ISLAND OF MADAGASCAR. 
543 
Imina, the mother of Mahomed- — others trace their origin 
to the Jews. There is a race of whites, who affirm that 
they were sent thither by the Caliph of Mecca, to instruct 
the natives in the Mahomedan faith. 
Before the Europeans first landed on the island, the 
natives had a tradition that they would be conquered by 
the children of the sun ; and the French, when they arrived 
there to form a settlement, were taken for these children of 
the sun ; the people therefore readily yielded to them. 
Persons are also found there who are supposed to have 
come from the Persian and Arabian gulfs, and from 
Egypt. 
The people are in general well shaped, and above the 
middle size, of various colours, deep black, tawny, copper, 
but chiefly of an olive colour. Their physiognomy in 
general bears marks of a character replete with frankness. 
They are not considered a savage people; they do not eat 
human flesh, nor are murders frequent among them, except 
in time of war. They are not devoid of intellect, as 
Mr. Bartlet, our Missionary at Bethelsdorp, found, when he 
had the tuition of about twenty of them at the Cape of Good 
Hope. They could read English, and answer questions from 
a catechism with tolerable facility. 
Sevci-al instances of shipwreck on their coasts are known, 
but not one in which the people have been ill treated. 
The late Mr. Oncruydt, President of the Burgher Senate at 
Cape-town, mentioned to me one instance, which came 
under his own review when he was supercargo of a Dutch 
East Indiaman. They sailed to Tulier, or Tellear, in 
Augustine bay, on the east side of the south end of the 
island, where a French ship had been stranded upwards of 
twelve months before their arrival. The Captain, officers, 
and men had resided all that time with the natives; on 
seeing the Dutch ship arrive at the mouth of ^the river 
Manchard, (which probably is the same river as that named 
Dartemont in Arrow^smith's map) the Captain and the crew 
came off to her, and solicited a passage to the Cape, to 
which Mr. Oncruydt and his Captain consented. They 
found that these shipwrecked mariners had lived in perfect 
safety, and had been treated with hospitality during the 
whole time of their residence there. The only thing they 
were in want of was clothes, with which Mr. Oncruydt 
supplied them; after which he and some of his people 
went ashore with them, on a visit to the king of that part of 
Madagascar. 
