The day following came deaan Mevarrow, deaan Sambo, and their little army, entering the town with great pomp and grandeur, as if they had gained some extraordinary victory; though I heard of nothing but a little bush-fighting and ambuscades. The deaan, however, sat himself down with his brother, the other chiefs, and the rest in the usual form before his house: my mistress, according to custom, crept out to lick her hero’s feet; when she had done, the rest of the women performed the same ceremony; and after them the slaves, among whom I was one. As I was getting up to depart, he ordered me to stay; I stood some time to hear him tell his wife, how like a coward deaan Tuley-Noro behaved himself, though he had twice their number of men. After he had told his tale, he turned his head, and with an angry countenance asked me what the white men said when they called me? Sir, said I, they only asked me how I did? And nothing else, said he. I replied, no, sir. At this he rose up in a rage, cocked his gun, and put the muzzle to my breast; saying, if I did not tell him the truth he would shoot me that moment. I was not much daunted, as I had little or no regard for my life in my then melancholy humour; so with little concern I repeated what I said. At this he pulled the trigger, but Providence being pleased to preserve me for some other purpose, the cock snapped, and missed fire. Whether the prime was wet in the pan, or by what other miracle it was I escaped his fury, I cannot say; but that not succeeding to his wish, he took his lance to stab me; when his brother and the rest of his chief men ran in between us and told him it was cruel and inhuman, and that he had better have killed me at first, than saved me only to terrify me with death on every slight occasion; there being no reason at all for such severe treatment. With much persuasion he returned to his seat and told them there were just grounds to suspect the white men had formed a design to commit some treacherous action, since they came nearer than they ought to have done. And, indeed, their fears proceeded from a natural dread they have of white men, ten of whom will drive fifty black men before them. Besides, captain Drummond and the rest being completely armed with pistols in their girdles, was an additional terror to them. What was the true reason of king Samuel’s retiring I know not; but when this broil was over, my curiosity led me to understand the whole affair; which was thus related to me.
King Samuel’s intention was to have marched directly to Fennoarevo, and fall upon deaan Crindo before he could be provided for him: his way lay over a large plain called Ambovo, leading to a great wood; through which they must also pass. Deaan Crindo having more timely notice than they expected, laid an ambuscade in the wood; king Samuel being lame of the gout was carried on men’s shoulders; they suffered him and great part of his army to enter the wood, and then gave the signal: whereupon deaan Crindo’s men arose and attacked them so vigorously and with so much advantage, (knowing the wood which the others did not,) that king Samuel himself was in danger of being taken; but was gallantly defended by the white men, and others of his bravest people. They were obliged, however, to retire into the plain, where they encamped, as did deaan Crindo’s people close by the wood side, and even in it; by that means securing themselves from the superior number of the Antenosa army, which, as they were informed, consisted of six thousand men. Here they came to a parley: king Samuel sent one of his chiefs to acquaint deaan Crindo, that he had no intention to deprive him either of his cattle or his slaves; but that as he had been brought up among white men, all such were his friends; and he looked on himself obliged in duty and honour to demand some satisfaction of deaan Crindo, for the white men he had so inhumanly sacrificed to his resentment; and if there were any yet alive, he desired to have them in order to send them to their native country.
Deaan Crindo gave good attention to the messenger, and then returned an answer to this effect: that he wondered deaan Tuley-Noro should concern himself with other people’s affairs; that as to the white men who were shipwrecked on his coast, he looked upon it, that the great God had sent them there for his assistance; and that as he had a potent enemy, and was conscious of the white men’s courage, as well as superior skill in war, he should not slight the help his gods had sent him. Accordingly he treated them with the utmost civility as friends, and maintained them in as handsome a manner as his country would afford; they wanting for nothing he could procure them: and after all, though they had in so violent a manner seized him, and prince Murnanzack, and made them prisoners, he would condescend so far to Tuley-Noro to inform him (though under no obligations to give him an account of his actions, or frame any excuses) that neither he, nor prince Murnanzack was present, or any way aiding or abetting in their deaths; but that action was done by some of his sons and nephews to revenge the indignity offered to himself and prince Murnanzack. And to convince him he did not tell him this as a plea, through a mean spirited fear; since his sons thought fit to do it, he would justify and defend them in it; and thought they did the white men justice. That he knows but of one that was living out of four boys, who were saved at that time, whom by inquiry he finds to be in deaan Mevarrow’s hands: as to the other three, one died by sickness; the second was killed by his master for his obstinacy and perverseness; and the third ran away or was lost; for nobody knew what was become of him: and as to him who was living, he should not have him without paying such a ransom as his master required.
Now, by several circumstances, I am apt to imagine, that this answer might seem highly reasonable to king Samuel; and that in my opinion prevailed more on him to return to Antenosa, than all the force my master boasted of, or than all that Crindo’s army was capable of performing.
