cramp before you can
get rid of them. I sell the birds’-nesties in the streets; the
threepenny ones has six eggs, a half-penny a egg. The linnets has
mostly four eggs, they’re 4d. the nest; they’re for putting under
canaries, and being hatched by them. The thrushes has from four to
five—five is the most; they’re 2d.; they’re merely for cur’osity—glass
cases or anything like that. Moor-hens, wot build on the moors, has
from eight to nine eggs, and is 1d. a-piece; they’re for hatching
underneath a bantam-fowl, the same as partridges. Chaffinches has
five eggs; they’re 3d., and is for cur’osity. Hedge-sparrows, five
eggs; they’re the same price as the other, and is for cur’osity. The
Bottletit—the nest and the bough are always put in glass cases; it’s a
long hanging nest, like a bottle, with a hole about as big as a
sixpence, and there’s mostly as many as eighteen eggs; they’ve
been known to lay thirty-three. To the house-sparrow there is five
eggs; they’re 1d. The yellow-hammers, with five eggs, is 2d. The
water-wagtails, with four eggs, 2d. Blackbirds, with five eggs, 2d.
The golden-crest wren, with ten eggs—it has a very handsome nest
—is 6d. Bulfinches, four eggs, 1s.; they’re for hatching, and the
bulfinch is a very dear bird. Crows, four eggs, 4d. Magpies, four
eggs, 4d. Starlings, five eggs, 3d. The egg-chats, five eggs, 2d.
Goldfinches, five eggs, 6d., for hatching. Martins, five eggs, 3d. The
swallow, four eggs, 6d.; it’s so dear because the nest is such a
cur’osity, they build up again the house. The butcher-birds—hedge-
murderers some calls them, for the number of birds they kills—five
eggs, 3d. The cuckoo—they never has a nest, but lays in the hedge-
sparrow’s; there’s only one egg (it’s very rare you see the two, they
has been got, but that’s seldom) that is 4d., the egg is such a
cur’osity. The greenfinches has four or five eggs, and is 3d. The
sparrer-hawk has four eggs, and they’re 6d. The reed-sparrow—they
builds in the reeds close where the bulrushes grow; they has four
eggs, and is 2d. The wood-pigeon has two eggs, and they’re 4d. The
horned owl, four eggs; they’re 6d. The woodpecker—I never see no
more nor two—they’re 6d. the two; they’re a great cur’osity, very
seldom found. The kingfishers has four eggs, and is 6d. That’s all I
know of.
STREET-SELLER OF BIRDS’ NESTS.
“I gets the eggs mostly from Witham and Chelmsford, in Essex;
Chelmsford is 20 mile from Whitechapel Church, and Witham, 8 mile
further. I know more about them parts than anywhere else, being
used to go after moss for Mr. Butler, of the herb-shop in Covent
Garden. Sometimes I go to Shirley Common and Shirley Wood, that’s
three miles from Croydon, and Croydon is ten from Westminster-
bridge. When I’m out bird-nesting I take all the cross country roads
across fields and into the woods. I begin bird-nesting in May and
leave off about August, and then comes the bulrushing, and they
last till Christmas; and after that comes the roots and wild flowers,
which serves me up to May again. I go out bird-nesting three times
a week. I go away at night, and come up on the morning of the day
after. I’m away a day and two nights. I start between one and two in
the morning and walk all night—for the coolness—you see the
weather’s so hot you can’t do it in the daytime. When I get down I
go to sleep for a couple of hours. I ‘skipper it’—turn in under a
hedge or anywhere. I get down about nine in the morning, at
Chelmsford, and about one if I go to Witham. After I’ve had my
sleep I start off to get my nests and things. I climb the trees, often I
go up a dozen in the day, and many a time there’s nothing in the
nest when I get up. I only fell once; I got on the end of the bough
and slipped off. I p’isoned my foot once with the stagnant water
going after the bulrushes,—there was horseleeches, and effets, and
all kinds of things in the water, and they stung me, I think. I couldn’t
use my foot hardly for six weeks afterwards, and was obliged to
have a stick to walk with. I couldn’t get about at all for four days,
and should have starved if it hadn’t been that a young man kept me.
He was a printer by trade, and almost a stranger to me, only he
seed me and took pity on me. When I fell off the bough I wasn’t
much hurt, nothing to speak of. The house-sparrow is the worst nest
of all to take; it’s no value either when it is got, and is the most
difficult of all to get at. You has to get up a sparapet (a parapet) of a
house, and either to get permission, or run the risk of going after it
without. Partridges’ eggs (they has no nest) they gives you six
months for, if they see you selling them, because it’s game, and I
haven’t no licence; but while you’re hawking, that is showing ’em,
they can’t touch you. The owl is a very difficult nest to get, they
builds so high in the trees. The bottle-tit is a hard nest to find; you
may go all the year round, and, perhaps, only get one. The nest I
like best to get is the chaffinch, because they’re in the hedge, and is
no bother. Oh, you hasn’t got the skylark down, sir; they builds on
the ground, and has five eggs; I sell them for 4d. The robin-
redbreast has five eggs, too, and is 3d. The ringdove has two eggs,
and is 6d. The tit-lark—that’s five blue eggs, and very rare—I get 4d.
for them. The jay has five eggs, and a flat nest, very wiry, indeed;
it’s a ground bird; that’s 1s.—the egg is just like a partridge egg.
When I first took a kingfisher’s nest, I didn’t know the name of it,
and I kept wondering what it was. I daresay I asked three dozen
people, and none of them could tell me. At last a bird-fancier, the
lame man at the Mile-end gate, told me what it was. I likes to get
the nesties to sell, but I havn’t no fancy for birds. Sometimes I get
squirrels’ nesties with the young in ’em—about four of ’em there
mostly is, and they’re the only young things I take—the young birds
I leaves; they’re no good to me. The four squirrels brings me from
6s. to 8s. After I takes a bird’s nest, the old bird comes dancing over
it, chirupping, and crying, and flying all about. When they lose their
nest they wander about, and don’t know where to go. Oftentimes I
wouldn’t take them if it wasn’t for the want of the victuals, it seems
such a pity to disturb ’em after they’ve made their little bits of
places. Bats I never take myself—I can’t get over ’em. If I has an
order for ’em, I buys ’em of boys.
