110 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
surrendered the place. There were at that period in the 
harbour, six frigates, three Indiamen, and twenty-four large 
merchant vessels, all of which fell of course into the hands 
of the victors. Soon after this, the Isle of Bourbon was also 
taken possession of by the British; and immediately after the 
conquest of these islands, the English sent a detachment to 
Eoule Point, and another to Tamatave, to take possession of 
the forts formerly occupied by the French in Madagascar. 
When the peace of 1814 was arranged, the Isle of Bourbon, 
which had changed its name to Reunion, was by treaty 
ceded to the French; but the Isle of France, or Mauritius, as 
it is more generally called, remained in the possession of the 
English. 
Soon after this period, a proclamation was issued by the 
governor, Robert Farquhar, esq. (afterwards Sir Robert,) 
taking possession of Madagascar, as one of the dependencies 
of the Mauritius, in the name of his Britannic majesty. This 
circumstance appears to have given great offence to the 
governor of Bourbon, M. Bouvet de Lozier, w r ho loudly 
protested against such an act, on the ground of that island 
not having been formally ceded to Great Britain by the 
treaty of peace finally ratified in 1816. It is probable 
that amongst other reasons for objecting to this measure, 
the mind of de Lozier was influenced by the fact, that the 
Isle of Bourbon, as well as the Mauritius, was deeply involved 
in the slave-trade, which the British government had happily 
renounced, and to which governor Farquhar was openly 
and avowedly opposed. 
In 1815 a party of English was sent over, to form an 
establishment at Port Loquez with the consent of the 
neighbouring chiefs; but the whole party was shortly after¬ 
wards destroyed by the occurrence of an event in itself 
comparatively unimportant. One of the petty chiefs in the 