They told me, however, that king Samuel in his answer hereto, excused the violence the white men offered to deaan Crindo, by asserting that they did it only to secure their liberty; that they did not, nor ever intended to hurt or injure him. However, as there was no raising the dead to life, if he would send six hundred head of cattle, it should be deemed a sufficient compensation; as for me, he was ready and willing to purchase me, and desired to know what they demanded for my redemption. Deaan Crindo sent word that with respect to me, they insisted on two Buccaneer guns; but as to his demand of six hundred head of cattle, he was not to have laws, or any arbitrary commands imposed on him by any king whomsoever; that if they wanted provision he was ready to supply him: for it should not be said that deaan Tuley-Noro came to see him, and he would not give him a dinner; and for that reason he had ordered his people to present him with six oxen and a bull.
King Samuel, as some would have it, resented this as an affront, and would have attacked the Anterndroeans immediately upon it, but was dissuaded by captain Drummond and the rest, there being no likelihood of any engagement but bush-fighting; which must be to the advantage of the Anterndroeans in their own country, who were in possession of the wood: so finding that no other terms would be agreeable, they accepted of deaan Crindo’s present, which his men wanted, indeed, and went on in their parley about me; the success whereof you have already seen. However,
I must not pass over a piece of superstition practised here. There are a sort of people in this country who pretend to a profound knowledge in the magical virtue of roots, trees, plants, and other products of the like nature; and of their power to perform wondrous things by charms composed of them. One of these conjurers, or Umossees (as the natives call them) prevailed on deaan Crindo to take a certain powder which he gave him, and to strip off a piece of the skin of the tail of a white bull, because deaan Tuley-Noro was a whitish man, and to clap this powder upon the wound; as also to mix some of it with water, and give it to the bull to drink thereof, before it was given to the Antenosa men. Now this was not done in order to make the creature unwholesome, and by that means to procure deaths, or diseases among their enemies in the common way; but with a view to work some witchcraft or supernatural operation upon them. Now it happened that in two months after this king Samuel died: at that time he was very infirm, and had been so long before; which, with the fatigue of this journey, might hasten his end. There was not wanting, however, people superstitious enough to think his death was the effect of this incantation; though it is reasonable to suppose he eat none of the bull, there being oxen at the same time; for these negroes would make oxen no more than we white men, were they not sensible that the flesh of them is in all respects more grateful to the taste than that of bulls.
And since I have had an opportunity of saying thus much of king Samuel, I suppose my reader will be so curious as to inquire who this king with a christian name was? and what reason should induce him to assist us, and revenge our wrongs? His living near the sea, and the immense treasure he and his people amassed together by trading with the English, may serve as a sufficient motive for the friendship this king showed to our people: and indeed they are friends to the English all over the island, except in some few places far distant from the sea. King Samuel’s history, however, being very particular, I shall here relate it as I had it at different times from the natives themselves. Whether any of the French authors of voyages have written any memoirs concerning him, I cannot positively affirm; nor have I had the opportunity of seeing their histories of Madagascar, to compare them with my own; I shall not, therefore, vary from the account I had of it, whether it be agreeable to what others have said, or not.
This part of the country to which the French have given the name of Port Dauphine, is called in the Madagascar language Antenosa. There came hither about ninety years ago two French ships, on what account I cannot learn; however they came to an anchor close under the land, in a very good harbour. The captain observing that there were plenty of cattle, and all provisions, as also a very good soil, determined that one of them should stay here, and establish a settlement: hereupon they cast lots who should continue on the island, and the person on whom the lot fell was captain Mesmerrico. [I must here desire my reader to observe, that this is the name by which the natives distinguish him; though in all probability as they are unlearned they may pronounce it very incorrectly: but, besides, as it is some considerable time since, and they have no writings or records, so consequently, they can have no other history than that of tradition, from father to son, and so on to succeeding generations.] This captain Mesmerrico landed with two hundred white men, well armed, and provided with store of ammunition and other necessaries for the building of a fort, which they immediately began. No sooner had the natives observed their intention, than they used their utmost art and industry to prevent them: this created a war, in which the French were the victors, who took at several times a great number of prisoners. In this war the king of Antenosa and his brother were killed; and amongst many other children that were made captives, the king’s son was one. When the French had suppressed the natives and completed their fort, the ships set sail for France, and carried this young prince and several others of distinction with them.
In about a year after this expedition, the natives began to be better reconciled to the French; notwithstanding they were secretly disgusted at the indignity offered to their young prince, and could by no means relish the government and direction of foreigners. However, the French, by their artful and cunning deportment and insinuations, gained so much friendship amongst them, that they married, and lived up and down in several towns, at some distance from each other, and not above five or six in a place. They occasionally assisted the natives in their wars against a king that resides to the northward, whom they defeated, took a great number of slaves and many cattle. In this manner they lived for some years with great tranquility, neglecting their fort, and extending themselves all over the whole country of Antenosa: but at last, as their families grew numerous, the natives grew jealous; and recollecting how inhumanly they had treated their prince, and perceiving them thus scattered and dispersed, they thought this a favourable opportunity to free themselves from a foreign yoke. Hereupon they formed a conspiracy to cut off all the white men in one day; and the Wednesday following it was put in execution, not leaving a white man alive in Antenosa.