MADAGASCAR AND THE FRENCH. 15 



and spelling to his list of Malagasy words ; hdna (meat) 

 he calls " henar ; " vdla, money, " voler ; " and dnclro, day, 

 " hawndro ; " &c. 



From the year 1 6 5 i , when a work describing a voyage to 

 Madagascar by one Frangois Cauche, of Eouen, was issued, a 

 considerable number of books upon Madagascar have been 

 published in the French language. A list of between thirty 

 and forty of these is given by M. Barbie du Bocage in a book 

 entitled, Iladagascar : Possession fran^aise dejniis 1642, the 

 title of which work explains the interest taken in the island 

 by the French. But it is quite an unfoimded assumption to 

 call Madagascar a French possession, and is warranted neither 

 by conquest or treaty, or by any other claim or right ; and 

 although it is quite true that the French have for two cen- 

 turies past been attempting to gain power in the country, 

 their colonies, or rather, military posts, have never been per- 

 manent, nor have they been able to maintain their hold upon 

 any portion of the mainland. They have, however, seized the 

 small island of St. Marie's, off the eastern coast, and they 

 have also possession of the island of Nosibe, on the north- 

 west coast. This latter was ceded to them in 1 840 by the 

 Sakalava inhabitants of that portion of Madagascar. 



Turning now to the Maps of Madagascar, and our present 

 knowledge of the geography of the island, it may be affirmed 

 that a considerable portion of the country is still a terra 

 incognita to us ; and notwithstanding all that has been done 

 of late years to increase our knowledge of it, there are oiten- 

 sive regions still unknown and unexplored. Among them 

 may be mentioned the greater part of the triangle formed by 

 the northern portion of the island, from Antsihanaka to Cape 

 Amber at the apex of the triangle; almost all the Sakalava 

 country on the western seaboard; large portions of the 

 eastern side, from the central plateaux to the sea ; and, lastly, 

 an extensive district to the south of the Betsileo province, 

 from the Btira country to the southern Cape of St. Mary. 



The earliest map of Madagascar which I have discovered 

 is one in the British Museum, and is an extremely curious 

 specimen of chartography. The outline of the island there 

 given is so different from the reality, that it would hardly be 