“I mostly start off into the country on Monday and come up on
Wednesday. The most nesties as ever I took is twenty-two, and I
generally get about twelve or thirteen. These, if I’ve an order, I sell
directly, or else I may be two days, and sometimes longer, hawking
them in the street. Directly I’ve sold them I go off again that night, if
it’s fine; though I often go in the wet, and then I borrow a tarpaulin
of a man in the street where I live. If I’ve a quick sale I get down
and back three times in a week, but then I don’t go so far as
Witham, sometimes only to Rumford; that is 12 miles from
Whitechapel Church. I never got an order from a bird-fancier; they
gets all the eggs they want of the countrymen who comes up to
market.
“It’s gentlemen I gets my orders of, and then mostly they tells me to
bring ’em one nest of every kind I can get hold of, and that will often
last me three months in the summer. There’s one gentleman as I
sells to is a wholesale dealer in window-glass—and he has a hobby
for them. He puts ’em into glass cases, and makes presents of ’em
to his friends. He has been one of my best customers. I’ve sold him
a hundred nesties, I’m sure. There’s a doctor at Dalston I sell a great
number to—he’s taking one of every kind of me now. The most of
my customers is stray ones in the streets. They’re generally boys. I
sells a nest now and then to a lady with a child; but the boys of
twelve to fifteen years of age is my best friends. They buy ’em only
for cur’osity. I sold three partridges’ eggs yesterday to a gentleman,
and he said he would put them under a bantam he’d got, and hatch
’em.
“The snakes, and adders, and slow-worms I get from where there’s
moss or a deal of grass. Sunny weather’s the best for them, they
won’t come out when it’s cold; then I go to a dung-heap, and turn it
over. Sometimes, I find five or six there, but never so large as the
one I had to-day, that’s a yard and five inches long, and three-
quarters of a pound weight. Snakes is 5s. a pound. I sell all I can get
to Mr. Butler, of Covent-garden. He keeps ’em alive, for they’re no
good dead. I think it’s for the skin they’re kept. Some buys ’em to
dissect: a gentleman in Theobalds-road does so, and so he does
hedgehogs. Some buys ’em for stuffing, and others for cur’osities.
Adders is the same price as snakes, 5s. a pound after they first
comes in, when they’re 10s. Adders is wanted dead; it’s only the fat
and skin that’s of any value; the fat is used for curing p’isoned
wounds, and the skin is used for any one as has cut their heads.
Farmers buys the fat, and rubs it into the wound when they gets
bitten or stung by anything p’isonous. I kill the adders with a stick,
or, when I has shoes, I jumps on ’em. Some fine days I get four or
five snakes at a time; but then they’re mostly small, and won’t weigh
above half a pound. I don’t get many adders—they don’t weigh
many ounces, adders don’t—and I mostly has 9d. a-piece for each I
gets. I sells them to Mr. Butler as well.
“The hedgehogs is 1s. each; I gets them mostly in Essex. I’ve took
one hedgehog with three young ones, and sold the lot for 2s. 6d.
People in the streets bought them of me—they’re wanted to kill the
black-beetles; they’re fed on bread and milk, and they’ll suck a cow
quite dry in their wild state. They eat adders, and can’t be p’isoned,
at least it says so in a book I’ve got about ’em at home.
“The effets I gets orders for in the streets. Gentlemen gives me their
cards, and tells me to bring them one; they’re 2d. apiece. I get them
at Hampstead and Highgate, from the ponds. They’re wanted for
cur’osity.
“The snails and frogs I sell to Frenchmen. I don’t know what part
they eat of the frog, but I know they buy them, and the dandelion
root. The frogs is 6d. and 1s. a dozen. They like the yellow-bellied
ones, the others they’re afraid is toads. They always pick out the
yellow-bellied first; I don’t know how to feed ’em, or else I might
fatten them. Many people swallows young frogs, they’re reckoned
very good things to clear the inside. The frogs I catch in ponds and
ditches up at Hampstead and Highgate, but I only get them when
I’ve a order. I’ve had a order for as many as six dozen, but that was
for the French hotel in Leicester-square; but I have sold three dozen
a week to one man, a Frenchman, as keeps a cigar shop in R—r’s-
court.
“The snails I sell by the pailful—at 2s. 6d. the pail. There is some
hundreds in a pail. The wet weather is the best times for catching
’em; the French people eats ’em. They boils ’em first to get ’em out
of the shell and get rid of the green froth; then they boils them
again, and after that in vinegar. They eats ’em hot, but some of the
foreigners likes ’em cold. They say they’re better, if possible, than
whelks. I used to sell a great many to a lady and gentleman in Soho-
square, and to many of the French I sell 1s.’s worth, that’s about
three or four quarts. Some persons buys snails for birds, and some
to strengthen a sickly child’s back; they rub the back all over with
the snails, and a very good thing they tell me it is. I used to take
2s.’s worth a week to one woman; it’s the green froth that does the
greatest good. There are two more birds’-nest sellers besides myself,
they don’t do as many as me the two of ’em. They’re very naked,
their things is all to ribbins; they only go into the country once in a
fortnight. They was never nothing, no trade—they never was in
place—from what I’ve heard—either of them. I reckon I sell about
20 nesties a week take one week with another, and that I do for four
months in the year. (This altogether makes 320 nests.) Yes, I should
say, I do sell about 300 birds’-nests every year, and the other two,
I’m sure, don’t sell half that. Indeed they don’t want to sell; they
does better by what they gets give to them. I can’t say what they
takes, they’re Irish, and I never was in conversation with them. I get
about 4s. to 5s. for the 20 nests, that’s between 2d. and 3d. apiece.
I sell about a couple of snakes every week, and for some of them I
get 1s., and for the big ones 2s. 6d.; but them I seldom find. I’ve
only had three hedgehogs this season, and I’ve done a little in snails
and frogs, perhaps about 1s. The many foreigners in London this
season hasn’t done me no good. I haven’t been to Leicester-square
lately, or perhaps I might have got a large order or two for frogs.”
Life of a Bird’s-Nest Seller.

