But this order was cancelled, and from 1832 to 1835 the mission was continued successfully. In 1835, however, a fierce anti-Christian persecution arose, and the missionaries decided to leave. Griffiths preached his last sermon in the chapel on 22 February, and left the island in September 1835, reaching Britain in February 1836. At the end of two years he received an intimation from Ranavalona that he might return as a merchant but not as a missionary. He did so in May 1838. Persecution still raged throughout the island, and Griffiths was charged with having helped some Malagasy Christians to leave the country and was sentenced to death, a sentence afterwards commuted to payment of a fine. Griffiths' Persecuted Christians of Madagascar was published in London in 1841. Whilst in Madagascar, Griffiths also travelled to the Comoros Islands, where he met Queen Jumbe-Souli who ruled the independent island of Moheli. He returned to Britain in 1842 and settled as pastor of the congregational church at Hay-on-Wye, Brecknockshire, where he wrote Hanes Madagascar (). While at Hay-on-Wye, he formed a new congregation over the English border, at Kington, Herefordshire. About 1850, some hopes being raised of renewing the mission in Madagascar, the London Missionary Society asked Griffiths and Joseph John Freeman, the only surviving Madagascar missionaries, to revise the Malagasy translation of the Bible. Freeman died in 1851, and the whole work devolved upon Griffiths, who spent some five years on it. In 1854, he wrote a Malagasy grammar. Griffiths also wrote some catechisms, a hymn-book, and nine or ten original treatises. He also revised many works already translated, e.g. the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' the 'Whole Bible,' and dictionaries. In 1858 he moved to Machynlleth, where he busied himself in preparing for the press a grammar and other works in Malagasy. Death and legacy He died on 21 March 1863 at Machynlleth, where he was buried. He had eight children by his wife, who died at Swansea on 15 July 1883, aged 93. One of his daughters, Margaret Jane (1830-1873), married the missionary and translator Griffith John (1831-1912), and worked with him in China at Hankow (Wuhan) with much travel in China until her death at Singapore on 24 March 1873 when both were returning to China after furlough in the United Kingdom to recover their health. Further reading D. Griffiths, The persecuted Christians of Madagascar ... 1838 to 1840 ... (1841) D.