MADAGASCAR. 
The natives are aecuflomed to hunt the whale along 
their coalt; and, when he is (truck with the harpoon, they 
wait till his flrength is nearly exhauftcd, and then lead 
him towards the (bore. The women affemble oil the 
beach, and vociferate fongs of praife in honour of him 
who gave the fil'd wound. When the whale is near the 
land, and 1'urrounded by all the men in the village, 
the public orator advances, and, having pronounced a 
long oration on the pre-eminent qualities of the (ill), the 
whale is cut up, and affords a rich repaft to the company. 
When any fubjeft of difpute occurs between the natives 
of Madagafcar and the Europeans, or between Indians of 
different tribes, it is formally difcuifed in the palaver, or 
council of the tribe ; and the decifion is the refult of long 
deliberation. Property in this ifland confilts of cattle, 
grain, and (laves of the fame nation with their matter. 
Every perfon who has the misfortune to be made a pri- 
foiierof war, man, woman, or child, is reduced to the con¬ 
dition of flavery, and from that moment is regarded by 
his own kindred as an objeft of contempt. Their arms 
confifl of a (hield, and the fa gay, a kind of lance, which 
they throw with peculiar addrefs. They are alfo tolerably 
well provided with mufquets, purchaled from the French; 
and they have alfo fome fwivel guns and cannon, obtained 
from the fame quarter. The refidence of the chief is 
within a fort or (tockade, confiding of three rows of large 
trees, fixed in the ground fo clofe as almort to exclude 
the light; and fattened together at the top by a crofs 
beam. Their forts in general are mere fimple palifades, 
conflrufted in the form of an oblong fquare; though 
Come of them have baflions and galleries, with openings 
for the purpofe of reconnoitring. On the eve of war, the 
women, children, and cattle, retreat to the woods, and 
• there conceal themfelves, waiting the iffue of the campaign. 
The village is then occupied only by the men, who, pre- 
vioufiy to any aft of hoflility, facrifice an ox. An In¬ 
dian, of diftinguifhed eloquence, harangues on the injuf- 
tice of the enemy; and his countrymen, in the mean 
while, dip their fagays in the blood of the viftim. Their 
operations in the field are of a very defultory defcription, 
confiding chiefly in teazing and liaraffing the enemy, or 
attempting to furprife him in the night. They feldoin 
come to a regular engagement. The natives of Mada¬ 
gafcar are fufceptible of very violent enmities, and fome- 
times execute on their devoted objefts the mod deliberate 
cruelties. The cudomary ufe of prefents is the fame here 
as in India. It is the bufinefs of the inferior to make the 
fird advance, as well as the fird prefent; but he always 
receives another in return. The natives indulge in all 
the offices of hofpitality; but not to the excels which 
fome travellers have afcribed to them, who have faid that 
it is cudomary for parents to proditute their children to 
the embraces of drangers. This M. de Pages abfolutely 
denies. He acknowledges, however, that chadity in the 
intercourfe of the fexes is little regarded: the young ladies 
of Madagafcar, habituated to intrigue, prompted by the 
political and pecuniary views of their parents, and cap¬ 
tivated by the charm of fome new ornament for their per¬ 
sons, ceafe to be reluftant to the vviffies of their admirers; 
but married women are very little addifted to violate the 
nuptial engagement. When a woman happens to conceive 
by a foreigner, die recurs to various drugs, known to the 
natives, in order to procure abortion. In the language of 
Madagafcar, which is by no means harffi or difagreeable 
to the ear, M. de Pages perceived fome inflexions of voice 
which occur in that of the Philippine Hies. It feems to 
be a compound of different languages, and contains many 
words borrowed from the Arabic and Portuguefe. 
The population of Madagafcar, (ays M. Rochon, may 
be reckoned at 4,000,000 inhabitants ; but no precife cal¬ 
culation is pollible, as the ifland is divided into diftinft 
tribes, or focieties, each of which inhabits the canton 
which it likes bed, and is governed by its own ufages. 