“I am 22 years of age. My father was a dyer, and I was brought up
to the same trade. My father lived at Arundel, in Sussex, and kept a
shop there. He had a good business as dyer, scourer, calico glazer,
and furniture cleaner. I have heard mother say his business in
Arundel brought him in 300l. a year at least. He had eight men in his
employ, and none under 30s. a week. I had two brothers and one
sister, but one of my brothers is since dead. Mother died five years
ago in the Consumption Hospital, at Chelsea, just after it was built. I
was very young indeed when father died; I can hardly remember
him. He died in Middlesex Hospital: he had abscesses all over him;
there were six-and-thirty at the time of his death. I’ve heard mother
say many times that she thinked it was through exerting himself too
much at his business that he fell ill. The ruin of father was owing to
his house being burnt down; the fire broke out at two in the
morning; he wasn’t insured: I don’t remember the fire; I’ve only
heerd mother talk about it. It was the ruin of us all she used to tell
me; father had so much work belonging to other people; a deal of
moreen curtains, five or six hundred yards. It was of no use his
trying to start again: he lost all his glazing machines and tubs, and
his drugs and ‘punches.’ From what I’ve heerd from mother they was
worth some hundreds. The Duke of Norfolk, after the fire, gave a
good lot of money to the poor people whose things father had to
clean, and father himself came up to London. I wasn’t two year old
when that happened. We all come up with father, and he opened a
shop in London and bought all new things. He had got a bit of
money left, and mother’s uncle lent him 60l. We lived two doors
from the stage door of the Queen’s Theatre, in Pitt-street, Charlotte-
street, Fitzroy-square; but father didn’t do much in London; he had a
new connection to make, and when he died his things was sold for
the rent of the house. There was only money enough to bury him. I
don’t know how long ago that was, but I think it was about three
years after our coming to London, for I’ve heerd mother say I was
six years old when father died. After father’s death mother borrowed
some more money of her uncle, who was well to do. He was
perfumer to her Majesty: he’s dead now, and left the business to his
foreman. The business was worth 2000l. His wife, my mother’s aunt,
is alive still, and though she’s a woman of large property, she won’t
so much as look at me. She keeps her carriage and two footmen;
her address is, Mrs. Lewis, No. 10, Porchester-terrace, Bayswater. I
have been in her drawing-room two or three times. I used to take
letters to her from mother: she was very kind to me then, and give
me several half-crowns. She knows the state I am in now. A young
man wrote a letter to her, saying I had no clothes to look after work
in, and that I was near starving, but she sent no answer to it. The
last time I called at her house she sent me down nothing, and bid
the servant tell me not to come any more. Ever since I’ve wanted it
I’ve never had nothing from her, but before that she used to give me
something whenever I took a letter from mother to her. The last
half-crown I got at her house was from the cook, who gave it me
out of her own money because she’d known my mother.
“I’ve got a grandmother living in Woburn-place; she’s in service
there, and been in the family for twenty years. The gentleman died
lately and left her half his property. He was a foreigner and had no
relations here. My grandmother used to be very good to me, and
when I first got out of work she always gave me something when I
called, and had me down in her room. She was housekeeper then.
She never offered to get me a situation, but only gave me a meal of
victuals and a shilling or eighteen-pence whenever I called. I was
tidy in my dress then. At last a new footman came, and he told me
as I wasn’t to call again; he said, the family didn’t allow no
followers. I’ve never seen my grandmother since that time but once,
and then I was passing with my basket of birds’ nests in my hand
just as she was coming out of the door. I was dressed about the
same then as you seed me yesterday. I was without a shirt to my
back. I don’t think she saw me, and I was ashamed to let her see
me as I was. She was kind enough to me, that is, she wouldn’t mind
about giving me a shilling or so at a time, but she never would do
nothing else for me, and yet she had got plenty of money in the
bank, and a gold watch, and all, at her side.
“After father died, as I was saying, mother got some money from
her uncle and set up on her own account; she took in glazing for the
trade. Father had a few shops that he worked for, and they
employed mother after his death. She kept on at this for eighteen
months and then she got married again. Before this an uncle of
mine, my father’s brother, who kept some lime-kilns down in Bury St.
Edmunds, consented to take my brother and sister and provide for
them, and four or five year ago he got them both into the Duke of
Norfolk’s service, and there they are now. They’ve never seen me
since I was a child but once, and that was a few year ago. I’ve never
sent to them to say how badly I was off. They’re younger than I am,
and can only just take care of theirselves. When mother married
again, her husband came to live at the house; he was a dyer. He
behaved very well to me. Mother wouldn’t send me down to uncle’s,
she was too fond of me. I was sent to school for about eighteen
months, and after that I used to assist in the glazing at home, and
so I went on very comfortable for some time. Nine year ago I went
to work at a French dyer’s, in Rathbone-place. My step-father got
me there, and there I stopped six year. I lived in the house after the
first eighteen months of my service. Five year ago mother fell ill; she
had been ailing many years, and she got admitted into the
Consumption Hospital, at Brompton. She was there just upon three
months and was coming out the next day (her term was up), when
she died on the over night. After that my step-father altered very
much towards me. He didn’t want me at home at all. He told me so
a fortnight after mother was in her grave. He took to drinking very
hearty directly she was gone. He would do anything for me before
that. He used to take me with him to every place of amusement
what he went to, but when he took to drinking he quite changed;
then he got to beat me, and at last he told me I needn’t come there
any more.
“After that, I still kept working in Rathbone-place, and got a lodging
of my own; I used to have 9s. a week where I was, and I paid 2s. a
week for my bed, and washing, and mending. I had half a room with
a man and his wife; I went on so for about two years, and then I
was took bad with the scarlet fever and went to Gray’s-inn-lane
hospital. After I was cured of the scarlet fever, I had the brain fever,
and was near my death; I was altogether eight weeks in the
hospital, and when I come out I could get no work where I had
been before. The master’s nephew had come from Paris, and they
had all French hands in the house. He wouldn’t employ an English
hand at all. He give me a trifle of money, and told me he would pay
my lodgings for a week or two while I looked for work. I sought all
about and couldn’t find any; this was about three year ago. People
wouldn’t have me because I didn’t know nothing about the English
mode of business. I couldn’t even tell the names of the English
drugs, having been brought up in a French house. At last, my master
got tired of paying for my lodging, and I used to try and pick up a
few pence in the streets by carrying boxes and holding horses, it
was all as I could get to do; I tried all I could to find employment,
and they was the only jobs I could get. But I couldn’t make enough
for my lodging this way, and over and over again I’ve had to sleep
out. Then I used to walk the streets most of the night, or lie about in
the markets till morning came in the hopes of getting a job. I’m a
very little eater, and perhaps that’s the luckiest thing for such as me;
half a pound of bread and a few potatoes will do me for the day. If I
could afford it, I used to get a ha’porth of coffee and a ha’porth of
sugar, and make it do twice. Sometimes I used to have victuals give
to me, sometimes I went without altogether; and sometimes I
couldn’t eat. I can’t always.
“Six weeks after I had been knocking about in the streets in the
manner I’ve told you, a man I met in Covent-Garden market told me
he was going into the country to get some roots (it was in the winter
