14 DRURY'S NARRATIVE. 



for warmth, not being allowed to enter the houses. Even- 

 tually he became (no wonder) very ill, and at his request was 

 bought by an Arab, and at last taken to India, where he 

 obtained his liberty. This island of " Assada " is probably 

 one of those numerous ones off the north-west coast of Mada- 

 gascar. 



The last of these early books which can be here noticed 

 is that by Eobert Drury, an English lad, who, at the commence- 

 ment of the last century, went as a passenger to the East on 

 board an Indiaman named the Degrave. On their homeward 

 voyage the vessel was wrecked on the south-west coast of 

 Madagascar, and owing to imprudent conduct and collisions 

 with the natives, the whole of the ship's company and pas- 

 sengers were eventually killed, with the exception of Drury 

 and another lad, whose lives were spared. He thus became 

 a slave, and remained as such in the island for fifteen years 

 (1702-17), meeting with varied experience and many hard- 

 ships, and occasionally being harshly treated, and narrowly 

 escaping being lolled. At last, however, he obtained his 

 liberty, and returned to England, afterwards writing the book 

 describing his adventures, or possibly had it written from his 

 dictation. Drury being comparatively uneducated, the narra- 

 tive is in a most artless style, with an evident impress of 

 truth, and, from its undoubted genuineness, is a very valuable 

 record of the customs of some of the Malagasy tribes at that 

 period, and throws important light upon many questions con- 

 nected with their customs, superstitions, and beliefs. He 

 describes their ancient and patriarchal system of worship in 

 connection with the ddy, or household gods ; and we ' see the 

 political state of that part of the island, really unaltered to 

 the present time, in which the different tribes are constantly 

 engaged in warfare, making raids on each others' cattle, and 

 capturing slaves. There is added to the book a pretty full 

 vocabulary, which is one of the most valuable portions of it, 

 the great majority of the words being easily recognisable as 

 identical with those in the Hova dialect, and thus givino- 

 another proof of the substantial unity of the language over 

 portions of the island far distant from one another. Curi- 

 ously enough, he gives a decidedly " Cockney " pronunciation 