A tribe confifts of feveral villages, each having a parti¬ 
cular chief. This chief is fometimes eleftive, but more 
frequently hereditary. The land is never parcelled out, 
but belongs to thofe who take the trouble of cultivating 
it. Tliefe iflanders have neither locks nor bolts, and live 
in a frugal manner. The French fettlement of Fort Dau¬ 
phin is in the fouth-ead extremity of the ifland. The 
chiefs never go out without their gun, and a (tick tipped 
with iron, ornamented at the end with a tuft of cow-hair. 
They wear a cap of red wool, by the colour of which 
they are didinguiffied from their fubjefts. In the pro¬ 
vince of Carcanofly, in which Fort Dauphin is (ituated, 
the territories are deemed to belong to the chiefs, who 
dilhibute them among their fubjefts for cultivation, for 
which they expeft a (mall return. The people of this 
province are not quite ignorant of the art of writing. 
They have fome hidorical books written in the Malegafli 
language; but their men of letters, called Ombiaflesfule 
the Arabic charafter. They have treatifes on phyfic, 
geomancy, and judicial aftrology. The art of writing has 
doubtlefs been brought to this ifland by the Arabs', who 
conquered it between three and four centuries ago. The 
paper is manufactured in the valley of Amboul, and is 
wrought from the papyrus nilotica. The pens ufed by 
the iflanders are made of bamboo. Their ink is prepared 
of adecoftion in boiling water of the bark of a tree called 
arandrato. The Arabic has made fome progrefs in the 
north-weft of Madagafcar; and the Arabians have a fta- 
ple on the river Bombetoque in the ifland, where they 
carry on commerce; and thus they have fucceeded in in¬ 
troducing, with their language and learning, among the 
natives, fome traces of Mahometanifin. The contiguity 
of Madagafcar to the coad of Africa makes it natural to 
afcribe its population to that vafl continent; and the dif¬ 
ferent races of inhabitants are now fo much confounded, 
as to render it a vain attempt to enumerate them. For an 
account of the Kimojfes of Madagafcar, fee the article 
Kimos, vol. xi. p. 722. The north-eadern part of the 
ifland of Madagafcar is the rich flaple of the colonies of 
the ides of France and Bourbon. The mod frequented 
harbours are Foul Point, St. Mary’s, and the Bay of An- 
tongil. In thefe three places the French have endeavoured 
to form colonies; but the incurfions of pirates and the 
prevalence of the (lave-trade have, according to Rochon’s 
datement, by their confequences defolated the northern 
part of Madagafcar. 
The inhabitants near St. Augudine’s bay, Mr. Ives in¬ 
forms us, fpeak as much broken Engliffi as enables them 
to exchange their provifions for European articles. Thefe, 
on the part of the Melagaches, are cattle, poultry, milk, 
fruit, rice, fait, porcelain, potatoes, yams, fiffi, lances, and 
(hells. From the Europeans they receive mufkets, pow¬ 
der, bullets, flints, clouties, (i. e. handkerchiefs, and linen 
of all kinds,) beads, iron pots, &c. Silver, which they 
call manila , is in great efleem with them, and is made by 
them into bracelets for their wives. The fame entertain¬ 
ing traveller gives us the following particulars : “ That 
part of the Hland at which the Englifli fquadron touched, 
(1756,) is the dominions of the king of Baba, who Teemed 
greatly to affeft to be an Engliffiman. We had no fooner 
touched at the ifland, than we were waited on by one 
called Robin Hood, and another perfon, both of whom bore 
the office of purfers. Along with thefe were Philibey , the 
general; John AnderJon and Frederic Martin, captains. Nor 
did the king himfelf and his family difdain to pay them 
a vifit; who, in like manner, were diflinguHhed by En<r- 
liffi names; the king’s elded fon being called the prince%f 
Wales , and the court not being without a duke of Cumber¬ 
land, a prince Augujlus, princefles, &c. as in England. All 
thefe grandees came on-board naked, excepting only a 
flight covering about their loins and on their (boulders, 
made of a kind of grafs growing on the ifland ; which 
they had adorned with fmall gla(s beads by way of border 
or fringe. Their hair relembled that of the Indians in 
being long and black, rather than the woplly heads of the 
African negroes. The wives of.the Melagaches take great 
pains with their liufband’s hair 5 fometimes putting it in 