time and cold indeed; I was dressed about the same as I am now,
only I had a pair of boots); and he said if I chose to go with him,
he’d give me half of whatever he earned. I went to Croydon and got
some primroses; my share came to 9d., and that was quite a God-
send to me, after getting nothing. Sometimes before that I’d been
two days without tasting anything; and when I got some victuals
after that, I couldn’t touch them. All I felt was giddy; I wasn’t to say
hungry, only weak and sicklified. I went with this man after the roots
two or three times; he took me to oblige me, and show me the way
how to get a bit of food for myself; after that, when I got to know all
about it, I went to get roots on my own account. I never felt a wish
to take nothing when I was very hard up. Sometimes when I got
cold and was tired, walking about and weak from not having had
nothing to eat, I used to think I’d break a window and take
something out to get locked up; but I could never make my mind up
to it; they never hurt me, I’d say to myself. I do fancy though, if
anybody had refused me a bit of bread, I should have done
something again them, but I couldn’t, do you see, in cold blood like.
“When the summer came round a gentleman whom I seed in the
market asked me if I’d get him half a dozen nesties—he didn’t mind
what they was, so long as they was small, and of different kinds—
and as I’d come across a many in my trips after the flowers, I told
him I would do so—and that first put it into my head; and I’ve been
doing that every summer since then. It’s poor work, though, at the
best. Often and often I have to walk 30 miles out without any
victuals to take with me, or money to get any, and 30 miles again
back, and bring with me about a dozen nesties; and, perhaps, if I’d
no order for them, and was forced to sell them to the boys, I
shouldn’t get more than a shilling for the lot after all. When the time
comes round for it, I go Christmasing and getting holly, but that’s
more dangerous work than bird-nesting; the farmers don’t mind
your taking the nesties, as it prevents the young birds from growing
up and eating their corn. The greater part of the holly used in
London for trimming up the churches and sticking in the puddings, is
stolen by such as me, at the risk of getting six months for it. The
farmers brings a good lot to market, but we is obligated to steal it.
Take one week with another, I’m sure I don’t make above 5s. You
can tell that to look at me. I don’t drink, and I don’t gamble; so you
can judge how much I get when I’ve had to pawn my shirt for a
meal. All last week I only sold two nesties—they was a partridge’s
and a yellow-hammer’s; for one I got 6d., and the other 3d., and I
had been thirteen miles to get them. I got beside that a fourpenny
piece for some chickweed which I’d been up to Highgate to gather
for a man with a bad leg (it’s the best thing there is for a poultice to
a wound), and then I earned another 4d. by some mash (marsh)
mallow leaves (that there was to purify the blood of a poor woman):
that, with 4d. that a gentleman give to me, was all I got last week;
1s. 9d. I think it is altogether. I had some victuals give to me in the
street, or else I daresay I should have had to go without; but, as it
was, I gave the money to the man and his wife I live with. You see
they had nothing, and as they’re good to me when I want, why, I
did what I could for them. I’ve tried to get out of my present life, but
there seems to be an ill luck again me. Sometimes I gets a good
turn. A gentleman gives me an order, and then I saves a shilling or
eighteenpence, so as to buy something with that I can sell again in
the streets; but a wet day is sure to come, and then I’m cracked up,
obligated to eat it all away. Once I got to sell fish. A gentleman give
me a crown-piece in the street, and I borrowed a barrow at 2d. a
day, and did pretty well for a time. In three weeks I had saved 18s.;
then I got an order for a sack of moss from one of the flower-sellers,
and I went down to Chelmsford, and stopped for the night in Lower
Nelson-street, at the sign of “The Three Queens.” I had my money
safe in my fob the night before, and a good pair of boots to my feet
then; when I woke in the morning my boots was gone, and on
feeling in my fob my money was gone too. There was four beds in
the rooms, feather and flock; the feather ones was 4d., and the flock
3d. for a single one, and 2½d. each person for a double one. There
was six people in the room that night, and one of ’em was gone
before I awoke—he was a cadger—and had took my money with
him. I complained to the landlord—they call him George—but it was
no good; all I could get was some victuals. So I’ve been obliged to
keep to birds’-nesting ever since.
“I’ve never been in prison but once. I was took up for begging. I was
merely leaning again the railings of Tavistock-square with my birds’-
nesties in my hand, and the policemen took me off to Clerkenwell,
but the magistrates, instead of sending me to prison, gave me 2s.
out of the poors’-box. I feel it very much going about without shoes
or without shirt, and exposed to all weathers, and often out all night.
The doctor at the hospital in Gray’s-inn-lane gave me two flannels,
and told me that whatever I did I was to keep myself wrapped up;
but what’s the use of saying that to such as me who is obligated to
pawn the shirt off our back for food the first wet day as comes? If
you haven’t got money to pay for your bed at a lodging-house, you
must take the shirt off your back and leave it with them, or else
they’ll turn you out. I know many such. Sometimes I go to an artist.
I had 5s. when I was drawed before the Queen. I wasn’t ’xactly
drawed before her, but my portrait was shown to her, and I was told
that if I’d be there I might receive a trifle. I was drawed as a gipsy
fiddler. Mr. Oakley in Regent-street was the gentleman as did it. I
was dressed in some things he got for me. I had an Italian’s hat, one
with a broad brim and a peaked crown, a red plush waistcoat, and a
yellow hankercher tied in a good many knots round my neck. I’d a
black velveteen Newmarket-cut coat, with very large pearl buttons,
and a pair of black knee-breeches tied with fine red strings. Then I’d
blue stripe stockings and high-ancle boots with very thin soles. I’d a
fiddle in one hand and a bow in the other. The gentleman said he
drawed me for my head of hair. I’ve never been a gipsy, but he told
me he didn’t mind that, for I should make as good a gipsy fiddler as
the real thing. The artists mostly give me 2s. I’ve only been three
times. I only wish I could get away from my present life. Indeed I
would do any work if I could get it. I’m sure I could have a good
character from my masters in Rathbone-place, for I never done
nothing wrong. But if I couldn’t get work I might very well, if I’d
money enough, get a few flowers to sell. As it is it’s more than any
one can do to save at bird-nesting, and I’m sure I’m as prudent as
e’er a one in the streets. I never took the pledge, but still I never
take no beer nor spirits—I never did. Mother told me never to touch
’em, and I haven’t tasted a drop. I’ve often been in a public-house
selling my things, and people has offered me something to drink, but
I never touch any. I can’t tell why I dislike doing so—but something
seems to tell me not to taste such stuff. I don’t know whether it’s
what my mother said to me. I know I was very fond of her, but I
don’t say it’s that altogether as makes me do it. I don’t feel to want
it. I smoke a good bit, and would sooner have a bit of baccy than a
meal at any time. I could get a goodish rig-out in the lane for a few
shillings. A pair of boots would cost me 2s., and a coat I could get
for 2s. 6d. I go to a ragged school three times a week if I can, for
I’m but a poor scholar still, and I should like to know how to read;
it’s always handy you know, sir.”
This lad has been supplied with a suit of clothes and sufficient
money to start him in some of the better kind of street-trades. It
was thought advisable not to put him to any more settled occupation
on account of the vagrant habits he has necessarily acquired during
his bird-nesting career. Before doing this he was employed as
errand-boy for a week, with the object of testing his trustworthiness,
and was found both honest and attentive. He appears a prudent lad,
but of course it is difficult, as yet, to speak positively as to his
character. He has, however, been assured that if he shows a
disposition to follow some more reputable calling he shall at least be
put in the way of so doing.
Of the Street-Sellers of Squirrels.

