HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
81 
describes as being so steep, that the use of cords was 
required in accomplishing the ascent. 
On emerging from a forest, eighteen miles in extent, 
three different encampments of the Sakalavas were dis¬ 
covered on a large plain. Upon the approach of the French 
army, they arranged themselves in divisions, and imme¬ 
diately began to fire. But the governor having ordered 
his artillery to be brought forward, twenty shots from them 
put the whole army to flight, causing them to abandon 
their first camp, and at the same time the second camp was 
taken by another division of the combined army; and, per¬ 
ceiving the destruction already made, the third was volun¬ 
tarily deserted, and soon afterwards consumed. Eighty 
Sakalavas were killed, and fifty wounded in this engage¬ 
ment ; while on the other side none of the Europeans were 
hurt, and only a few of the natives wounded. In the end, 
the Sakalavas sued for peace, which was willingly granted, 
though Benyowsky told them they ought rather to have 
sued for pardon. 
While his army remained upon the scene of action, the 
long-wished-for despatches arrived from France, after a 
delay of two and a half years. By the first letters the 
governor opened, he had the satisfaction of learning that 
the Sirenne had been sent with ammunition, provisions, 
and money, for the purposes of trade, and that larger sup¬ 
plies might be expected at the end of the year; but it 
would not be possible to describe his chagrin, when, on 
opening subsequent despatches, he found that the vessel 
had been wrecked to the south of Fort Dauphin, and every 
thing lost! while, on the other hand, a private letter from 
the French minister informed him, that he must confine 
his operations to the “ preservation of the posts already 
ii. 
G 
