This capture was ratified by the Definitive Treaty, signed at Paris on the 30th of May, 1814, ceding these settlements on the east coast of Madagascar to Great Britain, as one of the dependencies of the Isle of France or Mauritius; and again, that treaty was confirmed by Article XI. of the Definitive Treaty, signed at Paris on the 20th day of November, 1815.
By these treaties the island of Bourbon or Réunion, which the British had captured at the same time as the Isle of France or Mauritius, was restored to France, but no mention was made of the late French possessions on the east coast of Madagascar in such restoration. The contrary is indicated by an ordinance of the King of France, dated from the Tuileries, December 17, 1817, regulating the terms on which trade with Bourbon shall be open to the English. This ordinance states that all kinds of merchandize brought in English vessels from the English establishments in Mauritius, Seychelles, and the English settlements in Madagascar, shall be admitted, subject to the same charges as those paid by French vessels.
The only English settlements in Madagascar at that time were those that had been surrendered by the French. The ordinance is signed by Louis XVIII. and Count Molé.
In 1816 the Governor of Bourbon stated that France had no colonial claims on Madagascar, but desired to trade with the island. In the previous year the Governor of Mauritius had been authorized to allow trade for supplies of provisions, namely, cattle and rice, to be prosecuted between Bourbon and Madagascar.
The claim on the part of France to parts of the eastern coast of Madagascar seems to have been an after-thought; and the French government wished it to be understood that France had settlements there in 1792, and that the Treaty of Paris, dated 30th of May, 1814, guaranteed the restoration of these possessions.
But neither Tamatave nor Foulepointe, the only settlements held by the French at the time of their capture by the English, were in their possession in 1792, and it was not until 1804 that French troops had been sent by General Decaën from the isle of France to Tamatave.
In the meantime Sir Robert Farquhar, Governor of the Mauritius, had, on the part of England, surrendered both the above settlements—and another, obtained by purchase, to the northward, to Radama.
Radama—the supreme chief of the island—had by a proclamation declared that he considered Madagascar an independent kingdom, and that no foreign power had any right or claim to the country.
At one time the Governor of Bourbon objected to the claim of England to keep the settlements in Madagascar; and the French imperial government, requiring that any settlements possessed by France in 1792 should be given up to that power, orders were sent out to Mauritius that any such settlements should be restored. But it does not appear that the French had any settlements in Madagascar in 1792, or that any settlements were given up to France by the English Governor of Mauritius.