The street squirrel-sellers are generally the same men as are
engaged in the open-air traffic in cage-birds. There are, however,
about six men who devote themselves more particularly to squirrel-
selling, while as many more sometimes “take a turn at it.” The
squirrel is usually carried in the vendor’s arms, or is held against the
front of his coat, so that the animal’s long bushy tail is seen to
advantage. There is usually a red leather collar round its neck, to
which is attached some slender string, but so contrived that the
squirrel shall not appear to be a prisoner, nor in general—although
perhaps the hawker became possessed of his squirrel only that
morning—does the animal show any symptoms of fear.
The chief places in which squirrels are offered for sale, are Regent-
street and the Royal Exchange, but they are offered also in all the
principal thoroughfares—especially at the West End. The purchasers
are gentlefolk, tradespeople, and a few of the working classes who
are fond of animals. The wealthier persons usually buy the squirrels
for their children, and, even after the free life of the woods, the
animal seems happy enough in the revolving cage, in which it
“thinks it climbs.”
The prices charged are from 2s. to 5s., “or more if it can be got,”
from a third to a half being profit. The sellers will oft enough state, if
questioned, that they caught the squirrels in Epping Forest, or Caen
Wood, or any place sufficiently near London, but such is hardly ever
the case, for the squirrels are bought by them of the dealers in live
animals. Countrymen will sometimes catch a few squirrels and bring
them to London, and nine times out of ten they sell them to the
shopkeepers. To sell three squirrels a day in the street is accounted
good work.
I am assured by the best-informed parties that for five months of
the year there are 20 men selling squirrels in the streets, at from 20
to 50 per cent. profit, and that they average a weekly sale of six
each. The average price is from 2s. to 2s. 6d., although not very
long ago one man sold a “wonderfully fine squirrel” in the street for
three half-crowns, but they are sometimes parted with for 1s. 6d. or
less, rather than be kept over-night. Thus 2400 squirrels are vended
yearly in the streets, at a cost to the public of 240l.
Of the Street-Sellers of Leverets, Wild Rabbits,

