388 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. xiv. 



officer had reported the same to the queen, and she had then 

 sent the force by which the settlement had been destroyed. 

 Then appealing to me a second time, he said, " the queen is 

 the sole sovereign of Madagascar, and is it right that the 

 people of England, or of France, or any other country, should 

 come to take possession of her country without her permis- 

 sion ? What do you think about that ? What would be done 

 to persons who should so act in any other country ? " 



In answer to his appeal, I said I did not know what might 

 be done in other countries, but if any of the Malagasy or 

 other persons were to land in England, and were to attempt 

 to take possession of any of the land or property there, they 

 would soon find themselves in the hands of the police. With 

 regard to Madagascar, I observed that I had always under- 

 stood, from such information as I had gathered from docu- 

 ments published on the subject, that whatever rights the 

 French might have possessed or exercised in Madagascar 

 previous to 1810, had been transferred to the English by the 

 changes of war, which at that time gave the Islands of Mau- 

 ritius and Bourbon, with all their dependencies, to the Eng- 

 lish, who had soon afterwards taken possession of all French 

 establishments in Madagascar; that the English had given 

 back the Island of Bourbon to the French in 1815, and had 

 subsequently surrendered, by treaty with Eadama, all their 

 possessions in Madagascar to him ; and that whatever Eadama 

 possessed had descended to the present sovereign. 



M. Laborde then rose, and said that what I had stated was 

 true with regard to the rumours of a hostile fleet. They 

 were only statements in the newspapers, and were not au- 

 thorised ; also that if any persons were to land in France or 

 England they would be treated as I had described, if not 

 worse ; and that if any English or French came and settled 

 in Madagascar without leave, the Malagasy should cut them 

 to pieces. 



