Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/516

 424 SOXJTH ANT) EAST AFRICA. European wares for slaves. In 1750 the French East India Company endeavoured to obtain a monopoly of this commerce by occupying the island of Saint Mary, lyinjf to the south of Anton-Gil Bay, and a few years later the French Govern- ment resumed possession of P'ort Dauphin, without, however, securing any perma- nent results. The ambitious viceregal establishment set up in 1774 on Anton-Gil Hav by the pompous Polish and Magyar magnate, Maurice Beniovski, had also to bo abandent d two years afterwards ; and all vestiges have now disappeared of the capital, Luuisbourg, although some traces have been detected of the route con- structed north-east of Anton-Gil Bay towards JJ^gutsi by this adventurer, the ampakaHH^mbe, or " emperor " of the Malagasy, as he called himself. After three centuries of trade and partial occupation nothing was known of the great island beyond the coistlands. The first impulse to political and commercial expeditions on the inland plateaux was {riven by the rivalries of France and England. During the wars of the Empire, the P>nglish had seized the Isle of France (Mauritius), with the purjx)so uf converting it into a naval station for the conquest of Madagascar. But after discus.xiiig the terms of the various treaties, they were compelled to relin- (juish the theory which regarded the great island as a political dependency of Mauritius. They consequently allowed the French again to occupy the stations on the coast, and restricted their action to the development of an alliance with some powerful native prince, in order thus indirectly to secure the expulsion of the representatives of the rival power. Such an ally they expected vo find in the sovereign of the Ilovas, who both by the number of his subjects and his commanding position on the central plateau, seemed to have the fairest prospect of one day becoming master of the whole island. Radama, hailed by the English as "King of Madagascar and its depen- dencies," soon obtained possession of the port of Tamatave on the east coast, and the road to the interior was thus completely thrown open to the English. In the year ISJO they availed themselves of this circumstance to send to the capital some traders, missionaries, officers, and diplomatists, for the purpose of securing a permanent footing in the more fro(iuonted seaports, and obtaining the practical command of the soaboaid. Madagascar, the "Great Britain of Africa " as the missionary Ellis called it by anticipation, seemed at that time about to become an English colony, and it was expected that the forces of the Hovas would hence- forth ^ at the disposition of the stranger in effecting the reduction of the whole island. But these hopes were doomed to disappointment. In 1828 the accession of a now king brought about a change of policy, followed by the expulsion of the i:nglish, the destruction of their factories, and a general persecution of the Pro- testant converts. The Malagasy people, comprising all the razaha, or whites, in a common sentiment of hatred, endeavoured for a time to close the country from them, and to keep a strict watch over the traders settled in the seaports. Never- theless the eight years, from 1820 to 1828, during which the Europeans had enjoyed free access to the Hova kingdom, produced the inevitable results on the