etc.
There are a few leverets, or young hares, sold in the streets, and
they are vended for the most part in the suburbs, where the houses
are somewhat detached, and where there are plenty of gardens. The
softness and gentleness of the leveret’s look pleases children, more
especially girls, I am informed, and it is usually through their
importunity that the young hares are bought, in order that they may
be fed from the garden, and run tame about an out-house. The
leverets thus sold, however, as regards nine out of ten, soon die.
They are rarely supplied with their natural food, and all their natural
habits are interrupted. They are in constant fear and danger,
moreover, from both dogs and cats. One shopkeeper who sold fancy
rabbits in a street off the Westminster-road told me that he had
once tried to tame and rear leverets in hutches, as he did rabbits,
but to no purpose. He had no doubt it might be done, he said, but
not in a shop or a small house. Three or four leverets are hawked by
the street-people in one basket and are seen lying on hay, the
basket having either a wide-worked lid, or a net thrown over it. The
hawkers of live poultry sell the most leverets, but they are vended
also by the singing-bird sellers. The animals are nearly all bought,
for this traffic, at Leadenhall, and are retailed at 1s. to 2s. each,
one-third to one-half being profit. Perhaps 300 are sold this way
yearly, producing 22l. 10s.
About 400 young wild rabbits are sold in the street in a similar way,
but at lower sums, from 3d. to 6d. each, 4d. being the most
frequent rate. The yearly outlay is thus 6l. 13s. They thrive, in
confinement, no better than the leverets.
Of the Street-Sellers of Gold and Silver Fish.

