Page:Dupleix and the Struggle for India by the European Nations.djvu/18

Rh registered in the parliament in September. Before, however, that registration had taken place, the King, on his own authority, had given an order on the royal treasury for three hundred thousand francs, to be paid into the coffers of the Company.

The wise provisions of the Minister met with success. The money came in rapidly, and in March of the following year (1665), four ships of the new Company, partly armed as ships of war, and carrying 520 men, sailed from Brest for Madagascar. The idea of the Company was to establish on that island a settlement which should serve as a half-way house to India. To this end they offered all sorts of inducements to adventurous natures. They affixed to the walls of the principal cities and towns of France notices wherein they declared that they had resolved to make those who settled in the Colony proprietors of as much land as they, their families, and their servants could till. These notices contained a glowing description of the Île Dauphine—for such was the new name given to Madagascar—stating that the climate was 'very temperate,' that 'two-thirds of the year are like spring;' that 'the other third is not hotter than the summer of France;' that people lived there 'to the age of a hundred, and even of a hundred and twenty;' that 'fruits were good and plentiful;' that there were 'quantities of oxen, cows, goats, hogs, and other cattle;' that there were 'gold, silver, lead, cotton, wax, sugar, tobacco, black and white pepper, ebony, dyeing-wood of all sorts,' and other