VI 
PREFACE. 
subject since his time. His account of the 
natives is nevertheless contradictory; for 
when he speaks of them abstractedly , he 
praises them as highly as possible, and assures 
his reader they possess every natural good 
quality: but when in connection with his 
own transactions, he represents them as the 
most treacherous and bloody savages on earth. 
The only conclusion the writer can draw 
from it, is, that in the latter case he seeks 
to justify the barbarous atrocities that were 
committed upon the natives by his order . 
The Voyage,” by Monsieur de V., an 
anonymous writer, was published at Paris, 
in 1722 , but contains an ample account of 
the transactions at Madagascar, from the 
year 1660, during the time Chamargou was 
governor. It is authenticated by the French 
government of the time when published 
Drury's narrative of his own stay on the 
island was published in 1727 - It was long a 
subject of doubt, whether his account was to 
be depended on. But besides the broad sim¬ 
plicity of his style, and the artless manner in 
which he tells his own tale, Avithout going a 
step out of the way, his account corresponds 
in many particulars, with French authors 
whose works it was impossible for him to be 
acquainted with. The names, also, of places, 
and other objects he has occasion to men- 
