; Anstoer to Mr. Crawford's Letter. 1 38. 



for the purpose of answering the questions contained in the 

 letter of Mr. Crawford, transmitted through His Excellen- 

 ce the Governor to the Society, begs to present to the So- 

 ciety the following answer. 



With Regard to the newspaper report that Malay Proas 

 were drifted on the Madagascar Coasts, and that records of 

 such event could be found in the Archives of Mauritius, the 

 Committee begs to state that the Secretary did all in his 

 power to trace any thing assimilating to such an account, 

 but without any success. No such documents exist at Mau- 

 ritius, nor can the oldest inhabitants of the Island call to 

 recollection the fact of having heard any thing of the kind. 

 The Committee therefore begs to call the attention of the 

 Society to the following Extract from the annual Report of 

 the Secretary read in August last. 



« The ofd' Captains, who for more than thirty years have 

 trade'd from Mauritius to Madagascar, and who have ex- 

 plored the interior of the country from the Eastern Coasts, 

 from Cape S te -Marie to Cape d'Ambre, agree in the fact that 

 the Malay origin of the Ovah cast is decided, and that also 

 of some other Mafgache tribes, and offer great and striking 

 points of similarity with the Malays on account of their in- 

 telligence, their cunning system of policy, their courage 

 etc. These Ovahs according to an ancient tradition, pre- 

 tend that they came from a distant country, that they had 

 been conveyed along a watery way, where wandering 

 from their path, they eventually reached the shores of the 

 Island ; the simple language of the inhabitants express this 

 received and admitted idea, in these words : Ver la lambe, 

 me sap sap, see foot lal. To have lost the way and vainly 

 seek for it in watery and unknown districts. 



« Now the mariner's 1 above mentioned traded to and from 



