98 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
at Tolia, where the king usually resided, and where they 
remained during the greatest part of their stay on the 
island. Some of their number, however, fixed their abode 
at St. Augustine’s Bay, distant about fifteen or twenty 
miles, for the purpose of giving information to the rest, of 
any ship arriving at that port. An exchange of duty was 
made by two of the number going at a time to the bay, 
until sickness overpowered the whole company, so as to 
render this no longer practicable. 
The name of the king to whom they were indebted for 
so much hospitality and kindness was Baba, though the 
writer believes it to have been rather an appellation, signi¬ 
fying some patriarchal dignity, than a proper name; and 
this appears the more probable, as in the year 1754, when 
Admiral Watson, with a British squadron, remained some 
time at St. Augustine’s Bay, a native chieftain, named 
Babaw, is said to have resided there, and to have greatly 
affected English manners and customs. This peculiarity 
of the people in the neighbourhood of St. Augustine’s Bay 
might probably have originated in the fact mentioned 
by Flacourt, that the English had in 1642 a military fort 
at that place. Their number was then two hundred, a 
fourth of whom died in the space of two years—an instance 
by no means uncommon, of the extreme insalubrity of the 
coast of Madagascar at certain seasons of the year. 
A brief account of the adjoining country was published 
by Mr. Ives, who accompanied Admiral Watson; and it is 
stated by him, that, at the time they visited the island, large 
quantities of salted provisions could be obtained in exchange 
for gunpowder, muskets, beads, &c., or purchased with sil¬ 
ver coin; which, however, the natives valued rather for 
melting down and manufacturing into ornaments, than for 
purposes of trade and currency. 
