432 
HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
great numbers of the people killed, and Corroller with his 
troops obliged to retire to Hivondrona, where he remained 
with a small force almost destitute of ammunition. 
On the 17th, the French attacked the Hovas at Hivon¬ 
drona, killed a number of the people, forced them to fly still 
further into the interior, and then returning pillaged the 
town; after which they repaired to their ships, and pro¬ 
ceeded northwards towards Foule Point. This was the 
next post they attacked, but they met with the most 
determined resistance from the Hovas, and, after losing a 
considerable number of their men, retired to the Isle of 
St. Mary’s. In the mean time, the government having 
received information of the descent upon the coast, Ratsito- 
haina was sent on a special embassy to Tamatave, to demand 
the immediate cessation of hostilities, and to make known 
to the assailants the only terms on which the queen would 
treat with the French. 
Radama’s treaty with the English, his abolition of the 
slave-trade, and his assumed sovereignty of the island, had 
never been agreeable to the French authorities at the Isle of 
Bourbon; and more than once, during his reign, they had 
preferred their claim to a large portion of the eastern coast, 
in which their settlements had been formerly established. 
The late king had always denied most explicitly their 
claim, and when last at Tamatave, in 1827, had refused to 
see the French agent who arrived off the coast at the time, 
or to receive the despatches of which he was the bearer. 
At that time, the forcible seizure of a part of the coast was 
threatened, and for that purpose the present expedition had 
been sent. It was also rumoured that the French intended 
to place on the throne a relative of the late king, supposed „ 
to be more favourable to their interests than the reigning 
queen. Commodore Gourbeyre was accompanied by Mr„ 
