100 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
other was a desire, almost equally strong, to appropriate 
what was not their own.” 
From the serious annoyance which this propensity would 
otherwise have occasioned, they were, however, kindly pro¬ 
tected by the authority of the king, whose uniform genero¬ 
sity towards the shipwrecked strangers was well worthy of 
the imitation of more enlightened princes. For the sake of 
protecting the strangers, by his presence, from the aggres¬ 
sions of the people, he remained, at great inconvenience 
to himself, at Tolia, though they were frequently alarmed 
by rumours of his being about to remove; and even after he 
had resolved to go to a village at the distance of fifty miles, 
on hearing that the English were in too sickly a state to 
accompany him, his anxiety to remove gave place to his 
desire to protect them, and he accordingly remained with 
them to the last. 
It has already been observed, that the amount of treasure 
belonging to the East India Company, on board the Win- 
terton, was very considerable. Much of this was recovered 
by the fishermen who went off to the wreck, and who, being 
expert divers, were enabled, at low water, to obtain much that 
was scattered amongst the rocks; although it must have 
been, even to them, a work of great labour and difficulty. 
According to established usage, a part of any article of value 
procured from vessels wrecked on the coast was presented 
to the king; and, accordingly, about a fortnight after the 
arrival of the English party at Tolia, a numerous body of 
fishermen came to the king, bringing the customary pre¬ 
sent. The king, attended by some hundreds of his soldiers, 
went out to meet them; and after a considerable degree of 
preliminary ceremony, particularly dancing, and firing mus¬ 
kets, the money was delivered. The king, with a munifi¬ 
cent and noble generosity, at once ordered a sum equal to 