Of these dealers, residents in London, there are about 70; but
during my inquiry (at the beginning of July) there were not 20 in
town. One of their body knew of ten who were at work live-fish
selling, and there might be as many more, he thought, “working” the
remoter suburbs of Blackheath, Croydon, Richmond, Twickenham,
Isleworth, or wherever there are villa residences of the wealthy. This
is the season when the gold and silver fish-sellers, who are
altogether a distinct class from the bird-sellers of the streets, resort
to the country, to vend their glass globes, with the glittering fish
swimming ceaselessly round and round. The gold fish-hawkers are,
for the most part, of the very best class of the street-sellers. One of
the principal fish-sellers is in winter a street-vendor of cough drops,
hore-hound candy, coltsfoot-sticks, and other medicinal
confectionaries, which he himself manufactures. Another leading
gold-fish seller is a costermonger now “on pine-apples.” A third,
“with a good connection among the innkeepers,” is in the autumn
and winter a hawker of game and poultry.
There are in London three wholesale dealers in gold and silver fish;
two of whom—one in the Kingsland-road and the other close by
Billingsgate—supply more especially the street-sellers, and the
street-traffic is considerable. Gold fish is one of the things which
people buy when brought to their doors, but which they seldom care
to “order.” The importunity of children when a man unexpectedly
tempts them with a display of such brilliant creatures as gold fish, is
another great promotive of the street-trade; and the street-traders
are the best customers of the wholesale purveyors, buying
somewhere about three-fourths of their whole stock. The dealers
keep their fish in tanks suited to the purpose, but goldfish are never
bred in London. The English-reared gold fish are “raised” for the
most part, as respects the London market, in several places in Essex.
In some parts they are bred in warm ponds, the water being heated
by the steam from adjacent machinery, and in some places they are
found to thrive well. Some are imported from France, Holland, and
Belgium; some are brought from the Indies, and are usually sold to
the dealers to improve their breed, which every now and then, I was
told, “required a foreign mixture, or they didn’t keep up their colour.”
The Indian and foreign fish, however, are also sold in the streets;
the dealers, or rather the Essex breeders, who are often in London,
have “just the pick of them,” usually through the agency of their
town customers. The English-reared gold fish are not much short of
three-fourths of the whole supply, as the importation of these fishes
is troublesome; and unless they are sent under the care of a
competent person, or unless the master or steward of a vessel is
made to incur a share in the venture, by being paid so much freight-
money for as many gold and silver fishes as are landed in good
health, and nothing for the dead or dying, it is very hazardous
sending them on shipboard at all, as in case of neglect they may all
die during the voyage.
The gold and silver fish are of the carp species, and are natives of
China, but they were first introduced into this country from Portugal
about 1690. Some are still brought from Portugal. They have been
common in England for about 120 years.
These fish are known in the street-trade as “globe” and “pond” fish.
The distinction is not one of species, nor even of the “variety” of a
species, but merely a distinction of size. The larger fish are “pond;”
the smaller, “globe.” But the difference on which the street-sellers
principally dwell is that the pond fish are far more troublesome to
keep by them in a “slack time,” as they must be fed and tended
most sedulously. Their food is stale bread or biscuit. The “globe” fish
are not fed at all by the street-dealer, as the animalcules and the
minute insects in the water suffice for their food. Soft, rain, or
sometimes Thames water, is used for the filling of the globe
containing a street-seller’s gold fish, the water being changed twice
a day, at a public-house or elsewhere, when the hawker is on a
round. Spring-water is usually rejected, as the soft water contains
“more feed.” One man, however, told me he had recourse to the
street-pumps for a renewal of water, twice, or occasionally thrice a
day, when the weather was sultry; but spring or well water “wouldn’t
do at all.” He was quite unconscious that he was using it from the
pump.
The wholesale price of these fish ranges from 5s. to 18s. per dozen,
with a higher charge for “picked fish,” when high prices must be
paid. The cost of “large silvers,” for instance, which are scarcer than
“large golds,” so I heard them called, is sometimes 5s. apiece, even
to a retailer, and rarely less than 3s. 6d. The most frequent price,
retail from the hawker—for almost all the fish are hawked, but only
there, I presume, for a temporary purpose—is 2s. the pair. The gold
fish are now always hawked in glass globes, containing about a
dozen occupants, within a diameter of twelve inches. These globes
are sold by the hawker, or, if ordered, supplied by him on his next
round that way, the price being about 2s. Glass globes, for the
display of gold fish, are indeed manufactured at from 6d. to 1l. 10s.
each, but 2s. or 2s. 6d. is the usual limit to the price of those
vended in the street. The fish are lifted out of the water in the globe
to consign to a purchaser, by being caught in a neat net, of fine and
different-coloured cordage, always carried by the hawker, and
manufactured for the trade at 2s. the dozen. Neat handles for these
nets, of stained or plain wood, are 1s. the dozen. The dealers avoid
touching the fish with their hands. Both gold fish and glass globes
are much cheaper than they were ten years ago; the globes are
cheaper, of course, since the alteration in the tax on glass, and the
street-sellers are, numerically, nearly double what they were.
From a well-looking and well-spoken youth of 21 or 22, I had the
following account. He was the son, and grandson, of costermongers,
but was—perhaps, in consequence of his gold-fish selling lying
among a class not usually the costermongers’ customers—of more
refined manners than the generality of the costers’ children.
“I’ve been in the streets, sir,” he said, “helping my father, until I was
old enough to sell on my own account, since I was six years old.
Yes, I like a street life, I’ll tell you the plain truth, for I was put by
my father to a paperstainer, and found I couldn’t bear to stay in
doors. It would have killed me. Gold fish are as good a thing to sell
as anything else, perhaps, but I’ve been a costermonger as well, and
have sold both fruit and good fish—salmon and fine soles. Gold fish
are not good for eating. I tried one once, just out of curiosity, and it
tasted very bitter indeed; I tasted it boiled. I’ve worked both town
and country on gold fish. I’ve served both Brighton and Hastings.
The fish were sent to me by rail, in vessels with air-holes, when I
wanted more. I never stopped at lodging-houses, but at respectable
public-houses, where I could be well suited in the care of my fish.
It’s an expense, but there’s no help for it.” [A costermonger, when I
questioned him on the subject, told me that he had sometimes sold
gold fish in the country, and though he had often enough slept in
common lodging-houses, he never could carry his fish there, for he
felt satisfied, although he had never tested the fact, that in nine out
of ten such places, the fish, in the summer season, would half of
them die during the night from the foul air.] “Gold fish sell better in
the country than town,” the street-dealer continued; “much better.
They’re more thought of in the country. My father’s sold them all
over the world, as the saying is. I’ve sold both foreign and English
fish. I prefer English. They’re the hardiest; Essex fish. The foreign—I
don’t just know what part—are bred in milk ponds; kept fresh and
sweet, of course; and when they’re brought here, and come to be
put in cold water, they soon die. In Essex they’re bred in cold water.
They live about three years; that’s their lifetime if they’re properly
seen to. I don’t know what kind of fish gold fish are. I’ve heard that
they first came from China. No, I can’t read, and I’m very sorry for
it. If I have time next winter I’ll get taught. Gentlemen sometimes
ask me to sit down, and talk to me about fish, and their history
(natural history), and I’m often at a loss, which I mightn’t be if I
could read. If I have fish left after my day’s work, I never let them
stay in the globe I’ve hawked them in, but put them into a large
pan, a tub sometimes, three-parts full of water, where they have
room. My customers are ladies and gentlemen, but I have sold to
shopkeepers, such as buttermen, that often show gold fish and
flowers in their shops. The fish don’t live long in the very small
globes, but they’re put in them sometimes just to satisfy children.
I’ve sold as many as two dozen at a time to stock a pond in a
gentleman’s garden. It’s the best sale a little way out of town, in any
direction. I sell six dozen a week, I think, one week with another;
they’ll run as to price at 1s. apiece. That six dozen includes what I
sell both in town and country. Perhaps I sell them nearly three-parts
of the year. Some hawk all the year, but it’s a poor winter trade. Yes,
I make a very fair living; 2s. 6d. or 3s. or so, a day, perhaps, on gold
fish, when the weather suits.”
A man, to whom I was referred as an experienced gold fish-seller,
had just returned, when I saw him, from the sale of a stock of new
potatoes, peas, &c., which he “worked” in a donkey cart. He had not
this season, he said, started in the gold-fish line, and did very little
last year in it, as his costermongering trade kept steady, but his wife
thought gold fish-selling was a better trade, and she always
accompanied him in his street rounds; so he might take to it again.
In his youth he was in the service of an old lady who had several
pets, and among them were gold fish, of which she was very proud,
always endeavouring to procure the finest, a street-seller being sure
of her as a customer if he had fish larger or deeper or brighter-
coloured than usual. She kept them both in stone cisterns, or small
ponds, in her garden, and in glass globes in the house. Of these fish
my informant had the care, and was often commended for his good
management of them. After his mistress’s death he was very
unlucky, he said, in his places. His last master having been
implicated, he believed, in some gambling and bill-discounting
transactions, left the kingdom suddenly, and my informant was
without a character, for the master he served previously to the one
who went off so abruptly was dead, and a character two years back
was of no use, for people said, “But where have you been living
since? Let me know all about that.” The man did not know what to
do, for his money was soon exhausted: “I had nothing left,” he said,

