20 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
He assured him that his insulted ody had commanded him 
to defend these at the peril of his life, and that victory was 
certain over an enemy who had dared to commit such 
criminal excesses. He likewise informed him that Chamar- 
gou had sent forty Frenchmen to the eastern coast, whom 
he might easily surprise and destroy. 
No sooner had La Vautangue put himself upon his 
guard, than he felt the advantage of the information thus 
conveyed to him. Two days after the arrival of his nephew, 
his spies brought tidings that the French had pitched their 
camp at the distance of only one league from the village 
where he resided. He instantly despatched a messenger to 
make them an offer of provisions, and begged them to make 
known to him the purpose of their journey; to which 
La Forge, who commanded the detachment, replied, that 
he had orders to subject the country to the French domi¬ 
nation. Alarmed at this declaration, La Vautangue offered 
him four hundred bullocks as the price of peace; and repre¬ 
sented that his country was too far from Fort Dauphin for 
him to have done any thing to draw dow r n the resentment 
of the colony. La Forge, rejecting this offer, fixed the 
price of peace at twenty thousand bullocks. To this 
demand La Vautangue returned no answer; but while the 
French were ravaging a plantation of sugarcanes, he 
ordered them all to be massacred; and the only person who 
escaped with life was a Portuguese. 
This man took refuge in a marsh covered with reeds, 
where he remained in concealment for two days; when the 
islanders, who were afraid to venture to him in the water, 
set fire to the reeds, and drove him out; but taking advan¬ 
tage of the smoke, he eluded his pursuers, and succeeded 
in reaching Fort Dauphin, where he communicated the 
melacholy tidings of the fate of his companions. 
