History of Madagascar
By the 15th century, Europeans had wrested control of the spice trade from the Muslims. They did this by bypassing the Middle East and sending their cargo-ships around the Cape of Good Hope to India. The Portuguese mariner Diogo Dias became the first European to set foot on Madagascar when his ship, bound for India, blew off course in 1500. In the ensuing two-hundred years, the English and French tried (and failed) to establish settlements on the island.
David Griffiths (missionary)
He married Mary Griffiths in May 1820. In June 1820, he was sent to Madagascar by the London Missionary Society, as colleague of the Reverend David Jones, who had gone out two years previously. On 27 July he was ordained at Gwynfe and on 25 October sailed with his wife from London. They reached Mauritius on 23 January 1821 and soon afterwards proceeded to Madagascar. Griffiths and Jones founded the first Protestant mission in Madagascar. They preached twice every Sunday and established day and night schools, his wife teaching the girls. In 1824, the schools in the capital numbered 300 scholars, and there were 32 other schools within the country, all of which he visited weekly. Griffiths and Jones devised a Roman-letter alphabet for Malagasy; in 1827 a printing press was obtained, and the following year a catechism, a hymnal, and some schoolbooks were published in Malagasy, and the printing of the Gospel of St. Luke was begun.