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An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar 1750 1895

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ISO 9001 2008 Internal Audits Made Easy Tools

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Geriatric Palliative Care 1st Edition Suzanne

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/scm

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Campbell, Gwyn, 1952–

Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

List of Illustrations, Maps, Tables and Poems .............................. ix

David Griffiths and the Missionary

I.Griffiths: Origins and Background . ....................................... 3

David Griffiths, History of Madagascar (1843)

Introduction ........................................................................................ 262

Chapter 13 ........................................................................................... 355

1. Books Published in English about Madagascar, 1838–70 . .. 933

Glossary of Selected Malagasy Terms found in Text ................... 1001

1. David Griffiths ........................................................................... xxiii

30. Portraits of Radama I ............................................................... 207

64. Angavo ...................................................................................... 481

102. Travelling through the Eastern Forest, 1850s .................... 620

140. The Merina Christian Escapees, 1838 . ................................ 826

1. David Griffiths’ Wales .............................................................. 17

1. David Griffiths’ Family Tree ..................................................... 6

4. Mission Schools, 1828–29 . ...................................................... 56

1. Dafydd [David] Jones’ Farewell Poem .................................... 591

I Eleri Edwards a gyflwynodd imi gyhoeddiadau David Griffiths; i

AAM Archives de l’Académie Malgache, Antananarivo

In 1838, Fisher, Son, & Co., a reputable London printer, published

a small, cloth-bound volume entitled Hanes Madagascar—literally

tains significant errors, was published in haste in order to pre-empt an

David Griffiths and the Missionary

David Griffiths: Origins and Background

Wales, a mountainous country, 20,779 km² in area, is a part of main-

agrarian revolution.4 The Griffiths family probably occupied a modi-

Illustration 2. Capel Gwynfe Region10

Illustration 3. Fan Brycheiniog11

enclosure. By 1815, most of the Welsh uplands had been enclosed,

considerable demographic pressure.29 Consequently, many peasant

The eighteenth century also witnessed major religious revivals in

central roles. In 1800, despite centuries of English rule, 90 percent of

Of the Street-Sellers of Foreign Birds.

Of the Street-Sellers of Birds’-Nests.

Life of a Bird’s-Nest Seller.

Of the Street-Sellers of Squirrels.

Of the Street-Sellers of Leverets, Wild Rabbits,

Of the Street-Sellers of Gold and Silver Fish.

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