98 VOYAGE TO MADAG.'iSCAE* 



two days after the arrival of his nephew, his 

 fpies brought hitn word, that the French 

 were encamped at the diftance of a league 

 fro in his village. 



This chief fent them a prefent of rice, 

 honey » and four oxen, begging them to 

 inform hun what was the intention of their 

 journey, bccaufe he had never fcen fuch a 

 numerous body of Europeans in the inte- lor 

 parts of the ifland. La Forge, who com- 

 manded this detachment^ returned for an- 

 fwer, that he had orders to fubjedt his coun- 

 try to the dominion of Fort Dauphin. The 

 chief, alarmeJ at fo unexped;ed an enter- 

 prize, requefted peace ; offered to give him 

 four hundred oxen j and obferved, that his 

 country of Haye-Fontchy was at too great 

 a diftance from the fort to excite the hatred 

 or jealoufy of the French. La Forge rejei^t' 

 ed with difdain the propofals of the chief, 

 and had the madnefs to a^k twenty thou- 



fand 



