Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
COUNT BENYOWSKI AND OTHER EARLY VISITORS TO MASOALA
Matthew Hatchwell
One of the most fascinating episodes in the history of European presence in the
Masoala region is the extraordinary story of Count Auguste de Benyowski, who es-
tablished a French colony named Louisbourg on the site of modern-day Maroantsetra
in 1774.
An aristocrat of mixed Hungarian, Slovak and Polish descent, Benyowski first ar-
rivedinMadagascarin1772attheculminationofaseriesofadventuresthathadtaken
him all the way across Russia to the Kamchatka Peninsula, down the Pacific coast
of mainland Asia in a commandeered battleship, and finally across the Indian Ocean.
Following a brief reconnoitre, Benyowski travelled on to France where he persuaded
Louis XV to fund the creation of a new French colony at Maroantsetra which, he ar-
gued, could serve later as the basis for claiming Madagascar for France. Like every
other early attempt to establish a permanent European settlement in Madagascar, the
enterprisewasafailure.BenyowskireturnedtoFrancein1776,wherehemetthefam-
ous American scientist and diplomat Benjamin Franklin, who inspired him to sail to
the New World where he played a minor role in the American War of Independence
against the British. Ten years later, he returned to Madagascar with American back-
ing and was killed by French troops after establishing a trading station near Cap Est
across the Masoala Peninsula from Maroantsetra.
All traces of Benyowski's original colony have been lost, but at least one 19th-
century traveller observed finding a stone engraved with the names of some of
Benyowski's fellow colonists at a second settlement which they established inland to
escape the ravages of malaria. On Nosy Mangabe, many traces remain of European
occupationinthe17thand18thcenturies,whenfirsttheDutchandlatertheFrenches-
tablished slave-trading stations there to supply labourers for their colonies elsewhere
in the region. It is unknown which of these date from Benyowski's day, although one
ofthemaintouristtrailsontheislandretracesanearlierpathcompletewithstonesteps
whichhemusthaveusedwhenheestablishedaquarantinestationontheisland.Many
European sailors did not survive the rigours of their long sea journeys and are buried
onNosyMangabe.One,aDutchmannamedWillemCorneliszSchouten,isfamousas
the navigator of the first European fleet to round the southern tip of South America,
which he named after his native village in the Netherlands: Hoorn.
We know too that Nosy Mangabe was one of the first sites in Madagascar settled
by humans when they first arrived more than 1,500 years ago. Another historical site
