306 
MADAGASCAR. 
of the Mozambique ; and, in fact, all the positions 
would be more or less “ out.” That one of these 
maps, which professed in its title to be drawn 
“on the spot,” was the creature of a fond im¬ 
agination, rather than a laborious traversing of 
the district, which real map-making necessitates, 
there could be little doubt, as the author was 
known for certain never to have quitted the east 
coast. Many of the details of these old maps 
were doubtless gathered from tradition or the re¬ 
ports of the people, or from the notes of a casual 
trader or priest. 
M. Grandidier, speaking of this subject before 
the Royal Geographical Society of Paris, says 
concerning the work of Mons. de Lacombe, en¬ 
titled ‘Voyage h Madagascar’ — “This writer 
relates that he has at different periods traversed 
the island from north to south, from east to west: 
he gives the most precise details of his journeys. 
M. de Lacombe has told me, and I am myself 
well assured of it, with his book in my hand, 
that he has never left the east coast! It is from 
his imagination that he has drawn the accounts 
to which geographers have attached so much 
importance, that the maps of Madagascar have 
to the present day been constructed upon the 
topographical data taken from his work.”—(See 
Bulletin de laSociete de Geographie, 1871, p. 82. 
Paris.) The sketch-map of M. Grandidier him- 
