THE 



GREAT AFRICAN ISLAND. 



CHAPTER I. 



NAMES, DISCOVEEY, EAELY ACCOUNTS, AND MAPS OF MADAGASCAR. 



THK NAMES BY WHICH THE COUNTRY WAS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS AND TO 

 MEDIEVAL WRITERS — ITS DISCOA^ERY BY EUROPEANS — ACCOUNTS GIVEN OF 

 IT BY EARLY VOYAGERS, AND FIRST REFERENCES TO IT IN ENGLISH 

 LITERATURE, TOGETHER WITH NOTICES OF THE MAPS OF THE ISLAND, 

 ANCIENT AND MODERN, AND OUR KNOWLEDGE OF ITS GEOGRAPHY AT 

 THE PRESENT TIME. 



Although only seen by Europeans within the last 380 years, 

 the great African island of Madagascar has been known to 

 the Arabs for many centuries, probably for at least a thousand 

 years past ; and also, but perhaps not for so long a time, to 

 the Indian traders of Cutcli and Bombay.* The former, 

 indeed, have left ineffaceable traces of their influence in the 

 words they introduced into the Malagasy language, prin- 

 cipally in the names of the days and months, and in those 

 connected with divination and astrology, and also in the 

 various superstitions they engrafted upon the original religious 

 belief and charm-worship of the inhabitants.! 



But even before the Arabian intercourse, it seems probable 

 that the Phoenician traders, in some of those long voyages 

 made by the "ships of Tarshish " (i Kings x. 22), touched 

 at Madagascar, or at least obtained information about the 

 island. For it is mentioned by some of the classical winters 

 under various names : thus, Ptolemy in his Tahulxs appears 



* See Sir Bartlc Frere's despatches in Blue-book on the East African Slave 

 Trade. 



+ Sec Rev. L. Dahle in the Antananarivo Annual, No. ii. pp. 75-91. 



A 



